The remelting behavior of the hot-work tool steel X37CrMoV5-1 is investigated with several experimental melts on a lab-scale ESR-plant. The investigated parameters comprise a variation of the slag compositions and the use of a protective nitrogen atmosphere. Variations of the slag composition include slags with different contents of CaF 2 , CaO, and Al 2 O 3 as well as a variation of the SiO 2content in the slag. The remelted ingots are forged and analyzed regarding their chemical composition. The distribution and composition of the non-metallic inclusions (NMI) is studied by an automated SEM-EDX method. Additionally, the chemical composition of the slag after remelting is analyzed. The results show clearly an equilibrium reaction between Si and Al in the steel with SiO 2 and Al 2 O 3 in the slag as well as the effect of oxygen in open ESR operation. A protective atmosphere reduces the Si-losses during remelting, but has no major effect on the number or composition of NMI compared to open remelting. The content of NMI, especially the larger ones, is reduced significantly in all remelting experiments. The majority of the NMI are MA-spinel type except for the CaO-free slag, where alumina inclusions prevail. In general, remelting leads to an almost complete removal of sulfides, a reduction of oxisulfides, and a slight increase of oxides.
N x represents the weighted mole fraction of the different slag components.
Thin slab casting and direct rolling technologies became important for hot strip production to increase the productivity, to lower the investment costs and to increase the energy efficiency. The main objective of our investigation is to gain a better understanding of the microstructural evolution starting from solidification through to the final hot rolled sheet. Small ingots were cast and direct rolled and reheated and rolled, using a thermomechanical testing machine. The differences in the recrystallization kinetics during both production routes were measured using double hit hot compression tests. In addition, multipass deformation trials were performed to reveal differences in the resulting microstructure and the grain size homogeneity. It was found, that the coarse initial microstructure before rolling become negligible after three rolling passes. This means that despite the simple and economical direct rolling similar mechanical strip properties can be obtained in comparison to conventional strip production routes.
Electroslag remelting (ESR) is a well-established secondary refining process for many steels and Ni-base alloys with highest requirements regarding material properties. The main purposes are a dense solidification of ingots with a low degree of segregation as well as the reduction of medium-sized and especially complete removal of large nonmetallic inclusions (NMI). The specific energy consumption of ESR is documented in the range from 880 to over 2000 kWh t À1 . [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Rising requirements regarding sustainability, emission control, and environmental protection have triggered new awareness for this topic. [4,8,9] Besides plant geometry and design, the customarily CaF 2 -based slag plays the key role in the heat generation and energy consumption of ESR. Key properties are the melting point as well as the electrical and thermal conductivity. [2,10] Other factors such as fill ratio and the amount of slag, or the melt rate can also have a strong effect. [4,8,[11][12][13][14][15][16] According to Holzgruber, [16] rising fill ratios up to 0.4 lead to a reduction in specific energy consumption due to a better heat transfer into the electrode and less radiation losses at the free slag surface. A further increase in fill ratio surprisingly resulted in a reversed trend due to changing immersion depths. Results from Li et al., [14] both laboratory scale and industrial size, demonstrate the strong effects of fill ratio (0.24 and 0.6) and electrical conductivity on the specific energy consumption with values below 1000 kWh t À1 at higher fill ratios combined with low or no CaF 2 -containing slags. CaF 2 -free slags in Brückmann and Schwerdtfeger [17] confirmed their particular advantage in specific energy consumption with values below 1000 kWh t À1 .There are only few reports of systematic research on energy consumption in ESR on the industrial scale. A recent investigation with a wider variation of slags is documented in refs. [5][6][7], and confirms an almost linear increase with electrical conductivity. A similar but less pronounced increase is reported in Jäger and Kühnelt [18] for slag composition with a wide variety of CaF 2 contents and a significantly higher fill ratio. A recent summary on the different effects of the fill ratio and the electrical conductivity on the specific energy consumption can be found in Schneider et al., [4] indicating that the energy consumption data from laboratory scale
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