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History of Hot Dip Galvanizing

Hot Dip Galvanizing was first ‘discovered’ in 1742 by a French chemist named Melouin. 90 years later, Faraday discovered that Zinc sacrifices itself after his experiment with salty water, zinc and nails. We know that this property of zinc makes galvanizing one of the most efficient steel protection methods, when there is damage to the coating, before the steel substrate, zinc corrodes first. Corrosion products of zinc cover the damaged area and protect steel. Even though Luigi Galvani, whose main area was bio electromagnetics, does not have direct involvement with hot dip galvanizing, the etymology of galvanizing comes from his name. The name ‘galvanizing’ was given to this process of coating steel with molten zinc (or by covering it with galvanic paint), was given by Sorel, a French civil engineer, inventor and chemist, in 1836. The first hot dip galvanizing plants were established in France, England and Germany in 1840, 100 years after the invention of hot dip galvanizing. In 1850, the English galvanizing industry was using around 10.000tons of Zinc for the protection of steel, which is around today’s two big-scale galvanizing plants Zinc consumption. 150 years later, 1/3 of the extracted zinc – 2,5 million tons is used for the hot dip galvanizing industry. You can also access our article explaining “Hot dip Galvanizing Process” or to get more information about our hot dip galvanizing equipment and services by clicking the link. As one of the leading plant suppliers in the hot-dip galvanizing industry, in addition to the supply of turnkey galvanizing plants, we provide a number of engineering supports such as process consultancy, financial analysis and cost analysis including market analysis.