The Development of Steel Band Feeding for HSLA Heavy Plates

Abstract

Advanced technology has been developed for the production of HSLA steel heavy plates over 60 mm thick made from concast slabs. This technology provides steel band feeding to the concaster mould liquid pool by a specially designed device. The developed technology is a convenient tool for optimization of the casting macrostructure. Minimization of the axial segregation and heavy plate Z-direction mechanical property improvement were realized even if the reduction ratio was less than 2–3. The ductility in the Z-direction of heavy plates was increased by 15–20%, and the toughness of heavy plates was increased by 1.5–2.0 times. High level yield (97.5–99.5%) was reached for heavy plates by the implementation of steel band feeding on the basis of ultrasonic tests using European standard SEL 072 class 1–2. Therefore, steel band feeding is an appropriate alternative to soft reduction and electromagnetic stirring technologies for heavy HSLA steel plates.