Researchers develop coating with improved anticorrosive properties
Since last year we have been offering a new product to our customers: tin plate with K-type coating. Its successful implementation is the result of activity by a versatile team consisting of colleagues from production, sales, technical service, quality management and research.
The new product is distinguished by higher added value, thanks to which it enhances our competitiveness on the tin-plate market.
Young researcher and developer Dávid Bogdan from the Coated and Final Products department has worked on its development, and technical support for the project has been provided by researcher and developer Peter Vranec from the Metallography and Failure Analyses department. The main benefit of tin plate with K-type coating is its increased corrosion resistance. "We proceeded from the American standard defining the K-type coating. It specifies that such tin plate has to have a coating with a density of more than 5.6 grams per square meter. There is another prerequisite, namely the presence of a thick interlayer consisting of iron and tin which is a component of the coating and enhances the anticorrosive properties of the tin plate in contact with some foods," D. Bogdan explains, and adds that they have achieved these production parameters through output control of the melter on Tinning Line No. 1. Using this approach they have succeeded in increasing the current interlayer density from 0.5 g/m2 up to 1.0 g/m2, but they are able to produce such tin plate with K-type coating just on Tinning Line No. 1. According to D. Bogdan, we previously supplied our customers tin plate with a high-tin coating at a density of over 5.6 g/m2, but without warranty of minimum interlayer thickness. "Tin plate with K-type coating is primarily demanded by food industry customers. It finds utilization especially in the tinning of acid, so-called white fruits such as pineapple and peaches, or for long-term food storage. The intermediate layer protects the can steel substrate from corrosion and prevents hole origination," specifies D. Bogdan.
At the very beginning researcher Daniel Kacír had started work on this task. However, he left the company last year and D. Bogdan took over the project. He says that they needed to produce a lot of test specimens for analysis by P. Vranec, in order to obtain the parameters required.
In the middle of 2015 the project became of the Carnegie Way transformation process. Since October of last year this tin plate product has been in the D5 phase, bringing in real revenues for the company. Just up to February 2016 we sold almost six thousand tons of K-type coated tin plate. The largest customers are leading producers of food cans such as Silgan and Crown.
This project was awarded first place for the fourth quarter of last year in the unit of General Manager Research and Development USSE.
