Video: Jet Vapor Deposition^® (JVD)

ArcelorMittal invests in R&D to develop the steels of the future and to present solutions to its customers that will respond to the challenges to come. 

ArcelorMittal recently unveiled Jetgal^®. This revolutionary new coating has been specifically developed by ArcelorMittal for cold rolled advanced high strength steel (AHSS) used in automotive applications such as Fortiform^®.  This pure zinc coating is applied using a hydrogen-free coating process known as Jet Vapor Deposition (JVD). It  allows vehicle makers to achieve the most uniform corrosion protection available on the market today. The JVD technology coats a moving strip of steel in a vacuum chamber, by vaporizing zinc onto the steel.

• The first step consists of degreasing the strip, so that all organic residues are removed
• The steel strip is then transported towards the heart of the JVD
• The lock at the entrance of the vacuum zone enables the steel strip to pass from an atmosphere of 1000mbar to a vacuum atmosphere of 0.00001mbar
• The pressure in the vacuum chamber is about 100 million times weaker than the atmospheric pressure
• After being reheated slightly, the strip is transported towards the zinc coating area of the JVD, where the zinc is vaporized onto the strip by a movable blower,and the zinc condenses on the cold strip and solidifies
• The coated strip then passes through an exit lock, similar to the entrance lock, bringing it back to a (normal) atmospheric pressure
• The steel strip exits the JVD line to finish its route at the more classical operations of the steel production process: inspections and post treatments 

Steel coated with zinc is used for numerous applications going from the automotive industry, to construction, to packaging and household appliances. There are multiple advantages to this new type of technology:

• Working in a vacuum avoids all parasitic phenomena causing both the zinc and steel to oxidize and it enables lower evaporation temperatures
• It ensures an excellent adhesion of the coating, no matter the steel grade, and avoids advanced high strength steel becoming more brittle under the influence of hydrogen
• It leads to very high zinc rates, generating almost no losses or rejections of the material
• It consumes low amounts of energy, resulting into a smaller ecological footprint
• It ensures an excellent regularity of the zinc coating