About Galfan: Three years ago, the ownership rights to Galfan® Estate and Technology were transferred to the Galfan Technology Center Inc. (GTC) located at University of Pittsburgh Applied Research Centre, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

     While the growth in use of hot-dip galvanizing using virtually pure zinc has been dramatic, and the related decline of electro-galvanizing is a well known trend, the fortunes of another long-established and important anti-corrosion coating – Galfan® – are less well known.  Nevertheless, over 2 million MT of Galfan®-coated steel was produced in 2002 and due to new innovative marketing strategies, its global popularity will continue to expand.

     Galfan® as a trademark has been around since the International Lead Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO) obtained worldwide patents on this new alloy for anti-corrosion coating in 1981. This grew from an ILZRO-organized project co-sponsored by Arbed, Cockerill Sambre, Usinor and Sacilor (and now all part of Arcelor), British Steel, Fabrique de Fer de Maubeuge (now all part of Corus), New Zealand Steel, and Stelco (Canada) at Centre de Recherches Metallurgiques in Belgium. This project showed that an alloy combining 95% zinc, nearly 5% aluminum plus specific quantities of rare earth mischmetal could be reliably used in the hot-dip coating process, and conferred substantially improved performance to the end-product. Licenses to use the revolutionary Galfan® technology have been granted to manufacturers worldwide.

     The name Galfan® was given to the new alloy product during a business meeting one evening after the first large-scale production campaign at Sacilor’s, Ziegler S.A. works in Mouzon, France on July 8-10, 1981. Upon reviewing the success of this campaign, in which 150 tonnes of coils were coated, with high quality product obtained after running the first 250 meters of strip through the mill, J-L. Pagniez, head of the French Coated Steel Information Center (CITAG), christened the product "galvanisation fantastique". This was shortened to Galfan®, and this name then trademarked by ILZRO.

      Because of its high aluminum content, Galfan® does not possess the characteristic "spangle" of conventional galvanized coatings. It can be given a featureless appearance by cooling immediately after application of the coating, using conventional water spray, or by using zinc dust nucleation techniques.

     Galfan®-coated sheet, wire and tube steel has found its way into a wide variety of products for the construction, automotive, electrical appliance, industrial and farming sectors (see applications).

     GTC supports its network of "premier producer licensees", to which it supplies technical support and updates on new products and application developments and a continuing research and development program. GTC is funded through royalties on tons of Galfan® coated steel produced by the licensees.