Every modern car is made of galvanised steel sheet. In the past, the chassis was still zinc-coated in an electrolytic manner; today, the hot dip galvanising process is used to coat the base material with zinc. In this process, a steel strip is passed through a bath of liquid zinc (hotter than 420C). Besides a brief introduction of the industrial process, the speaker will discuss the physical/chemical processes involved.

This includes the influence of the composition of the zinc bath on the final product using phase diagrams. The phase diagrams in question show how the properties of the final coating can be influenced and which composition of the bath leads to these properties. Here, other metallic coatings are also discussed.

Of course, the use of the galvanised steel sheet also places high demands on surface quality. For example, no particles from the bath must remain on the metal. What causes these solid particles to form and what is possible to minimise this? These aspects will also be indicated.