The Status of Twin Roll Strip Casting Process for Steel Strip in POSCO/RIST

摘要

The aim of strip casting process is to produce the hot strip directly from melt, which can reduce the manufacturing costs by eliminating the hot rolling process. This process in the steel industries has already proven the feasibility for several grades of stainless and carbon steels and the first commercial caster began its operation. Due to the potential of this process, steel industries are expected to being changed drastically in the near future. POSCO (Pohang Iron & Steel Company Ltd.) and its technical research and development arm, RIST (Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology), have been developing a thin strip casting process since 1989. Two prototype twin-roll strip casters were built at the POSCO's Pohang Works on a pilot plant scale. The production-size caster can produce coils of 13-metric-ton cast strip with a width of 1,300 mm and a typical thickness range of 1.8 to 6mm. Through a number of casting trials with both pilot casters, we are now completing the development of twin-roll strip casting process successfully on a pilot scale after the suitability of the process for the production of sheets for some specific steel grades were verified in viewpoints of productivity and quality. This paper describes the engineering aspects of pilot strip casters, operational overview of casting trials, key technologies, quality aspects of products and future plan for POSCO/RIST strip casting process.