The classic way to galvanize hot strip consists of heating the already pickled hot strip to galvanizing temperature on a line and then galvanizing and post-treating it. Economically speaking, the production of galvanized hot strip in combined pickling and galvanizing lines, just like those established by SMS, is considerably more effective.

Here, galvanized hot strip is first pickled on a line, heated to galvanizing temperature, galvanized, skin-passed, and post-treated (‘heat-to-coat’ process). Thus, a high-value end product that can be delivered to many customers is made from unpickled hot strip in one step. In order to increase the material quality – particularly the flexibility – of first and foremost very thin materials, further modifications to the line concept are possible, depending on the hot strip used. Particularly suitable options are the integration of a skin-pass mill stand and an annealing module.