It all started in the 1970s when research was carried out to look at the effectiveness of zinc coatings that contained a percentage of aluminium and various tests were conducted with zinc coatings containing up to 15% of aluminium. It became clear that zinc that contained 5% aluminium delivered great corrosion resistance, but it proved difficult in the early days to solve the issue of unwetted bare spots that detracted from the commercial usefulness of the coating as a product.
It was subsequently discovered that when a rare earth mischmetal that contained cerium and lanthanum was added, it resolved the problem of wettability, whilst improving coating ductility and fluidity at the same time. It was this mischmetal formulation that led to the creation of the product that was named Galfan(3)
Why Galfan(3) ?
GalFan has been a recognized trademark since 1981 when the International Lead Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO) managed to obtain worldwide patents relating to this new alloy for anti-corrosion coating. The name of the product was derived from a comment made by the head of the French Steel Information Centre, who described the product as “galvanisation fantastique”, subsequently shortened to GalFan.