Gaining resource efficiency in hot dip galvanizing by increasing the quality of zinc coating

AS Paldiski Tsingipada (Zincpot) is a partner company of the Life FitforREACH-2 project. The company is one of the largest providers of hot dip galvanizing (or batch galvanizing) services in the Baltic States and Scandinavia.

The goal of participating in the project is to improve the quality of the coating process, thus reducing a share of non-conditional products and increasing the related process efficiency, which would be measures in decreased consumption of chemicals and energy, as well as a reduction of the related costs and generation of waste.

What the company has already done:

• The composition of the degreasing baths is changed resulting in resources efficiency - more efficient use of chemicals and reduction of energy consumption.
• Manually controlled pumps have been replaced with automatic dispensers, which allows for more precise control of the composition of the degreasing and flux baths, resulting in more efficient use of chemicals.
• By changing the composition of some process solutions, some hazardous substances were phased out.
• A salt-mist chamber test equipment was purchased with the help of FitforREACH2 to improve the ability to monitor the corrosion resistance of surface coatings. 

It was understood that the quality of the passivation of the zinc-layer is essential in achieving conformity. Therefore, an initially planned activity was redesigned and instead of a substitution, a new post-treatment step was added into the process.

Next steps

AS Paldiski Tsingipada has been looking for opportunities for better handling of process waste, as the previous handling - landfilling - is not sustainable and companies that would be interested in using waste as a secondary raw material are located geographically far away. Therefore, Tsingipada is looking for opportunities to regenerate at least some of the process waste.