COATED FLAT STEELS IN CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE

摘要

It is a remarkable but often forgotten fact that the most important modern technology of coating flat steels, namely continuous hot dip galvanizing, was invented in Eastern Europe. Indeed, it was in the small Polish town of Kostuchna, near Kattowice, that Tadeusz Sendzimir has built the first continuous line. This happened in the years 1933 and 1934, which by coincidence, came about a century after the invention of galvanizing, by the French engineer Sorel in 1836. Note that the surname of Monsieur Sorel was Stanislas. Between the two world wars, the political situation in Europe in general and in Poland in particular was unstable. This made Sendzimir immigrate to the USA, a choice made easier by the fact that Armco had contacted him previously with the intention of buying his patents. This deal came about in 1937. Subsequently, Armco developed the Polish invention into a fully-fledged industrial process. In the following years, Sendzimir was devoting more and more of his attention to new rolling processes, but his interest in galvanizing never waned till his death in the fateful year 1989.