Zinc Plate Touch-up

[swertel]

I have a cold-rolled carbon steel sheet piece that gets zinc plates per MIL-STD-171, 1.9.2.3.

During transport, the pieces have light scratches on them. Is there a touch-up method available (per a spec) for zinc plated steel? I'm hoping there is something like alodine for touching up anodize on aluminum.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[swertel]

By the way, to save you one cross-reference, MIL-171 refers to ASTM B633, Type II, Class 3 coating.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[telecomguy]

We've used a metallic paint pen to touchup modifications to zinc plated parts. The paint protects the metal and the 'metallic' is just to color match.

But if the scratches are just cosmetic (not deep gouges), you may not need to do anything to protect the steel. I've always been told a field of protection is created by the dissimilar metals and the overlapping fields at the edges of the scratch will in fact protect the exposed metal in the scratch. However, I'm not sure I'd take that to the bank without some emperical evidence.

-tg