Material Protective Coating

FORT STEEL T-Maz™ Oak light-weight steel truss systems comprises components manufactured from prime grade G550
Hi-Tensile alloy steel. To protect our trusses against corrosion, our trusses are protected by 2 layers of coating:

1) Galmaxx® Alpha Coating - the main protective coating consisting of 95% Zinc, 5% Aluminum and Magnesium. Galmaxx®
    Alpha conforms to JIS G 3317 (Japanese Industrial Standard), AS 1397 (Australian Standard) and other equivalent
    standards,

2) Oak Tinted Resin Coating - which gives Fort Steel trusses its highly distinctive brown colour, is an excellent corrosion and
    fingerprint resistance resin chemical that further improves the exterior durability of Fort Steel trusses.

What is corrosion?

Corrosion is also commonly known as Rust

What Causes Steel To Rust?

• Rust = Iron Oxide
• Appearance of rust: red, brown or orange flacking or pitting of the metal surface.
• Over time, the iron in steel will combine with oxygen and water to form iron oxide.

Consequences Of Rust

• Rust has considerably less mechanical strength than its originating steel and will gradually flake off, weakening the roof
  structure.
• Rust will make the roof structure more vulnerable to collapse from weather or impact.

How To Prevent Rust

• Apply a layer of protective coating on the steel
  Level 1: Galvanised Steel Truss
  Level 2: Aluzinc Steel Truss
  Level 3: Fort Steel T-Maz™ Oak Steel Truss c/w Zinc, Aluminum & Magnesium and 30 years warranty.

GalMaxx® Alpha Protective Coating

By having zinc, aluminium, magnesium or a combination coating on the base steel substrate, we can prevent the steel trusses from rusting. The metals will help to prevent oxygen and water from reaching the steel substrate by acting as a barrier, In the event that oxygen and water reaches the steel substrate, the metal coatings (Zinc, Aluminum and Magnesium) being more reactive than iron will then act as a sacrificial metal and oxidises (ie. corrode) in place of the steel substrate.

Benefits of Having Magnesium in Alloy Protective Coating

i) The addition of magnesium which is a much more reactive metal, to protective coatings helps to increase the corrosion resistance of the steel. Please refer to chart which depicts the reactivity of different types of metals.

ii) The proper ratio combination of the different metals is essential to realising the full corrosion resistance of the protective coating, Increasing the ratio of one metal shall affect the other properties of the steel substrate such as formability and bending.

iii) Fort Steel T-Maz™ Oak Light Weight Steel Trusses possess excellent acid and alkaline corrosion resistance compared to regular glavanised and aluminum-zinc alloy (galvalume/ aluzinc) steel trusses due to the presence of magnesium metal in the protective coating. By comparison, our protective coatings weight loss by corrosion is substantially lower than other types of coatings in each pH zone.