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Metal Pretreatment

  • Phosphating
  • Iron phosphating
  • Zinc phosphating
  • Manganese phosphating

Iron phosphating :

  • pH 4.0-5.0
  • Primarily iron oxide
  • Spraying is more used
  • Iridescent blue to reddish blue color
  • Coating weight 20-80 mg/ ft2
  • Temperature 25-65 °C

Zinc phosphating:

  • Coating weight for spraying 100-1000 mg/ft2
  • Coating weight for dipping 150-4000 mg/ft2

Manganese phosphating :

  • Immersion only
  • Time period 5-30 minutes
  • Coating weight 500-3000 mg/ft2
  • Temperature 85-95 °C

Zinc phosphating :

  • Total acidity: 25-27 points ( 10ml bath vs 0.1 N NaOH using phenolphthalein )
  • Force acidity: using bromophenol blue or methyl orange
  • Accelerator test:
    3 points for NaNO2
    Dip a piece of Fe paper in the bath
    If it answers for Fe add NaNO2 till it doesn’t answer for Fe

Iron phosphating :

Total acidity: 10 points
Iron formed in the bath is removed by HNO2 which causes Fe to precipitate as ferric phosphate

Determination of coating weight of Zinc phosphate :

Phosphating a known area after cleaning with water, strip in 2½ % chronic acid solution at 71°C
immersing for 10 minutes, then clean with water and weigh it.

Coating voids :

Soak a piece of filter paper in a solution containing 7.5 g/L of potassium ferricyanide and 20 g/L
of NaCl. Allow each solution to drain and apply wet paper to the phosphates sample. Observe
for blue spots which are non-covered areas.
None to 3 spots ( up to 1 mm) – Excellent
Less than 10 spots – Good
Not more than 20 spots – Fine
3 large spots – Satisfactory

Formulations of Phosphate Coating Chemicals

Technical Tips for Phosphate coating formulators


Accelerators in phosphate coating chemical solution

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Metal Pretreatment Course Details

One Month Course on Metal Pretreatment mainly covering degreasing, derusting, phosphating, zinc plating, passivation, environmental issues, important testing methods, formula guidelines, raw materials, machineries and suppliers, safety aspects etc. This course is available bilingually in English and Tamil. Those who are interested to translate this course into other languages may contact me. This course is designed for engineering graduates, diploma holders and metal finishing professionals.

Course starts on 6th January 2022 and will be over in the first week of February 2022. Weekly two sessions of each duration of 60 to 90 minutes preferably in the morning hours. All sessions are recorded for your future use, but for limited time only. Please take down the notes based on the contents. Please do not share the technical contents with others.