Minimisation of melt spitting during continuous billet casting of low carbon steel

Abstract

Less critical grades of steel for long products are commonly produced from open cast billets. However, melt spitting from the mould is one of the potential safety hazards and may adversely affect the cast steel quality besides upsetting the caster productivity. In the present work, investigations have been carried out in an attempt to minimise the spitting problem during open pour casting. A typical fairly low carbon steel grade has been chosen for the study, as the problem of spitting was more severe for this steel grade as compared with other grades of steel. Influences of some of the relevant operating parameters were considered for investigation, and extent of spitting was quantified by determining the spitting for each case. Among the various variables considered, electromagnetic stirrer position in the mould was found to have the dominating influence. In addition, several other counter measures were adopted, and the spitting problem was minimised significantly.