Ask the Expert Question-and-Answer Archive

by Ron Joseph

January, 2005

DYI-Formulating Zinc Phosphate

Q. As a newly graduated and young engineer, I'm interested in DIY zinc phosphate to maximize the corrosion preventive for steel plate. Do you have any idea about the zinc phosphate composition? ph level, etc.. To be honest, this information is required to reduce our processing fee. This is done in developing country where standard is not a primary section. Finally, I would like to thank you in advanced for the time.

A. Thanks for your email. I have never seen a detailed formulation for a zinc phosphate pretreatment, although I would suspect that such formulations exist in text books and technical papers. Articles on zinc phosphate are regularly published in magazines, such as Metal Finishing Magazine which you can obtain through a technical library, but you will need to scour through the articles to find a formulation that works for you.

Please remember that zinc phosphate surface pretreatment chemicals comprise several other compounds, each of which has a specific purpose in the pretreatment process.

Good luck,

Ron Joseph