Linseed oil as an organic flux in hot-dip aluminising of steels

Abstract

Organic fluxes like glycerol have been used by earlier workers in this field for hot-dip aluminising. But glycerol is neither cheap nor abundantly produced in India. Amongst the other organic materials investigated, linseed oil has been found suitable as an organic flux due to its oxygen absorbing properties. Vaporisation of linseed oil from the fluxed surface insitu in the molten aluminium bath leaves the steel surface chemically clean thereby permitting diffusion of aluminium in steel. The paper includes effects of small additions of titanium, nickel and manganese to the aluminium bath. Results of tests on heat resistance, corrosion resistance and formability are incorporated. (S.M. Arora, Senior Scientific Assistant; P.K. Gupte, Assistant Director and B.R. Nijhawan, Director, National Metallurgical Laboratory)