STRIP CASTING BY THE TWIN-ROLL PROCESS STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT AT THE THYSSEN-STAHL-AG

The continuous casting of steel slabs has reached an advanced stage of development in terms of plant engineering, product quality and economic efficiency in recent years. At present, numerous development projects concentrate on casting processes for the production of near-net-shape strip. The report describes a twin-roll laboratory equipment for strip width up to 150 mm and strip thickness between 0.3 and 3 mm, and discusses some results obtained as well as process specific correlations. In addition to hard and soft carbon steels, the installation has been used to cast mainly electric sheet steel grades with higher Si contents, which are of a particular interest in view of the properties expected. The casting process carried out at a strip speed of 24 to 180 m/min can be properly controlled only by application of a highly developed control technique. The determining influencing variables are pointed out.