Stretching Boundaries of Mould Operation With Castcoat?

摘要

Corns Process Engineering have fully established their Castcoat ceramic coating of the copper plates of moulds from slab and bloom casters. A particular recent development has been to coat the mould plates of a large bloom caster producing engineering steels. Improvements in machine casting time availability have resulted from increased longevity of the mould plates (less mould exchanges). Additionally the steel plant schedulers have seen benefits from the fact that the mould bore sees virtually zero wear during the casting campaign life of the mould, meaning any steel grade can be cast at any time between the moulds major refurbishments. Refurbishment frequency and costs have been substantially reduced and to ensure compatibility of life, bloom and slab mould foot rolls have also been successfully ceramic coated. The coating is a mature product having originally been developed for the end plates of thick slab casters, but is now regularly used on thin slab caster end plates as well as the broad plates of many slab casters including thin slab funnel mould broad plates worldwide. During the past years the coatings useful life has been extended by development of special ceramic repair techniques thereby increasing the engineering refurbishment cost justification. Recently the coating has also been applied to 140mm × 300mm sections. Looking forward as more stringent environmental regulations are applied to the steel industry Castcoat will clearly have an important part to play in maximisation of efficient use of copper resources as well as offering an alternative to electroplated coatings whose application process creates waste management issues. Castcoat applications not only protect the "heart" of the casting machine, but provide the operational flexibility that allows known boundaries to be stretched even further. This paper outlines the coating process, lists the properties, discusses the specific benefits experienced by the steel plants and gives Corus Process Engineering's plans to service the Chinese market.