9th ECCC European Continuous Casting Conference – ECCC 2017

With the increasing demand on casting process stability, product quality and output, there is a strong need for advanced mould monitoring techniques. Key subjects are meniscus stability, mould fluid flow and mould temperatures. This paper describes the development and application of Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG) for mould temperature monitoring on a broad face at a slab caster of Tata Steel IJmuiden. The FBG-based system was tested on various steel grades and at casting speeds up to 1.9 m/min. The system proved to be reliable and very useful. In particular, effects of casting process parameters and mould powders were studied. Results were compared to available models. Next steps will include the application of FBG on the narrow faces.