Al-Ajab Metal Galvanising Factory has announced it is enlarging its existing bath at its facilities in Dammam’s Second Industrial City.

Increasing the bath area is part of a wider expansion programme, said company chairman Khalid Ajab Al Hajri.  “It will simultaneously meet client requirements, increase productivity and save time and costs. The increased bath will help the company provide a wider range in terms of size and shape.”
Al Hajri said the hard work put in by his staff had helped build a great rapport with customers and the motivation to undertake the latest expansion immediately was maintaining customer satisfaction. 
“Galvanising is a unique process to protect steel for a long time and the coating itself is considered to be a self-inspecting system,” said Al Hajri. “Its life expectancy on typical structures is far in excess of 50 years in most rural environments and nearly 20 to 25 years in urban and coastal exposure. Further, galvanising is faster than painting and is carried out to the appropriate ASTM standards and its coating life is made reliable and predictable by proper  dipping and by ensuring it reaches every area of the steel.”  
Al Hajri stressed his factory strictly adhered to international standards.
“The thickness and appearance of the galvanised coating is affected by several factors such as chemical composition and surface condition of steel, bath immersion and withdrawal time and steel cooling rate. Normal zinc coating required for steel thickness above 5 mm is 85 microns and an upper range of 700 gm – 1000 gm/m? is recommended for saline weather conditions, and we work in accordance to those specifications,” he said.
Al-Ajab Metal Galvanising Factory has won a number of contracts for 2005 involving projects including RGX–Abudhabi, GEA-BTT France, Raslaffan-Qatar, the Haradh project, JUGE-Jubail, United Petrochemicals-Jubail and Gulf Farabi–Jubail.
The company says it expects more projects to come its way this year and is preparing to meet demand
 “Because of these factors, we have taken this right and firm decision to enlarge the bath size,” said Al Hajri.
The company, among the leading galvanising facilities in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province, claims it has captured nearly 30 per cent of the market there.
It announced earlier it was working on a hydrochloric acid recovery system that will save costs. The recovery would amount to 40 to 45 per cent of what issues from the galvanising process.
“Negotiations with European companies are ongoing for the erection of this recovery system and soon we will be in a position to operate it,” said Al Hajri.