New designs for stopper-free steel casting: slide gates, refractories, technology

Abstract

New developments for continuous pouring of steel are considered, including slide gates, refractories, promising technologies, etc. A comparative analysis of the designs of domestic and foreign manufacturers is given and the basic operating characteristics and criteria for the selection of refractory slabs for slide gates are presented. The latest developments from NPP Vulkan-TM related to the creation of equipment for continuous casting of steel are considered.The widespread application of the method of continuous-continuous casting and highly durable refractory materials has greatly increased the requirements imposed on the rate of turn-over of teeming ladles and for reduced service times and has entailed the use of modern slide casting systems to enable increases in the level of automation of the processes involving in casting of metal and reductions in the unit costs for these processes. To solve this problem it is necessary to select an efficient design of a slide valve system and arrive at an optimal choice of the consumable refractory set. From an analysis of the evolution of the development of slide valve systems it becomes possible to formulate the requirements that have to be imposed on the new generation of slide valve systems to achieve highly productive multiple-strand continuous seal casting:-multipoint spring-actuated mechanism for uniform compression of refractory slabs; -elevated lifetime of components and parts of the system; -the presence of a system for clamping of the refractory slabs;-minimization of the human factor in operation of the system; -rapidity and ease of replacement of refractory materials. The use of modern designs enables us to achieve a high degree of uniformity in the application of a clamping force to refractory slabs, ensure their automatic adjustment, compensate for cyclic thermal expansions and wear of the refractory Fig. 1. Models of slide gates from foreign manufacturers corresponding to modern requirements: a) cartridge-type gate with independent sliders from the firm of Vesuvius (Austria); b) cartridge-type equalizing-type gate from NPO Doniks (Ukraine).