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Different Appearances
The appearance of hot-dip galvanized steel immediately after galvanizing can be
bright and shiny, spangled, matte gray, or a combination of these. There are a
number of reasons for the difference in appearance, as explored here, but
regardless if the piece is shiny or dull, the appearance has no effect on the corrosion
performance. And in time after exposure to the environment, all galvanized coatings
will take on a uniform matte gray appearance.
Reasons for Different Appearances
Steel Chemistry
The most common reason for galvanized steel to have different appearances is the
chemistry of the steel pieces. There are two elements of steel chemistry which most
strongly influence the final appearance; silicon and phosphorous. Both silicon and
phosphorous promote coating growth, and this thicker coating is responsible for the
differing appearance.
The amount of silicon added during the steel making process to deoxidize the steel
can create differences in appearance of galvanized products. The recommended
silicon composition is either less than 0.04% or between 0.15% and 0.25%. Any
steels not within these ranges are considered reactive steels and are expected to
form zinc coatings that tend to be thicker.
In addition to producing thicker coatings, highly reactive steels tend to have a matte
gray or mottled appearance instead of the typical bright coating. This difference in
appearance is a result of the rapid zinc-iron intermetallic growth that consumes all
of the bright, pure zinc. This growth of the intermetallic layer is generally out of the
galvanizers control, because they usually do not have prior knowledge of the
steels composition. However, this increased coating thickness can be beneficial in
some respects because time to first maintenance is directly proportional to coating
thickness.
In Figure 1, the micrograph on the left shows a regular zinc-iron alloy, while the
micrograph on the right shows an irregular zinc-iron alloy. These clearly show the
microscopic level differences that can occur due to the amount of silicon in the steel
being hot-dip galvanized.
The Sandelin curve, as seen in Figure 2, compares the zinc coating thickness to the
mass percentage of silicon in the steel. The area on the graph labeled I is called
the Sandelin area and the coatings tend to be thick and dull gray as a direct result
of the percentage of silicon present in the base steel. This area is known as the
Sandelin range since Dr. Sandelin, a metallurgist, performed the experimental work
to show this behavior of galvanized steel. The Sandelin area is roughly between
0.05% and 0.15% silicon. The area on the graph labeled II, which represents a
steel content of greater than 0.25% silicon, shows the coating thickness increases
with increased silicon content and then starts to level off at around 0.4% silicon.
Figure 4 is an example of products with separate galvanized pieces that have very
different appearances due to the difference in steel chemistry. However, all of these
products still have an equal amount of corrosion resistance throughout and are
acceptable.
Steel Processing