Steel casting and molding - Case studies

The aim of this article is to give some practical examples of how cast steels are made. It follows on from the previous articles "Evolution of manufacturing processes", "Smelting furnaces", "Main metallurgical operations", "Secondary Metallurgy" to which he refers.

The examples given describe the practical procedures commonly used in the foundry industry to produce carbon steels, low-alloy steels, stainless steels, particularly low-carbon steels, and special alloys such as nickel bases. Particular attention has been paid to the control of gas contents (nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen) in liquid steel, a field which has seen considerable development in recent years, notably with the measurement of contents directly in the melting furnace, opening up new avenues for optimizing material compactness and performance. With regard to induction furnace processing, recent pneumatic stirring technologies have made it possible to carry out certain metallurgical operations that were previously reserved for arc furnaces alone. Significant progress has also been made in the production of stainless steels and special alloys, with the implementation of high-performance metallurgical processes incorporating vacuum technology and the principles of gas dilution using neutral or active gases.