Vertical continuous casting technology for flat and long products

 The initial continuous casting technology adopted the vertical continuous casting machine, which is an important part of the production of steel ingots, which can greatly save operating costs. The arc continuous casting machine is an improved new type continuous casting machine, which plays an increasingly important role because it can further save downstream production costs. But when the production of special steel grades and quality requirements are extremely high, the steel ingot and vertical continuous casting route are retained, and they are still the preferred solution today. Prevention of bending and reduction of straightening force, high cleanliness, uniform and homogeneous slabs or billets produced are all outstanding features of vertical continuous casting technology.

It is very difficult to cast a series of high-critical alloy steels on a traditional arc continuous casting machine. This is because such materials are very strong and sensitive to cracks, which means that such materials can be bent and corrected in the continuous casting machine. The straight area cannot be easily bent from the vertical direction to the horizontal direction. To ensure that it can meet the most stringent quality requirements and the development needs of continuous casting of new steel grades, a steel plant has built a single-stream vertical slab continuous caster with an annual output of 270,000 tons. The continuous caster can continuously cast a wide and highly specialized product range, including high-alloy and ultra-high-alloy carbon steel, special steel and stainless steel. The body of this continuous caster is 40 meters high and the metallurgical length is 13.6 meters. The billet thickness is 150 and 200 mm, and the width is 600 to 1,300 mm. Depending on the steel type and the thickness to be poured, the pulling speed varies from 0.7 to 1.3 m/min.

This unique continuous casting machine adopts the following advanced technology packages and special designs to ensure the reliable operation of the equipment and the production of high-quality slabs:

Butterfly type large bag turntable with independent lifting arm and large bag weighing device; semi-gantry tundish car with trough type tundish and SEN stop rod system; with Mold Expert system, LevCon crystallizer level control system and soft clamp Smart Mold with tight system; DiaFace design of narrow side copper plate, low friction in the mold and uniform heat dissipation; DynaFlex hydraulic vibration table with online adjustment of stroke, frequency and waveform; Intelligent vertical frame and dynamic roll gap light pressure Intelligent sector of the lower system (DynaGap Soft Reduction); rotating roller; DynaJet cooling nozzle; rigid starter bar with bottom feed system; Dynacs dynamic secondary cooling model; flame cutting machine; 1st and 2nd system; sector Replacement system; tilting roller table; billet drawing device, etc.

Typical steel grades that this continuous casting machine can cast include: nickel-based alloys (Incoloy800H, GH3030, GH140); precision alloys (HFNi36, 4J29, 1J50); special stainless steel; wear-resistant steel (20Cr5Cu, etc.); heat-resistant steel (1Cr6Si2Mo, etc.) ; Low magnetic steel

(20Mn23AlV, etc.); tool steel, die steel (T8, T10); structural steel (35CrMo, 42CrMo, 50CrV, etc.).

Vertical continuous casters can cast almost all types of steel, especially those that cannot be cast on arc continuous casters. These special steel grades require the continuous caster to have better flexibility. Through continuous improvement and continuous upgrading of modern process technology, the application of vertical continuous casting technology can be extended to more steel grades and product section specifications, and can improve product quality and production efficiency.