9th ECCC European Continuous Casting Conference – ECCC 2017

Since pilot slab caster was operted in 2003 at POSCO, many casting tests were performed in this caster. Because this facility with a heat size of 23 tons is nearly half scale of the actual caster, advanced casting technologies have beed developed and applied in commercial caster. One of these technologies is high-speed casting. Design concepts of segment and cooling sytem, operation conditions in high-speed caster are realized in the pilot caster. Maximum casting speed of our conventional and thin slab caster reached at 2.7 m/min and 8.0 m/min, respectively. Heavy reduction process for minimizing center segregation and shrinkage cavity significantly is new technology developed by POSCO. The specially designed segment and in-roll EMS (Electro Magnetic Stirrer), the core facilities of heavy reduction process, were tested at the pilot caster and implemented at 3-1 slab caster to produce heavy plates at Kwangyang steel works. Recently, casting technology for high maganese steel grade have been developed at pilot slab caster. In this presentation, it will be reviewed the experiences obtained during 14 years operations at pilot slab caster. The advanced casting technologies will also be discussed based on the results at both pilot slab caster and commercial caster.