Coated wire is carbon steel wire protected against corrosion by a metallic coating — zinc, zinc-aluminium or aluminium — or by an extruded plastic sleeve, usually PVC over zinc. It is used wherever wire is exposed to the weather: fencing, gabions, binding, agriculture, cable armour and the steel core of overhead power lines.
Bare steel wire rusts quickly outdoors because it is thin: a small loss of metal is a large part of its section. Coating it is the cheapest way to make it last. Zinc is applied either by hot dipping — the wire runs continuously through a bath of molten zinc, giving a thick, metallurgically bonded coating — or electrolytically, which gives a thin, bright coating suited to indoor and decorative use. A zinc-5% aluminium alloy (sold as Galfan) lasts two to three times as long as pure zinc of the same weight and is now the usual choice for gabions and coastal fencing.
Coating thickness is specified as mass per unit area (g/m²), and it is the main thing that decides service life. EN 10244-2 sets classes A, AB, B, C and D, from heaviest to lightest, with the minimum mass depending on the wire diameter; ASTM A641 has Class 1 (light) and Class 3 (heavy). A thin 'commercial' electro-galvanized coating may carry only 10–30 g/m², where a heavy hot-dip Class A coating on a 2.7 mm gabion wire is well over 200 g/m².
PVC-coated wire has an extruded plastic sleeve, usually green, grey or black, over a galvanized or Zn-Al core. The plastic protects against abrasion and chemical attack and gives colour; the metal coating underneath protects the steel at cut ends and damage. It is standard for chain-link fencing, gabions in aggressive water, and garden and agricultural wire. Polyethylene and polyamide coatings are also made.
In the GCC the climate is hard on wire: salt-laden air on the coast, high humidity, and saline groundwater and sabkha soils. Gabions for wadi training, coastal protection and road embankments are therefore typically specified in heavily Zn-Al coated and PVC-coated wire, and fencing for infrastructure and industrial plots in PVC-coated chain-link. Galvanized and PVC-coated wire is drawn and coated by many plants in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman, as well as imported.
Coated wire is ordered by the diameter of the steel core (and, for plastic, the overall diameter), the coating type and class, the tensile strength or temper, and the packing.
| Region | Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | EN 10244-2 CEN-CENELEC |
Non-ferrous metallic coatings on steel wire — zinc or zinc alloy coatings: coating classes and test methods |
| Europe | EN 10245-1 / -2 CEN-CENELEC |
Organic coatings on steel wire — general rules; PVC finished wire |
| Europe | EN 10223-3 CEN-CENELEC |
Steel wire and wire products for fencing and netting — hexagonal steel wire mesh (gabions) |
| Europe | EN 10257-1 CEN-CENELEC |
Zinc or zinc alloy coated non-alloy steel wire for armouring energy cables |
| USA | ASTM A641/A641M ASTM |
Zinc-coated (galvanized) carbon steel wire — Class 1 and Class 3 coatings, soft, medium and hard tempers |
| USA | ASTM A809 ASTM |
Aluminum-coated (aluminized) carbon steel wire |
| USA | ASTM B498/B498M ASTM |
Zinc-coated (galvanized) steel core wire for aluminium conductors, steel reinforced (ACSR) |
| USA | ASTM A975 ASTM |
Double-twisted hexagonal mesh gabions and revet mattresses (metallic and PVC-coated wire) |
| USA | ASTM F1664 ASTM |
PVC and other polymer-coated steel tension wire for chain-link fence |
| Japan | JIS G3547 JSA |
Zinc-coated low carbon steel wires |
| India | IS 4826 BIS |
Hot-dipped galvanized coatings on round steel wires |
Grade equivalents and the standards bodies: Steel grades & standards
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