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CVS MAK NAAAT SAN. ve T C.LTD.
theMill for Minimills
Dilovas Organize Sanayi Bölgesi 3. K m Muallimköy Cad. No:21Gebze 41400 Kocaeli / TÜRK YE
The continuous casting is a process by which, without temporal solution of continuity, the cast
steel is solidified into a semifinished product that has different names, depending on the section
type (bloom, billet, slab, ring, etc.). The steel coming from the steel shop is carried through a
ladle. From the ladle the liquid steel is poured in the tundish, that feeds one or more castingstrands at the same time. From the tundish the steel flows into a water cooled copper moulds,
where the steel starts its solidification process, taking the section shape imposed by the mould.
From the lower part of the mould, the bar is pulled out. Pulling it gradually away from the
mould, the liquid section is reduced progressively due to the cooling and at a certain distance,
where the product is completely solidified, the automatic cutting operations take place, by
thermal or mechanic cutting in the relative stations. During the cooling process there are three
stages at which the steel begins and finishes its solidification process, briefly described below.
STAGE 1 – MOULD COOLING.
It is known as primary cooling and takes place quickly through a direct contact between the
steel, the copper wall and the water. At this stage a first solid steel layer is formed (generally
known as “skin”) with fine and equiaxial crystals. The mould is designed in such a way that the
skin at the outlet of the mould has a homogeneous thickness, able to bear the liquid steel
The rotational electromagnetic stirrer is equivalent to an asyncrhonus motor stator. It isgenerally supplied by a three-phase or sometimes two-phase driver at a given frequency. A
rotating magnetic field is generated, whose variation inside the steel produces eddy currents
that, interacting with the magnetic field, generate a force (Lorentz force). The final result is the
occurrence of a torque that induce the steel rotation.
The generated torque depends on the following factors:
Intensity of current circulating in the stirrer.
Number of windings forming a coil.
Rotating frequency.
System geometry.
These parameters change depending on the stirrer type M-EMS, S-EMS or F-EMS. Within asingle class of stirrers, however, there may be differences depending on the steel grade, the
Internal cracks reduction (Internal and star cracks).
Center line segregation reduction.
Center porosities reduction.
Generally speaking, the casting parameters mutually connected are the following:
Tundish superheat.
Casting speed.
Magnetic field intensity.
The M-EMS also allows to cast with higher superheats with the same speed or increase thespeed with the same superheat maintaining the same steel quality.
The stirrer position must be evaluated depending on casting practice: protected cast or open
stream casting. Protected casting generally requires to lower the stirrer position in order to
reduce the possibility of powder entrapment and the nozzle wear. On the contrary, with open
stream casting the stirrer position can be maintained higher and near the meniscus.
3.2 ELECTROMAGNETIC CHARACTERISTICS
The magnetic induction intensity generated by the mould electromagnetic stirrer inside the
liquid steel depends on the frequency. The presence of a copper crystalizzator generates
reaction currents that tend to reduce the inner magnetic field intensity. It is possible to observe
directly from the Maxwell equations that the electromagnetic torque that generates the stirring,
as a first approximation, has the following functional dependence:
Strand electromagnetic stirrers are used for the following reasons:
Primary solidification structures improvement.
Internal cracks reduction.
Center line segregation reduction.
Center porosities and cavity reduction.
The position of the strand stirrer is chosen according to the metallurgical structure required for
the final solidification. The position is different also in case of high-carbon steels or where a
final electromagnetic stirrer is present. In general the casting variables mutually connected are
identical to the ones described in item 3.1
4.2 ELECTROMAGNETIC CHARACTERISTICS
Strand electromagnetic stirrers present characteristics similar to those mentioned in item 3.2,
referring to mould electromagnetic stirrers. However the absence of copper moves completely
the frequency to higher values, since its electrical conductivity is greatly higher than the steel
conductivity.
Generally for the billets the stirrer supply frequency is set out at 50 Hz, while for the blooms thefrequency decreases to about 20 Hz or less for very big casting sections.
MEMS is generally used as most effective for improving the solidification structure, as it canhelp to break the growing dendritic structure and create more nuclei which are helpful for an
equiaxed structure to be formed. MEMS is anyhow also beneficial for reduction of segregation,
reduction in number of pin holes and blow holes, and improvement on surface and subsurface
quality. MEMS is also effective on centre segregation.
SEMS is active also on centre segregation, reducing the average value and cutting segregation
peaks, although more effective on solidification structure (increase of equiaxed zone) and in
improvement of internal quality (reduction of cracks and center porosity).
FEMS is mainly used against centre/V segregation, is further reducing segregation values and
bringing it to more stable values, with lower differences between minimum and maximum
values. FEMS is also active against centre porosity.
MEMS, SEMS and FEMS can be either used alone, or in combination of two or three of them
(M+S; S+F; M+F; M+S+F), according final quality requirements and possibilities of installation.
Due to different position along the strand, and different amount of liquid still present, also
different effects are deriving from application of one or the other stirring equipment, or their
combination.
In following figures examples of such features are reported.
Typically 100 meters represent the maximum cable length. Anyway when building the plant it is
good to reduce as much as possible this parameter.
The over-voltages play a key role for the duration of the winding, not only because they subject
the insulation to electric stresses at a voltage higher than the nominal machine working voltage,
but also because they promote the partial discharge, by now very known phenomenon for the
PWM drivers (voltage square waves in a variable period). Furthermore, the sudden supply
voltage variation introduces not only the fundamental frequency stress, but also a widerfrequency spectrum stresses. Typically, the insulations can be tested by standard electrical tests
at 50 Hz in sinusoidal regime. On the contrary, due to the different frequencies and high
temperatures generated by intense current densities, their dielectric characteristics may
dramatically change, reducing to values clearly lower than those measured in standard
conditions.
8.2 STIRRER COOLING
The stirrer cooling may be either internal or external to the copper conducting wires. Generally
the second solution is preferred, where the copper windings are directly submerged in a water
circuit under pressure. In order to minimize the ground losses and to increase the stirrer
duration, demineralized water is preferably used.
The insulation water uptake depends on the type of material used and on its working
temperature. By optimizing the insulation material and the insulation manufacturing process, it
is possible to use also industrial water of the same quality as that used in the copper crystallizer
cooling circuit, without compromising the stirrer duration.
For all the reasons described in item 8.1 and 8.2, it has paid particular attention to the copper
winding resin impregnation process, developing a proprietary operational procedure and
optimizing the resin formulation. The performances achievable with this new formulation are
considerably higher than those of the resins available on the market. The final results are then
a resin and an impregnation process able to guarantee:
A longer duration of the windings.
A higher resistance to the voltage transient overshoots.
A high wear resistance due to the micro-particles present in the cooling water.
It is able to design, build, install and start complete stirrer systems for continuous castingmachines for blooms and billets, in accordance with the product qualitative needs.
The design is made through the use of FEM techniques that allow to optimize the product in
accordance with the client’s specific requests.
FEM building of a system consisting of stirrer+ mould + steel.
Visualization of a detail of the magnetic inductionflux lines, for a single electric phase.