Metallographic problems of the production of parts from continuously cast high-speed steels

Abstract

It has been assumed until recently that high-speed steels cannot be produced by the method of continuous casting. Numerous attempts to use this highly efficient technology for manufacturing such steels have failed because of breakage of the cast preforms. A solution was sought in improving the design of the continuous-casting machines (CCM), increasing the level of their automation, and using rational compositions of slag-forming mixtures (SFM). The idea was that a high-speed steel can be cast only in vertical CCM. The present work concerns regimes of secondary cooling under which the structures formed in high-speed steels provide a ductility sufficient for bending the continuously cast preform without failure. Steel R6M5 cast continuously in such a machine can easily be machined into hot-rolled preforms for sheets, wire, silver-steel rods, and other final products without a forging stage.