Continuous casting of steel strips

Continuous strip casting processes are designed to produce strip with a thickness of between 1 and 10 mm, from a ladle of liquid steel fed by otherwise conventional refining or melting processes. They are based on the use of a moving-wall ingot mould consisting of one or two casting rolls (also known as rou-leaux, wheels or ferrules) on which the liquid steel solidifies, forming a skin which follows the roll as it rotates, and is detached from it by thermal contraction and the interplay of moments and forces.

Despite the abundance of documentary sources, we cannot hope to extract all the information needed to write a synthesis of the state of the art in continuous casting of thin products, as the publication policies of the main players in progress in this field have been very diverse, the most active among them often being the most discreet in the technical literature. Much of the technology is therefore still in the form of know-how, or remains hidden in the abundant production of patents, which it is not possible to unravel in the context of an article such as this. The writing of this chapter therefore presented particular difficulties, since some of the key assets of this new technology have yet to be revealed. The results are therefore only indicative. For further information, please refer to the bibliographical references cited.

After a brief presentation of continuous strip casting, based on geometrical considerations concerning roll dimensions and the method of feeding liquid steel into the ingot mould space, the various components of the — technology are presented in greater detail, insofar as they have been described in the literature. Productivity is discussed in the "Further reading" section at the end of this article.