Ladle Nozzle Clogging during casting of Silicon-Steel

Abstract

To figure out the reason causing ladle nozzle clogging during a continuous casting process (or CC for short) for the silicon steel and get away to solve it, this paper studied the theoretical calculation of flow rates during casting, inclusions around the slide gate where ladle nozzle clogging happened, and Ca-treatment on refining units for producing the silicon steel. The results showed that: The bigger diameter of a nozzle or less nozzle clogging can guarantee an enough flow rate for reaching the target casting speed. Ladle nozzle clogging can be predicted by analyzing the percentage of a slide gate being opened. Al2O3 and its composite inclusions were the main ones which cause the nozzle clogging during the CC process of the silicon steel. Ca-treatment could transform those high melting point inclusions into C12A7 by adding Si-Ca wires and prevent the ladle nozzle clogging of the silicon steel.

Keywords

• ladle nozzle
• clogging
• non-oriented silicon steel
• casting