Why develop horizontal continuous casting technology?
Compared with traditional arc continuous casting, horizontal continuous casting has the following advantages:
(1) Because of the horizontal arrangement of equipment, low fuselage and low height requirement of the workshop, the investment in capital construction is less.
(2) The quality of the slab is high. Because the tundish is closely connected with the mold during billet drawing, the secondary oxidation of molten steel is prevented, and the level of molten steel in the tundish is higher, which is conducive to the floatation of inclusions, so as to improve the cleanliness of steel. According to statistics, the inclusion content in horizontal continuous casting steel is generally about 1/5 of that in arc continuous casting steel. Oxygen content in the horizontal billet is about 1/4 of that in arc billet because of no secondary oxidation in sealed casting. In addition, the slab is not bent, no straightening internal crack, no bulging looseness and so on. Especially in horizontal continuous casting, the heat conduction of the mold concentrates on the front end. No water spraying is needed after the slab is out of the mould. The surface quality of the slab is good and it is suitable for the casting of high alloy steel.
(3) It can directly cast into small billets, even billets of several millimeters so the final product can be obtained with the minimum rolling ratio, which greatly shortens the process flow.
(4)Safety and reliability are good. Due to the horizontal arrangement of equipment, once the leakage happens, the subsequent equipment will be less burned, and the accident site will be easy to clean up, so normal production can be restored as soon as possible.
At present, horizontal continuous casting is suitable for the production of small cross-section slabs in medium and small steel mills and electric furnaces.
