• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.43-46
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• 2011

Zinc consumption in a continuous galvanizing line is one of the highest operating cost items in the facility and minimizing zinc waste is a key economic objective for any operation. One of the primary sources of excessive loss of zinc is through the formation of top dross and skimmings in the coating pot. It has been reported that the top skimmings, manually removed from the bath, typically consist of more than 80% metallic zinc with the remainder being entrained dross particles ($Fe_2Al_5$) along with some oxides. Depending on the drossing practices and bath management, the composition of the removed top skimmings may contain up to 2 wt% aluminum and 1 wt% iron. On-going research efforts have been aimed at in-house recovery of the metallic zinc from the discarded top skimmings prior to selling to zinc recycling brokers. However, attempting to recover the zinc entrapped in the skimmings is difficult due to the complex nature of the intermetallic dross particles and the quality and volume of the recycled zinc is highly susceptible to fluctuations in processing parameters. As such, an efficient method to extract metallic zinc from top skimmings has been optimized through the use of a specialized thermo-mechanical process enabling a continuous galvanizing facility to conserve zinc usage on-site. Also, through this work, it has been identified that filtration of discrete dross particles has been proven effective at maintaining the cleanliness of the zinc. Future efforts may progress towards expanded utilization of filters in continuous galvanizing.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2011

The effect of dynamic flow or forced convection were investigated and compared on the formation of inhibition layer, galvanizing and galvannealing reactions through the hot-dip galvanizing simulator with the oscillation of specimen in zinc bath, continuous galvanizing pilot plant with zinc pumping system through the snout and continuous galvanizing operation with Dynamic $Galvanizing^{TR}$ system. The interfacial Al pick-up was not consistent between the results of simulator, pilot plant and line operation, but the morphology of inhibition layer became compact and refined by the forced convection. The growth of Fe-Zn intermetallics at the interface was inhibited by the forced convection, whereas the galvannealing rate would be a little promoted.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.42-47
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• 2003

Hot-dip galvanizing process is used widely in industry to achieve corrosion resistant coatings. Poor drainage during this process often leads to problems such as icicle formation and bridging In this work, mild steel specimens were hot-dip galvanized. Influence of the addition of bismuth, aluminum and both (bismuth and aluminum) to the zinc bath on the zinc drainage were determined. Bismuth additions improved the drainage significantly. Zinc bath containing 0.1 wt.% Bi and 0.025∼0.05 wt.% Al showed uniformity of coatings. Industrial trials with this bath composition showed reduction in zinc consumption, reduction of ash and dross, and good luster of workpiece.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.175-186
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• 2010

The auto industry is demanding more ductile high-strength steel grades to build lighter and stronger car bodies. The hot-dip galvanizing problems of these new steel grades are creating a demand for an improved method to control zinc wettability. The simplest way to improve zinc wettability on industrial hot-dip galvanizing lines is to increase the strip immersion temperature at zinc bath entry for enhancing the aluminothermic reaction. However, this practice increases the reactivity due to overheating the zinc in the snout which induces the formation of brittle Fe-Zn compounds at the strip/coating interface with the formation of higher amounts of dross in the zinc bath and snout contamination. Thus, this simple practice can only be utilized for short production periods of one to two hours without deteriorating coating quality. This problem has been solved by employing a technique that allows the use of a higher and attuned strip immersion temperature at zinc bath entry while still maintaining a constantly low zinc bath temperature. This has been proven to provide the solution for both the improved wettability and a significant reduction in the amounts of dross in the zinc bath.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.55-67
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• 2004

In this paper, an active vibration control of a translating steel strip in a zinc galvanizing line is investigated. The control objectives in the galvanizing line are to improve the uniformity of the zinc deposit on the strip surfaces and to reduce the zinc consumption. The translating steel strip is modeled as a moving belt equation by using Hamilton’s principle for systems with moving mass. The total mechanical energy of the strip is considered to be a Lyapunov function candidate. A nonlinear boundary control law that assures the exponential stability of the closed loop system is derived. The existence of a closed-loop solution is shown by proving that the closed-loop dynamics is dissipative. Simulation results are provided.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.245-251
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• 2016

Galvanizing method has been extensively used to the numerous constructional steels such as a guard rail of high way, various types of structural steel for ship building and various types of steels for the industrial fields etc.. However, the galvanized structures would be inevitably corroded rapidly with increasing exposed time because an acid rain due to environmental contamination has been much dropped more and more. Therefore, it has been made an effort to improve the corrosion resistance of the galvanizing film through various methods. In this study, comparison evaluation on the corrosion resistance of three types of the samples, that is, the hot dip galvanizing with pure zinc(GI), the hot dip galvanizing of alloy bath with zinc and aluminum(GL) and the pure zinc galvanizing steel immersed again to chromate treatment bath(Chro.)were investigated using electrochemical methods in 1% $H_2SO_4$ solution. The Chro. and GI samples exhibited the highest and lowest corrosion resistance respectively in 1% $H_2SO_4$ solution, however, the GI sample revealed the highest impedance at 0.01 Hz due to its high resistance polarization caused by corrosion products deposited on the surface, while Chro. sample exhibited the lowest impedance at 0.01 Hz because of little corrosion products on the surface. Consequently, it is suggested that the chromate treated steel has a better corrosion resistance in acid environment compared to pure galvanizing(GI) or galvalume(GL) steels.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.423-432
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• 2009

In the galvanizing coating process, the effects of the silicon content on the coatability and wettability of molten zinc were investigated on Dual-Phase High Strength Steels (DP-HSS) with various Si contents using the galvanizing simulator and dynamic reactive wetting systems. DP-HSS showed good coatability and a well-developed inhibition layer in the range of Si content below 0.5 wt%. Good coatability was the results of the mixed oxide $Mn_{2}SiO_{4}$, being formed by the selective oxidation on the surface, with a low contact angle in molten zinc and a large fraction of oxide free surface that provided a sufficient site for the molten zinc to wet and react with the substrate. On the other hand, with more than 0.5 wt%, DP-HSS exhibited poor coatability and an irregularly developed inhibition layer. The poor coatability was due to the poor wettability that resulted from the development of network-type layers of amorphous ${SiO}_{2}$, leading to a high contact angle in molten zinc, on the surface.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2015

Advanced high strength steels undergo recrystallization annealing in reducing gas atmosphere before galvanizing to improve mechanical properties. The selective oxidations of elements such as Mn, Si, Cr and Al during annealing decrease wettability of liquid zinc, resulting in bare spots and other defects. In this work, Fe-3wt%Mn steel sheet was annealed at $780^{\circ}C$ for 1200 sec. in 5% $H_2-N_2$ atmosphere and then dipped into zinc bath held at $460^{\circ}C$, which contained 0.2wt% dissolved Al. MnO crystallines in the average size of 200 nm were formed on the surface after annealing. It is estimated that MnO has been detached into bath with the formation and growth of inhibition layer with longer immersion time during galvanizing. No evidence of aluminothermic reduction of MnO has been found in this study.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10b
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• pp.836-839
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• 1996

Throughout CGL (Continuous Galvanizing Line) in steel works, zinc-coated steel sheets are produced which are used where long-running corrosion resistivity is required. During the galvanizing process, top dross is created and floated on the zinc pot. Because the dross leaves ill patterns on the coated sheets, a robot system is developed to automatically collect and remove the top dross. It consists of a robot and its carriage system, a pot level sensor, a system controller, and special robot tools. For the first time the level of zinc pot must be measured and fed back to the robot controller to avoid submersion of the robot hand into the hot zinc pot. In this paper, acoustic distance sensor is tested as a candidate for the pot level sensor in the view point of hot environment. Some considerations on the use of the acoustic distance sensor will be denoted.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10b
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• pp.1488-1491
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• 1996

Throughout CGL(Continuous Galvanizing Line) in steel works, zinc-coated steel sheets are produced which are used where long-running corrosion resistivity is required. During the galvanizing process, top dross is created and floated on the zinc pot. Because the dross leaves ill patterns on the coated sheets, it is removed manually with shovel-like tools in about twenty minutes. Because, however, the working environment is very noisy, hot and harmful to human workers, a robot system is developed and implemented on a real plant to automatically remove the top dross. It consists of a robot and its carriage system, a pot level sensor, a system controller, and special tools to collect, pick up, and put the top dross into a dross waste basket. A system software is developed to monitor the system status. A series of tests were performed to verify the robot motion and adaptation to working conditions, and proved successful work.