Studying the ZnO formation in coated steel wire ropes for the automotive industry

Abstract

Bowden cables are abundantly applied in the automotive assembly lines leading to drive various devices, such as opening trunk or the fuel tank cap, triggering the handbrake, opening the doors, etc. The cable used in automotive metallic harness is commonly constituted of braided wire galvanized steel, which has been studied to resist the weather aggressions typically imposed by the conditions under which usually work. However, to allow this operating in a steady state way, the braided wire must have the appropriate quality. This work study the reasons of the formation of relatively abundant quantities of zinc oxide (ZnO) in metallic cables used in the automotive industry, a few weeks after their manufacture. It was concluded that there were serious shortcomings of cable cleaning between the wire forming operations and galvanizing, with deposition of ZnO enhancing elements in the interface, which would prove to be crucial to nucleation and development of ZnO on the surface. Thus, the main contribution of this work is to identify and describe the elements able to generate ZnO in coated steel wires, avoiding this phenomenon in the industry.