When selecting chain link fence fittings, you want to buy the highest quality fittings you can. Fencing parts like bands, clamps, line ends and tops, bolts, and screws, just to name a few, provide critical strength to the fence installation, so if they fail, the fence fails. With this in mind, it’s important to choose fittings that are protected against corrosion, which can weaken the fitting and shorten its life. Galvanized steel fittings are highly recommended for their longevity and cost-effectiveness.
What is galvanization and how does it protect steel? Galvanization is a technique used to protect steel by coating it with a thin layer of zinc. The purpose of the zinc is to coat the steel so that oxygen and water – the two driving forces behind metal corrosion – cannot come in contact with the steel. It does this in two ways, either by maintaining a total coating over the steel to seal it from those other elements or by acting as an anode layer that experiences galvanic corrosion, where the top layer of metal corrodes faster while slowing the corrosion of the underlying metal. Zinc is the preferred metal to use in either case because it is inexpensive, can be applied easily, and is a natural anode that reacts while preventing the steel beneath it from doing so.
Galvanization is done using three simple methods depending on the form and size of the base metal stock or parts and the products being made with it. Stock metal can be pre-galvanized and then turned into metal parts afterward, or pre-made metal parts can be hot-dip or electro-galvanized. At Hearne Steel, we use a spin-batch process to apply a zinc coating of 1.2 oz for all galvanized parts we keep in stock. We will also do custom orders of up to 2.0 oz. when a thicker protective zinc layer is required.
When affordably protecting metal is the goal, galvanized fence fittings are the economical choice. Galvanized steel is less expensive than aluminum while providing equivalent corrosion resistance properties. Galvanized parts may initially be a little bit more expensive than non-coated ones but the cost is minimal when the alternative is replacing the fence years before it needs to be when using durable, galvanized parts. Hearne Steel has all the galvanized fence fittings needed to install a strong, corrosion-free chain link fence that will last for decades.
