What is a continuous casting machine?

What is a continuous casting machine? Continuous casting machine is short for Continuous Steel Casting Machine.

Continuous casting is an intermediate link between steelmaking and rolling, an integral part of the metallurgical process, and an important part of a steelmaking plant.

The production process of continuously casting high-temperature molten steel into a slab with a certain cross-sectional shape and a certain size is called continuous steel casting. The equipment required to complete this process is called continuous casting equipment. Electromechanical-hydraulic integration of casting equipment, continuous casting machine body equipment, cutting area equipment, dummy bar collection and conveying equipment, billet straightening device, billet discharge (raceway) device, cutting device, turning cooling bed, and other major equipment. It is composed of continuous casting of liquid molten steel into a continuous casting billet and then cut into the required length by a cutting system, which is customarily called a continuous casting machine.

It is able to pour molten steel at a high temperature of more than 1500 degrees Celsius into a refractory-lined intermediate tank above the crystallizer, and then cool it through a crystallizer (the inner wall of which can be cooled by water to protect itself), and then crystallizes. After the exit of the machine, the end of the steel cooled into a solid state is clamped and pulled, and the whole set of continuous casting machinery equipment for continuous casting of the billet is cast.

The molten steel flows into the tundish continuously, is mixed and divided by the tundish, and then injected into the mold for cooling and solidification, so as to obtain an infinitely long slab. The cut slab can be directly used for steel rolling production.

When the metal cools slightly, it goes into a mold and is further shaped by rolling it. As the metal moves, the metal is cooled to ensure its shape does not change.

The metal is moving throughout the process, so it is often difficult to make complex shapes with a continuous caster.

People take a drill and start casting with a continuous caster, and the metal is placed in a ladle.

The metal may have been melted in a large furnace, or the ladle was heated and melted. A small tap allows the metal to enter the tundish, which is a larger bowl in the casting machine.

Tapping is used to preventing the metal from flowing too fast, and the tap can be turned off if the tundish is full. The molten metal will cool slightly in the tundish for easy casting.

The larger taps in the tundish allow the metal to enter the die. This is the part of the continuous caster used to shape the metal into its final shape, although technically the metal is still molten at this stage.

The pressure of the machine keeps the metal flowing from the tundish to the die, which makes the process continuous. Rollers are used after the die to further shape and push the molten metal.

These usually keep the metal straight as the roll is cooled and under the action of the water it will start to cool and solidify the metal.

At this point, the caster finishes processing the metal and pulls it out of the machine. The setup of the continuous casting machine means that the casting has to be very simple. This machine usually only makes strands, wires, and straight shapes because they are easy to form and manufacture continuously.
Complex shapes, such as faucets or machine parts, are difficult to cast continuously because the machine must stop to finish casting.

What are the continuous casting machine’s advantages?

The production process is simplified, and the moulding, moulding, ingot soaking, and billeting processes of the die casting process are omitted, the capital investment can be saved by 40%, the floor space can be reduced by 30%, and the operating cost can be saved by 40%. Material consumption can be reduced by 15%;
The metal yield is improved, the loss of cutting head and tail of the billet is greatly reduced, and the metal yield can be increased by about 9%;
The energy consumption in the production process is reduced, the power consumption of the soaking furnace for ingot blanking can be saved, and the energy consumption can be reduced by 1/4 to 1/2;
Improve the mechanization and automation level of the production process.