What Is Continuous Casting Machine?

Continuous casting is the process of continuously casting high-temperature molten steel into billets with certain section shape and size.

The equipment needed to complete this process is called continuous casting complete equipment. The mechanical and electrical hydraulic integration of steel casting equipment, caster body equipment, cutting area equipment, dummy bar collection and conveying equipment constitutes the core equipment of continuous casting steel, which is commonly called continuous caster.

The high-temperature molten steel is continuously poured into one or a group of water-cooled copper crystallizers, and the molten steel gradually solidifies into the shell along the periphery of the crystallizer. When the liquid level of the steel rises to a certain height and the shell solidifies to a certain thickness, the tension leveler will pull out the billet, and the billet will be completely solidified by spray cooling in the secondary cooling area. The cutting device will cut the billet to a certain length according to the rolling requirements. The process of making high-temperature molten steel directly cast into billet is called continuous casting.

Its appearance has fundamentally changed the ingot rolling process, which has been dominant for a century. Because it simplifies the production process, improves the production efficiency and metal yield, and saves energy consumption, the production cost is greatly reduced, and the billet quality is good. At present, in steel-making enterprises, whether it is long process steel-making or short process steel-making, the configuration of continuous casting machine is almost inevitable.

Classification of the continuous casting machine

Continuous casters can be classified in many forms. According to the structure and shape, the caster can be divided into vertical caster, vertical bending caster, arc caster with straight section, arc caster, multi radius elliptical caster and horizontal caster. With the development of continuous casting technology, the research of wheel caster, especially thin slab caster, has been carried out.

According to the size and shape of the section cast by the caster, the caster can be divided into slab caster, billet caster, bloom caster, round billet caster, special section caster and thin slab caster. The rectangular billet caster is also included in the square billet caster. Generally, the billets with casting section or equivalent sectional area greater than 200 × 200 mm are called bloom, the billets with section or equivalent sectional area less than 160 × 160 mm are called billet, and the rectangular billets with width thickness ratio greater than 3 are called slab.

If the continuous casting machine can be divided into single flow, double flow or multi flow continuous casting machines according to the number of billet flow that can be cast under the same ladle.

Composition of continuous caster

Generally, the continuous caster is composed of liquid steel carrier (ladle, rotary table), tundish and its replacement device, mould and its vibration device, secondary cooling area clamping roller and cooling water system, pulling straightener, cutting equipment, dummy bar device, etc.

The tundish plays the role of buffering and purifying the molten steel. The capacity of tundish is generally 20% - 40% of the capacity of ladle. The more the flow number of caster is, the larger its capacity is. The mold is the "heart" of the continuous casting machine, which requires good thermal conductivity, structural rigidity, wear resistance and easy to manufacture and maintain. It is generally made of forged copper or cast brass, and its outer wall is forced to cool evenly by water.

The function of the mould vibration device is to make the mould vibrate periodically, so as to prevent the bonding between the primary shell and the mould wall from being broken. The vibration curve generally changes according to the sinusoidal law to reduce the impact. Its amplitude and frequency should be closely matched with the pulling speed to ensure the quality and output of the slab.

The secondary cooling device is installed at the outlet of the mould, which can accelerate the solidification of the slab and control the temperature of the slab by means of water spray or atomization cooling. The pinch roll and guide roll support the high-temperature billet with liquid core to prevent bulging deformation or internal crack. At the same time, the liquid core reduction technology can be carried out in this section to improve the quality and output of the billet. The water pressure and water volume of the secondary cooling device are required to be adjustable to meet the needs of different steel grades and different pulling speeds.

The function of the straightening machine is to provide the power of drawing billet and straighten the bent billet, and to push the cutting device to move. The speed of drawing billet has a great influence on the output and quality of the continuous casting. The function of the dummy device is to plug the lower mouth of the mould with the dummy head before the start of continuous casting, pull the billet out of the caster after the solidification of the molten steel, then disconnect the dummy head, and put the dummy bar into the storage device.

The billet cutting equipment can cut the continuously moving billet into a fixed length. The commonly used cutting equipment is flame cutter or hydraulic shear and swing shear.

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