CSM S.p.A. is mainly active in the sectors of surface treatments and organic coating technology for flat products continuous/discontinuous lines (e.g. coil coating of metals, sheet coating), tubolar and long products and full-finished goods (e.g. domestic appliances, automotive, …), with new environmentally-wise formulations expressing special functional properties, and guaranteeing a high productivity.
With respect to the hot dip technology, metallic coatings like zinc, zinc-aluminum, aluminum will keep on being used for protection of steel from corrosion and thermal oxidation.
It is a matter of fact that they can take advantage of the low cost of the process, consisting in the immersion of the steel component in a melting pot, containing the fused metal precursor of the coating: batch and continuous processes (e.g. steel strip galvanising) are both possible.
Today, as far as the batch process is concerned, the most important research areas are the use of leadless zinc baths, the development of special environmental-friendly fluxes allowing the application of zinc-aluminum alloys, and the development of new alloys with improved corrosion resistance.
For the continuous hot-dipping processes for steel strip, the biggest efforts are being made in order to increase the lines productivity, to improve the surface quality and the thickness control, to reduce the coating weight by means of new alloys with improved corrosion resistance, and to develop new in-line environmental friendly post-treatments (e.g. passivation, conversion and priming).
CSM is also active in the sector of hot-dip coating of steel coils and long products (e.g. tubes, reinforcing bars…); in particular in the setup of process conditions for specific steels, the development of new coating bath compositions and the in-line post-treatment processes.