Are you looking for galvanized steel banding? Finding the right steel banding is critical for ensuring that your supplies and tools function as they should without being damaged. Galvanized steel banding is always a good option, but there are several factors that matter in determining the best banding material. This includes how long the bands will need to suspend the material, how much the item being suspended weighs, whether or not the item will be moving while the bands are supporting it, and what the actual item is.
Before you purchase galvanized steel banding, you should understand the banding options you have and when to use which:
Common Types of Strapping and Banding
- Basic Galvanized Steel Banding
There are a lot of benefits to using stainless steel straps. Steel is the only material on Earth that is 100% recyclable and so when you use galvanized steel banding, you’re preventing unnecessary waste from going into a landfill. Your steel banding is most likely on its fifth or sixth life, yet still the most reliable material available for banding.
Steel is less likely to be dented or damaged than other banding materials, so a good option if your load is extremely heavy or prone to damage if the banding were dented. - Stainless Steel Banding
The benefit to using stainless steel is that they hold up really well under extreme weather conditions. If the load you need to secure is going to be in an extremely rainy area, or exposed to extreme heat or cold conditions, using stainless steel banding will ensure you don’t have to worry about rust, corrosion, expanding and shrinking. Stainless steel banding comes in a wide range of sizes to ensure that whatever sizing is needed to properly secure and protect the items in question is available without fabrication. - High Tensile Banding
High tensile banding is actually also steel banding, but developed to be extra strong. High tensile is such a reliable type of banding that this is the choice of banding for trains to secure extremely heavy loads at extremely fast speeds. In fact, high tensile banding is so reliable it is used for open cars that have no other protection than the strapping itself. - Zinc Coated Steal Strapping
If the items needing banding is going to be outdoors for an extended period of time, you might benefit from zinc coated banding. Zinc will not rust or corrode if it is outdoors for an extended period of time (stainless steel will not rust or corrode either, but stainless steel can be contaminated by non-stainless steel, which will impact its weather-proofing. Zinc-coated straps don’t have this risk). The one drawback to zinc-coated banding is that they are known to stretch if they support a heavy load for too long. This is a factor you must consider before selecting zinc. - Poly banding
Poly banding is the first banding we’ll talk about that is actually not made of steel at all. Why are we talking about non-steel banding in an article dedicated to steel banding? We want you to have all the information handy when making your decision. Poly banding is made of a polyester hybrid and is extremely cheap. Keep in mind that steel is also extremely inexpensive, so the savings is negligible (however, this is a very economical choice if you’re on a tight budget).
The real advantage to using poly banding instead of steel is that poly bands weigh less than half of steel banding. If your load is extremely weight-sensitive, you might consider poly banding. You should pay careful attention to the weight limits that poly banding can support though, as they are not as strong and fray-resistant as steel banding. - Poly cording bands
So let’s say you need the lessened burden of poly banding, but your load exceeds the weight that straight poly banding is capable of (or you’ll need it suspended for longer than you can really get away with with poly banding). In this situation, you might want to consider woven poly cords. When poly cords are inter-woven, the weight of the load they are supporting gets distributed between cords, increasing their weight limits by multiples of the number of strands woven together. This is an economical and lightweight choice if your load isn’t too heavy.
Do you have questions? Share below!