Flow Control in the Thin Slab Mould at the Corus Direct Sheet Plant

Abstract

Thin slab casting forms the most important development in continuous casting of the past two decades. Within a short period of time the technology developed into a serious alternative for conventional slab casting, both with respect to productivity and product quality. Corus implemented the technology in its Direct Sheet Plant (DSP) enabling the production of thin-gauged coils. The development of thin slab casting technology has not come to an end yet. Further increase in productivity can be expected still respecting high quality standards. The control of the mould fluid flow is one of the key technologies for thin slab casting. Here not only the (complex) design of the submerged entry nozzle is important. A strong interaction exists with the shaping of the funnel mould and the layout of the electromagnetic brake (EMBR). Modern physical and numerical modelling techniques enable a detailed design study of all aspects of the process. This resulted in a new design of the EMBR for the DSP thin slab caster, based on a multi-pole approach. One pole is controlling the symmetry of the flow, where another two poles control the speed of the liquid steel in the meniscus area. By using this technology the operational window can be enlarged significantly without deterioration of the situation in the mould.