No zinc flake coatings used in the automotive industry nowadays contain this substance.

Originally, small parts were coated with Zinc flake coating and organic topcoats.

In order to develop the excellent properties of zinc flake coatings, an annealing process is required.

There are three groups of zinc flake coatings:

The material for the zinc flake coatings gets supplied in liquid form and needs to be prepared to the desired conditions before application.

As zinc flake coatings do not create any hydrogen in the process, they were used for critical applications as an alternative to electroplating.

Zinc flake coatings are non-electrolytically applied coatings, which provide good protection against corrosion.

Zinc flake coatings are used as cathodic protective layers against corrosion all over the world in the automotive and construction industries.

Steel parts that can be coated with zinc flake coatings include, for example, bolts, nuts, springs, panels and structural parts.

Zinc flake coatings create what is known as cathodic protection: the less noble zinc 'sacrifices' itself in order to protect the underlying metal.

Zinc flake coating is a generic term for the coating technology and this is marketed by the different suppliers under their respective brand names.

Solvent-based Cr(VI)-free zinc flake coatings.

Zinc flake coatings Zinc flake coating normally consist of a basecoat and topcoat, this is called a modular system.

The specifications for zinc flake coatings are defined in international standard ISO 10683 and also in European standard DIN EN 13858.

In salt spray test-s zinc flake coatings demonstrate better protection against corrosion than a typical galvanic zinc coating, which in the tests (generally run in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9227) often achieve only 96 to 200 hours.

DIN EN ISO 10683 sets out the requirements for zinc flake coatings for threaded fasteners and DIN EN 13858 describes the requirements for zinc flake coatings for fasteners with no thread and for other parts as well.