Design and Application of a Hot Dip Simulator

A Hot Dip Simulator has been constructed at Inland Steel Research Laboratories to support product development and process optimization. The Hot Dip Simulator can reproduce the heat treating, galvanizing, and galvannealing processes that occur on a continuous galvanizing line. The equipment and computer control system provide a high degree of experimental control and flexibility. This allows simulation of the galvanizing and galvannealing processes at coating lines located at Inland's Indiana Harbor Works and at l/N Kote. The primary use of the Hot Dip Simulator has been to determine the effects of process variables on the galvannealing process and on galvannealed products.