YOUR home could be your biggest and most expensive investment, and it is probably where most of your savings go.
Many homeowners will probably agree with me that the roof is the most important component of your house because it is your family’s first line of defense from natural hazards, such as rain, fire, wind and the extreme heat from the sun. It also protects your furniture, appliances and other possessions. Every day, your roof is exposed to the elements which may contribute to your home’s decay and deterioration—increasing the risk of damage to the other parts of the building, as well as whatever is under your roof.
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https://businessmirror.com.ph/2017/11/28/when-it-comes-to-roofing-quality-is-everything/
Advantages of galvanized steel coatings
There are several options for roofing materials when it comes to protecting your home, and galvanized steel is still often the best choice for most steel building construction projects because it is one of the most affordable, sustainable and durable options for protecting your roof from rust and corrosion.
Puyat Steel Corp. (PSC), the pioneer company that set up its galvanizing plant in the Philippines in 1956, continues to serve the Filipino people with its world-class galvanized iron sheets.
Galvanization is a process by which steel is dipped into a bath of hot, molten zinc. Once it cools, the steel and zinc are tightly bonded—creating a protective coating that will last for up to 20 years or more with minimal maintenance required. After roofing panels are galvanized, they can be painted or granular-coated.
In 1969 APO corrugated G.I. long-span sheets and APO heavy gauge G.I. sheet were introduced, making PSC one of the biggest exporters of sheets to China in 1988. The company acquired a color-coating line from Belgium in 1996, and opened its 30-hectare galvanizing plant in Rosario, Batangas, in 1998. The equipment was designed by Cockerill Sambre of Belgium and the entire plant was supplied from Europe.
“We became the first Non-Oxidizing Furnace Continuous Galvanizing plant, which is ISO 9002 certified,” said Engr. Virginia C. Arceo, PSC Vice President for manufacturing. In 2001 APO Galfan was launched, which is the new standard in galvanizing. “Only Puyat is licensed in galvanizing,” Arceo added.
APO Galfan benefits
APO Galfan i s a patented binary alloy of zinc and aluminum at the eutectic ratio—the most effective combination that gives your steel superior corrosion resistance, formability, paintability and weldabitity.
Galfan has an improved corrosion resistance than that of galvanized and it provides the best substrate for pre-painted steel coils. “It provides as much as three times the corrosion protection of conventional hot-dipped galvanized. What makes us unique is the way we process our products,” Arceo said. “Galfan improves regular galvanized steel not just in more corrosion resistance but it is more ductile and it presents a better surface for painting.”
Galfan is the first hot-dipped coating that is more formable than the steel it protects. The brittle intermetallic layer between the steel substrate and regular hot-dipped galvanized coatings is virtually eliminated with APO Galfan. Its zinc/aluminum composition provides the important surface homogeneity and freedom from tramp elements, as well as the crystal orientation required for good paint adhesion. Compared to other steels, Galfan-coated products are a superior substrate for pretreatment and paint adhesion.
In 2013 the company installed a new skin-pass mill in its CGL, guaranteeing the table-top flatness of its products. The skin-pass mill also improves the paint adhesion to the steel substrate, thus enhancing corrosion protection. “We only use high-density polyvinylidene difluoride [PVDF] paint. It is best against chalking and fading,” Arceo said.
Puyat Steel implements a technical protocol for its raw materials. Qualified personnel conducts tests for compliance to the technical protocol all tests are conducted in the company’s own laboratory. The company also has product traceability from raw materials all the way up to the finished products.
The company purchases cold rolled steel coils with a high-tensile strength of 80,000 psi while most other companies use only 40,000 psi. High tensile strength greatly enhances the structural integrity of the roof, thus allowing it to withstand strong wind speeds up to 200 kilometers per hour. Coils are subjected to the Micrometer test and the Ultra Sonic Gauge test to check the specified thickness. These two tests assure the base metal thickness and to ensure the strict quality compliance of raw materials.
“Puyat connotes quality,” Arceo stated. “We’ve been here for almost 62 years and our clients have trusted us. Having said that, we continue to improve the quality of our products for our customers, as well as training and continued education for our employees. I just hope that the Philippine government supports our petition to impose a safeguard duty on low-quality steel roofing products that are being sold in the country. The entry of subsidized poor-quality roofing is hurting the local steel manufacturing industry and victimizing consumers into purchasing these cheap products only to find out that they don’t last.”