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How to determine whether the surface treatment process of a steel wire rope is qualified?
2025-05-08
Visual inspection
Color and luster: Different surface treatment processes will cause steel wire ropes to present different colors and luster. For instance, the surface of hot-dip galvanized steel wire ropes should present a uniform silver-gray color and have a certain metallic luster. The surface color of electro-galvanized steel wire rope is relatively light and has a good gloss. The surface of phosphated steel wire ropes is usually grayish black or dark gray, with a uniform matte color. If the surface color is uneven, there is a significant color difference, or the gloss is too dark or too bright, it may indicate that there is a problem with the surface treatment process. Surface flatness: The surface of a qualified steel wire rope should be smooth and flat, without obvious defects such as concave and convex, pits, cracks, and peeling. When touching the surface of the steel wire rope with your hand, you should not feel any obvious roughness or graininess. If there are protrusions or depressions on the surface, it may be caused by uneven coating or defects on the surface of the steel wire during the treatment process. Inspection of coating or plating layer thickness Measuring tools: Professional tools such as magnetic thickness gauges and metallographic microscopes can be used to measure the thickness of coatings or plating layers. Magnetic thickness gauges are suitable for measuring the thickness of non-magnetic coatings on magnetic substrates, such as galvanized layers, copper-plated layers, etc. A metallographic microscope can measure the thickness of coatings such as the phosphating layer by observing the metallographic sections of the steel wire rope. Thickness standard: Different surface treatment processes and application scenarios have different requirements for thickness. For instance, for general-purpose hot-dip galvanized steel wire ropes, the thickness of the galvanized layer is usually required to be between 80 and 120μm. The thickness of the galvanized coating on electro-galvanized steel wire ropes is generally between 10 and 30μm. The phosphating layer thickness of phosphated steel wire ropes is usually between 3 and 15μm. The thickness should be judged as qualified based on specific product standards and usage requirements. |
