Slab die-casting

The liquid steel is usually transferred to the ingot moulds by gravity, either from the chute (top filling) or from the spring (bottom filling).

In this process, the entire ladle is placed in a vessel under compressed air pressure. The liquid steel is then forced through a refractory tube into a slab-shaped graphite mold above (figure 1 ).

The value of the compressed air pressure in the chamber can be adjusted at any time, according to a function whose variable is the height of the steel in the mold.

This makes it possible to precisely control a fundamental parameter: casting speed.

The water-cooled graphite mold, lined with a sprayed-on refractory layer, allows the choice and control of solidification speed.

This gives us a glimpse of the added value of this process compared with ingot mold casting, and how it can be differentiated from continuous casting in the case of special steels.