Features of the Continuous Casting of Small-Section Billets from Copper-Based Alloys

Abstract

We present a survey of the main specific features of the continuous casting of billets of copper-based alloys with small cross sections. It is possible to significantly increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of production of lengthy semifinished products made of nonferrous alloys either by replacing the process of deformation by continuous casting or by significantly decreasing the cross sections of the billets intended for plastic metal working. It is shown that, for the major part of alloys, the process of upward continuous casting has numerous technological, economic, and metallurgical advantages as compared with other procedures of drawing. We also describe the regularities of solidification of the billets and formation of defects in the course of upward continuous casting, the specific features of design of the mold, the requirements to the properties of the graphitic jacket of the mold, and the characteristics of the modes of casting depending on the properties of the alloys.