Abstract
Galvanised sheet steel can be considered, by reason of the technologies developed and used in production today, as a class of materials with a range of properties, such as corrosion resistance, deformability, and paintability, that vary according to the chemical composition and microstructure of the coating. This study is aimed at characterising industrial galvanised cold rolled steels, including both electrodeposited and hot dipped zinc layers as well as a zinc alloy surface layer. In particular, the effects of shaping on the corrosion resistance of the zinc coatings were analysed. Samples were mechanically uniaxially deformed and then subjected to polarisation resistance measurements. Microstructures were characterised by surface microanalysis, electron microscopy, galvanostatic dissolution, and Vickers micro hardness measurements. This approach allowed a good correlation to be established between the microstructural characteristics, as determined by production processes, and the corrosion resistance, as determined from resistance polarisation measurements, of galvanised sheet steel deformed to varying degrees.
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