The Sectors Workpieces and Drum Reel’s Die Cubes Electroslag Casting with Exothermic Electrical Conductive Fluxes

Abstract

It has been established that the developed method of manufacturing workpieces for the sectors of the drums of X20CrMoWV3 steel reel’s and die cubes from X5CrNiMo steel using a solid start and exothermic flux significantly reduces the complexity of their manufacture. The cast reel’s drum sectors workpieces and die cubes, obtained by the electroslag remelting (ESR) method, had a smooth surface without corrugations, sinkers, and slag inclusions. Heat treatment provides the required mechanical properties and the absence of flocs in the cast electroslag metal. An effective way to increase the performance of electroslag processes is using the exothermic flux, which contain scale, ferroalloys, aluminum powder and standard flux (welding flux ISO 14174 – S F AF3, etc.) in quantities sufficient for the exothermic reactions to occur, which ensures the generation of additional heat in the starting period of electroslag processes and contributes to the accelerated induction of the slag bath of the required volume at the “solid” start both monofilar and bifilar schemes of conducting the process instead of the “liquid” start. Electroslag processes using an exothermic alloyed flux on a “hard” start allow to obtain (compared to existing methods of slag bath formation) an increasing in the output of a suitable metal 2...10 %; saving on melting 1 kg of standard flux 1.2...1.4 kW h; reducing of the starting time of the ESR process to 25 %.