Developments in continuous casting at macro steel mills and future outlook

摘要

The continuous casting process for steel has achieved phenomenal success over the last three decades of industrialization. There remain, however, some problems that should be overcome to make the process a complete success to meet ever-advancing demands of downstream processing. Important developments in the continuous casting at macro mills are critically reviewed in terms of machine, operation, maintenance, automatization and fundamentals involved. Emphasis is placed on the technological and economical impacts of the developments on the productivity and integrity of the process and the quality of the products. The remaining problems are addressed, and possible future direction of the developments is discussed by taking into account the changing climate of steel industry.