Vertical Direct Chill Casting of Magnesium Alloys - Especially for Extrusion Billet

A discussion on vertical direct chill casting of magnesium alloys for extrusion billets is presented. Direct chill (DC) casting is a prerequisite for cost competitive processing of aluminum and metal sheets and extrusion products, but is still not widely available for magnesium alloys. This was the major task for the development of vertical direct chill casting process for magnesium alloys. The research and development work concentrated on safety issues, easy casting operations by remote control, high productivity, and high quality products. With the successful development of DC casting unit MAGNUMCAST, an important step for increasing the use of magnesium wrought products has been made.