Project Spotlight: Navajo Lake Marina Expansion (AZZ Galvanizing – Chelsea)

Galvanizing, Metal Coatings

Designed, manufactured and installed by Marine Development Inc (MDI), the newly expanded Navajo Lake Marina now includes more than 600 slips with over 100 mooring balls for rent. Metal structures located in or near bodies of water are some of the most challenging applications to protect from corrosion. Water hardness/softness, temperature, impurities, ph and movement of the water all play a role in the aggressiveness of corrosion.

The principles for MDI have been building boat docks, slips, marinas and other water structures for over half a century. As far back as the 1960’s, the most effective protection from corrosion for these water applications has been hot-dip galvanizing (HDG). Some of MDI’s earliest galvanized structures are still in use today, a reoccurring testimonial to the cost effectiveness of HDG.

HDG is the process of metallurgically bonding zinc to steel. Properly prepared steel is dipped in a kettle of molten zinc where zinc and iron alloy layers form over the steel surface. Once the coating is complete and the steel has cooled, the thin, durable, well adhered zinc coating is ready to take on a myriad of corrosive applications.

The galvanic series lists metals by their electrochemical activity in seawater. Metals higher on the list are sacrificial to the metals that are lower on the list when electrically connected. Zinc is higher on the galvanic list than steel, so zinc will provide sacrificial protection to the steel when the two are connected and exposed to an electrolyte (water/moisture). The zinc coating slowly sacrifices itself over time while providing decades of maintenance free protection in countless water applications.

You won’t hear many complaints from environmentalists regarding the use of HDG coatings in or near water as there is no harm to our most essential resource and no impact on aquatic life. Zinc already exists in the water as well as within every living creature. MDI will continue building these attractive, floating, recreational facilities and hot-dip galvanizing will continue to provide that small, but vital role.

Project Spotlight: A Greenhouse in the Snow (AZZ Galvanizing – Denver)

Galvanizing, Metal Coatings

45 years ago, retired postal worker, Russ Finch, designed and built his home and a small attached greenhouse with the idea of using underground geo-thermal heat to keep his house warm in the harsh Nebraska winter. Russ developed an ingenuous system of tubes to capture the earth’s underground heat and it worked so well to keep him warm and grow his personal produce year round that he built a larger greenhouse and spent several years learning just what he could grow in this highly efficient geo–thermal heated space.

Russ’s design uses 4” diameter tubes he routes 8’ underground that travel as far or farther than 230’ before returning to the greenhouse. The number of tubes varies depending on the greenhouse location and the distance the air must travel underground to attain the desired temperature. Small blowers circulate the air through the tubes, pulling colder air out and returning warmer air into the greenhouse where fans move the air throughout the building. The air, that is warmed just by the earths underground heat, maintains an overall wintertime temperature in the greenhouse of 52°F. This consistent wintertime temperature makes it possible for Russ to grow his produce including a variety of oranges, lemons and more than 10 other exotic fruits year-round. Surprisingly, it turns out that the 42.10°N latitude of Alliance is ideal for growing citrus, and Russ would confidently compare his fruits to those produced anywhere in the world.

This highly efficient geo-thermal greenhouse can be operated for as little as $0.80 per day to run the electric fans and lighting.

Russ wanted to share his knowledge and experience so that others could enjoy the same benefits of utilizing free geo-thermal heat. In 2009 Russ teamed up with longtime friend and local machine shop owner – Allen Bright to develop and build greenhouse kits to offer the general public and so “Greenhouses in the Snow” was born.

Russ and Allen wanted the best products to construct their greenhouses to ensure long life sustainability in the high humidity environment of a greenhouse, so they chose hot-dip galvanizing to protect the structural steel tube framework as a critical aspect to their greenhouse design.

Hot-dip galvanizing provides the highly desired, long term, maintenance free protection from corrosion on both the internal and external surfaces of the structural greenhouse framework. Hot-dip galvanizing was so important to Russ and Allen that they transport their steel tube components 400 miles each way to be hot-dip galvanized. Galvanizing the greenhouse steel can be accomplished in as little as 5-10 days, allowing Russ and Allen to react quickly to the rapidly growing demand for personal greenhouse kits.

Today’s basic Greenhouse in the Snow can be erected in just a few weeks at a cost of about $25,000. The latest designs can include automated controls and solar panels with attached solar batteries to allow for growing totally off the grid. Aquaponics, where fish tanks are incorporated into the design to fertilize the plants and hydroponics where plants are grown without soil, are new options for today’s Greenhouse in the Snow owners.

What Russ Finch started and began learning 45 years ago is now being shared all around the country and beyond, with orders for the Greenhouse in the Snow kits increasing every month.

Russ and Allen will continue to help others enhance their lives with this incredible system and hot-dip galvanizing will continue to protect the critical framework for a lifetime and beyond!