Acid and lead-free galvanizing: over 20 years of proven performance at DRUIDS

As global demand grows for wire production processes that are safer, cleaner, and more efficient, galvanising lines face a fundamental shift: moving away from open combustion and hazardous chemicals, and embracing compact, electric solutions.

While this transition is gaining traction across the industry today, DRUIDS Process Technology has been leading this change for more than two decades, with its DRU-Gal platform — a fully electric, digitally controlled, and acid-free galvanising system designed from the ground up for the wire industry.

Since the early 2000s, DRUIDS has installed over 35 DRU-Gal lines worldwide, supporting customers in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. In total, these lines have produced more than 7 million tonnes of galvanized steel wire — in real factories, under real operating conditions.

“We didn’t adapt general technologies to wire. We built our own, for wire,” explains Carlos Bittner, co-founder and CBDO of DRUIDS. “It’s the result of over 20 years of work and continuous refinement with real industrial feedback.”

Key Highlights of DRU-Gal:

• 100% Electric: Heating and control without fossil fuels or direct emissions.
• No Use of Hazardous Chemicals: Eliminates hydrochloric acid and fluxing agents by design, enhancing safety and environmental sustainability.
• Fully Digital Architecture: A recipe-based system with sensorised process control and full traceability.
• Full integration of each part of the process controlled by a central brain.
• Integrated Monitoring: Through DRU-DOCTOR-MONITOR, live diagnostics and KPI tracking are standard.
• Custom-Designed Technology: All process sections — including pre-treatment, annealing, galvanising and final handling — are developed in-house to form a cohesive production unit.
• Available Pilot Line: A full demo line has been operating at DRUIDS' facility near Barcelona for over a decade, allowing customers to test their own wire and coatings under real process conditions.

Unlike other solutions that rely on third-party modules for desoaping, heating, cooling or post-treatment, DRUIDS offers a fully integrated platform, reducing uncertainty, simplifying service and allowing continuous innovation throughout the entire line.

This capacity to engineer and optimise every subprocess — from drawing, cleaning and annealing to coating and packaging — is what sets DRUIDS apart in a market where modular assembly is still the norm.

In 2017, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation officially recognised DRUIDS as an Innovative SME, and the company’s InnovationLAB division, audited by the Spanish state, has channelled over 3 million euros in R&D investment in recent years. This includes cross-technology developments such as DRU-Wet and DRU-Vector, aimed at enabling lubricant-free drawing and enhancing acid-free galvanising.

“Wire galvanising needs more than a good furnace,” adds Bittner. “It’s about understanding the full process — and that’s what we’ve built: a complete, future-ready ecosystem.”

For more information or to schedule a visit to DRUIDS’ pilot plant, contact: info@druidsbarcelona.com
www.druidsbarcelona.com