Forming zinc and its alloys

The main use of zinc and its alloys is to protect steel against corrosion, notably through the galvanizing process.

Nevertheless, shaping is a process of considerable importance, particularly in Europe and more specifically in France.

The main process is rolling, mostly of flat products, mainly for building applications such as roofing, facades and rainwater drainage, a market that has been growing slightly for decades.

The particularities of zinc and zinc alloy forming processes, compared to other commonly used metals, derive partly from its hexagonal crystal structure, which results in highly anisotropic physical and mechanical properties, and partly from the fact that the transformation temperature is always close to the melting temperature.

Today's primary transformation processes make increasingly systematic use of continuous processes: horizontal continuous casting of thin plates and hot strip rolling for flat products, continuous casting of round products followed by rolling, then drawing, for wires.

Secondary transformation processes, on the other hand, call on more conventional techniques also used for other metals.

Lastly, surface treatments for flat-rolled products have been growing significantly over the past two decades.