Thin-slab casting leapfrogs strip casting

摘要

Thin-slab casting is a much younger technology than strip casting-but much further along. When Nucor fired up the first large-scale thin-slab caster at Crawfordsville, Ind., in 1989, many steel executives apparently concluded that thin-slab technology was a bird in the hand. Soon after Crawfordsville's startup, U.S. Steel pulled out of a project to develop another thin-slab process sponsored by the Dept. of Energy. "If you look at the proven success of thin-slab casting and the economics of matching steel-production facilities with finishing mills, thin-slab casting looks like a much easier technology" than strip casting, says John H. Bucher, vice president of technology at Lukens Steel.