TYPES OF CONTINUOUS CASTERS AND THE QUALITY OF CONTINUOUS-CAST SLABS FOR OBTAINING ROLLED PRODUCTS FOR CRUCIAL APPLICATIONS

摘要

This article examines the production of continuous-cast slabs for the production of thick (thicker than 20 mm) plates used in critical applications. It is shown that the melt needs to be carefully prepared for casting on a continuous caster. When the steel is made in a converter, the pig iron must be desulfurized beforehand and the steel tapped from the furnace must subsequently be treated on ladle-furnace and vacuum-degassing units. It was established that production of high-quality slabs suitable for obtaining critical rolled products can be consistently achieved only through the use of a vertical continuous caster. The bending and unbending which slabs undergo on curvilinear casters and the curved axis of such casters make it very difficult or even impossible to obtain slabs and thick plates that do not have asymmetrically distributed nonmetallic inclusions, axial segregation, and internal and external cracks. The article analyzes the success that the company Severstal' had in rebuilding its vertical slab caster. The project, carried out by TsNIIchermet and the companies ORMET-YuUMZ and Korad, shows that Russian metallurgical science, the metallurgical industry, and the machine-building sector have competitive engineering solutions to offer.