All three parts of the galvanized supply chain benefit if InterCoat®ChemGuard is adopted: manufacturer, service center and producer (mill).
The Manufacturer
From the beginning, the manufacturer is getting lower-priced material with InterCoat®ChemGuard. All gauges, all uses and all parts produced can be of the same zinc weight (G30), reducing one aspect of inventory. They can buy materials without any passivation, meaning there’s a lower cost and fewer processes involved. They can avoid messy oil that may be used to save die wear or increase formability, saving on clean up and cost. If they decide to post-paint, InterCoat®ChemGuard is a great adhesion foundation, making the process of doing so easier.
Service Centers
Service centers really gain simplicity and savings in the number of SKUs. Imagine buying, storing, managing and manipulating different materials. This includes varying galvanized products by coating weight, product with no chrome chemical treatment, with oil or hexavalent chrome, or trivalent chrome. With InterCoat®ChemGuard, there would be no passivations and only one coating weight of zinc. This allows service centers to offer a better product at a lower price to customers, makes loads easier to ship, and provides less inventory to manage with more value to sell.
The Producer
Even the producer is in line for great benefits by using InterCoat®ChemGuard technology. Buying and storing enormous quantities of zinc ingots (even at leveraged or volume pricing) is expensive, and selling a product (heavy zinc coating) that can be washed into waste streams is becoming increasingly environmentally challenged. The Hexavalent chrome issue, (banned in Europe, under attack everywhere, and clearly dangerous and toxic) will be resolved. Savings accrue from avoiding multiple application setups, multiple coating weights, multiple passes through line coaters, and from the losses associated with trying to apply heavy weight zinc with consistency and evenness. Less zinc equals less grief, less dependency and more net value, even with the loss of zinc premiums for the heavier weights. And as other mills regularly apply InterCoat®ChemGuard for their customers, there will be the need to stay competitive.