One of the services we offer is spin galvanizing of smaller parts. We all know it is important to protect larger surfaces like girders, beams, and street lamps. But, the smallest parts such as nuts, bolts, pins, washers, brackets, hinges, chains, and auto accessories also need the protection spin galvanizing provides.
What is spin galvanizing?
Spin galvanizing involves taking small parts, immersing them in molten zinc, and then spinning off the excess. This process results in an even coating of zinc on these galvanized small parts that are durable and functional with little or no post-processing.
What are the benefits of spin galvanizing?
It’s amazing when you think about it, that a coating of zinc thinner than a sheet of A4 printer paper can protect a small part for 100 years or more.
Galvanized parts are coated with a layer of zinc just 30 to 70 microns (millionths of a meter) thick. This incredibly thin layer of zinc gives the part the same beautiful patina that forms on larger galvanized pieces while protecting it from rust and oxidation from weather and pollution. Spin galvanizing has a number of advantages over other methods of galvanizing small parts.
Advantages of spin galvanizing
The benefits of spin galvanizing for small parts include:
- Complete and consistent coverage. Edges, corners, threads, inside the part and outside the part are coated with an even layer of zinc.
- Spin galvanizing produces parts with an excellent fit. Depending on the diameter of the part, spin galvanizing produces an impervious zinc coating of 1.7 to 3.4 mils (43 to 86 microns). Parts can be used interchangeably. They can be used predictably. They won’t be the weak link in your maintenance schedule.
- Spin galvanizing produces considerable bond strength. The galvanized coating will stand up to pressures of 3600 psi (24.82 mPa).
- Spin galvanized fasteners aren’t damaged during tightening. The zinc-iron alloy layers that form on the surface of the part are harder than the underlying steel itself.
- Spin galvanized parts perform under a tremendous range of temperatures, from antarctic cold to up to 392° F (200° C) in processing plants.
- Spin galvanized parts manufactured under ASTM D 6386 (Practice for Preparation of Zinc [Hot-Dip] Galvanized Coated Iron and Steel Product and Hardware Surfaces for Coating) can be painted for long-lasting corrosion protection.
- Touch up in the field is rarely needed, regardless of weather conditions. Even in extreme weather and in severe pollution, spin galvanized parts continue to perform.
- Spin galvanized parts are suitable for use in contact with treated wood.
The efficiencies of spin galvanizing produce savings that are passed on to you. Nuts and bolts don’t have to be galvanized as blanks. Hot dip galvanizing results in excellent corrosion protection for nuts and bolts, but a dipping process produces an unpredictable diameter in the final product. With spin galvanizing, nuts and bolts can be threaded before galvanizing with the assurance they will fit in the final assembly.
The process of galvanizing parts is simpler with spin galvanizing. There is no need to use noses and runners to keep the level of molten zinc constant in the vat or to protect parts from the dross that can rise to the top of a pool of molten zinc.
Like all steel galvanized to ASTM specifications, spin galvanized small parts are extremely durable. Time to first maintenance is measured in decades, not years.
Quality You Can Trust
Smaller components can play a large role in maintaining a structure’s integrity and long-term performance. We have perfected the spin/centrifuge process resulting in galvanizing excellence for small parts, fasteners, nails, staples, and structural pieces.
Interested in spin galvanizing smaller parts? Contact us to learn how we can help!
