The purpose of this paper is to survey the different investigations about cracking behaviour in zinc coatings, due to deformation. Different forming tests have been carded out on electrodeposited and hotdipped zinc coatings. Generally, agreement in the results has been found. The texture gives a good indication about the cracking behaviour of zinc coatings. Thus, texture determination should be performed systematically in examinations relating to the cracking behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to survey the investigation of textures in multiphase materials. As there is an increasing interest in multiphase materials in such fields as metals, ceramics, polymers and geological materials, efforts were made to overcome the experimental difficulties of texture measurement specific to these materials. Up to now the determination of texture was mostly restricted to two phase materials. Further investigation is necessary to obtain a systematic knowledge about the influence and relationship of the phases involved and to design materials with controlled properties.

Many commercial galvanised steel sheets have been characterised before deformation (grain size, grain distribution in the coatings, pre-cracking, individual orientations, misorientations between neighbouring grains, local and global textures) in connection with the zinc alloy which was used and the process parameters.The samples were bent by a biaxial expansion and examined afterwards. All the coatings were pre-cracked before deformation.The extent of the pre-cracking depends on the intensity and the sharpness of the basal planes texture of the coating and also on the misorientations across the grain boundaries. In the same way, zinc primary dendrites and recrystallised grains can hinder the crack propagation, limiting their extent.We can establish a correlation between the texture, the microstructure of the coatings (using a concept that corresponds to the mean free path of the crack) and the formability. As we know the process parameters, it is now conceivable that the texture of the coatings could be controlled.

The texture of zinc coatings influences to a large extent their formability, due to the anisotropic properties of zinc. The (0002) basal plane is the easiest slip plane in zinc crystal. Its inclination to the deformation axis and direction directly influences the deformation behaviour. This work deals with the effect of the texture and microstructure on the cracking behaviour of zinc coatings. For this purpose, twelve different commercial hot-dip zinc coatings have been studied.