Effect of aluminium and magnesium on the corrosion resistance of zinc coatings

This article presents the research on corrosion resistance of Zn-Al-Mg coatings with varying aluminium and magnesium content. Aluminium and magnesium were added directly to the zinc bath at 10:1 rate. There was found more than sixfold increase in corrosion resistance of zinc coatings with aluminium content at the level of 4% of weight and magnesium content at the level of 0.4% of weight. In contrast to the amounts applied in the literature, such content of these alloy additives in the zinc bath limits to a significant extent the amount of intermetallic phases in zinc coatings obtained from such baths. This, in consequence, results in high resistance to corrosion with simultaneous retention of high plasticity of these coatings.