Tinplate – Tinning - Hot-dipping - Electroplating

Tin is a post-transition metal in group 14 of the periodic table. It is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite, which contains tin dioxide. The first alloy used on a large scale was bronze, made of tin and copper, from as early as 3000 BC. Tin is one of the first metals known to humans. It is nontoxic, soft and pliable, and suitable for cold rolling. Tin resists corrosion, making it an ideal coating for other metals. Tin has a low coefficient of friction, and the addition of alloying elements such as copper, antimony, bismuth, cadmium, and silver increases its hardness. Tin has long been used in alloys with lead as solder, and the tin itself has a very low melting point. Tin alloyed with lead forms a eutectic mixture at the weight proportion of 61.9% tin and 38.1% lead with a melting temperature of 183 °C (361.4 °F). Such solders are primarily used for joining pipes or electric circuits.

Tinplate – Tinning – Hot-dipping – Electroplating

The largest single application of tin is in the manufacture of tinplate (steel sheet coated with tin), which accounts for approximately 40% of total world tin consumption. Tin bonds readily to iron and steel to prevent corrosion. Tin-plated steel containers are widely used for food preservation, forming a large part of the market for metallic tin.

Tinning is the process of thinly coating sheets of wrought iron or steel with tin, and the resulting product is known as a tinplate. The term is also widely used for the different processes of coating a metal with solder before soldering. There are two processes for tinning the black plates: hot-dipping and electroplating.

Hot-dipping. Tinplate made via hot-dipped tin plating is made by cold rolling steel or iron, which is then coated with a thin layer of tin.
Electroplating. Electroplating is a process that uses an electric current to reduce dissolved metal cations so that they form a thin coherent metal coating on an electrode. The traditional hot-dip method of making tinplate has been largely replaced by the electrodeposition of tin on continuous strips of rolled steel.

References:

Materials Science:

U.S. Department of Energy, Material Science. DOE Fundamentals Handbook, Volume 1 and 2. January 1993.
U.S. Department of Energy, Material Science. DOE Fundamentals Handbook, Volume 2 and 2. January 1993.
William D. Callister, David G. Rethwisch. Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction 9th Edition, Wiley; 9 edition (December 4, 2013), ISBN-13: 978-1118324578.
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J. R. Lamarsh, A. J. Baratta, Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, 3d ed., Prentice-Hall, 2001, ISBN: 0-201-82498-1.

See above:
Tin Alloys