Modification of the growth-direction of the zinc coatings associated with element additions to the galvanizing bath

Steel sheets, which were galvanized in a laboratory electric furnace by hot dipping in a bath of molten Zn alloyed with Pb up to 1 wt.%, are characterized by a preferred crystallization of the majority of the grains. This was ascribed to the Pb particles, which enhance the growth of thermodynamically favored directions. The distribution of the Pb particles seems to play an important role to this phenomenon. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used in order to find the distribution map and to determine the phases that were formed.