9th ECCC European Continuous Casting Conference – ECCC 2017

High requirements on the slab qualities necessitate optimized casting processes and high precise analytical methods. Determination of macro segregation using optical spark emission spectroscopy make possible fine adjustment of soft reduction in order to acquire optimal isotropic properties of hot rolled products. To account for the individual quality characteristics of main steel grade, voestalpine Stahl has established a procedure to optimize the soft reduction setpoints by static casting trials and consecutive investigations of metallographic samples. For such test sequences the soft reduction positions are kept constant (static soft reduction) and the point of final solidification is shifted by changing the casting speed. Samples are cut and investigated using OES-PDA (Optical Emission Spectrometry with Pulse Discrimination Analysis). Utilizing these results the optimum setpoints for soft reduction are determined.