PROCESS OF FORMING PHOSPHATE COATINGS ON METALS

In order to form phosphate coatings on individual parts of metal which at least on part of their surface consist of iron or steel, the individual parts are contacted at a temperature in the range from 60 to 100.degree.C for 3 to 30 seconds with a phosphating solution which contains 10 to 80 g/l zinc; 12 to 80 g/l phosphate (calculated as P2O5); 40 to 150 g/l nitrate and, in addition;0.1 to 5 g/l fluoride; 0.01 to 10 g/l nickel; 0.001 to 0.1 g/l copper, as the case may be also tartaric acid, citric acid and/or manganese and in which the ratio of free acid to total acid has been adjusted to (0.1 to 0.3):1 and which contains at least 80 points of total acid. Before the phosphating treatment the individual parts may be cleaned and may optionally be treated to remove rust, scale and phosphate layers and/or be activated. After the phosphating treatment they may be passivated with an afterrinse solution. Each of the process steps is carried out for 3 to 30 seconds.