Horizontal single belt casting of ferrous and non-ferrous metals

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The Horizontal Single Belt Casting (HSBC) process is a new option available for the Near-Net Shape Casting of steel and aluminium strips for sheet making operations. It provides for the friction-free, unconstrained solidification of a horizontal slab or strip of alloy, followed by in-line rolling down to final gauge sheet. At our Stinson Laboratories where the McGill Metals Processing Centre melting and casting equipment have been re-located, a pilot-scale HSBC caster is successfully producing AA6111 aluminium alloy strips. It is now being upgraded to cast new grades of High Strength, High Ductility Steels (HSHD). These are being intensively researched, globally. As these new grades of HSHD steels represent a new era for steelmakers, being at least twice the strength of regular steels, with much greater ductility prior to failure (~+65-100%), they can be used as thinner sections to lightweight cars, and/or to significantly strengthen critical components. We will work in parallel on the HSBC machine on these two metals, extending our expertise gained in casting aluminum alloys, to equivalent steel alloy systems. We will continue with our temperature-time measurements, modelling the first 20-30 milleseconds of initial contact of liquid metals and alloys with a cooling sub-surface. This determines the bottom surface quality of the strip. Similarly, we intend to determine the effects of various gaseous atmospheres on the surface quality of the upper surface of thin strips being formed, and to measure the various properties and characteristics of the HSHD steels, 5XXX, and 6XXX series Al alloys being produced. To optimize the melt casting on a water cooled belt, moving at 0.5-1.5 m/s, we intend to mathematically model various liquid metal delivery systems, using computational fluid dynamics, and to compare predictions against our experimental casting work. To enhance the iso-kinetic feeding of metal that is needed for obtaining an ideal cast slab structure and properties, we will explore the possibility of designing electromagnetic braking to ensure that all the liquid metal moves at the belt speed. Finally, we intend to develop a fully predictive model of the HSBC system for aluminum and steel melts, that can be used for design purposes, and scale-up.