Does the hot dip galvanizing process affect steel strength?
Introduction Over the past 10 years steel makers worldwide have developed new structural grade steels with higher yield and tensile strengths. These developments have enabled manufacturers to design their steel products using lighter-section steels which in turn reduce the production, transport and erection costs of the finished product. Prior to these developments, the steel fabrications which were most commonly galvanized were manufactured from Grade 250 MPa hot rolled structural steels. Since the early 1970’s, the results from research and testing centres around the world have shown that the hot dip galvanizing process does not affect the tensile and proof (yield) strengths of the Grade 250 MPa structural steels. But does the hot dip galvanizing process affect the yield and tensile strengths of the newer high-tensile grades of structural steels? Galvanizers have been asked these questions on a number of occasions following claims made by others that galvanizing of these steels affec
