STATUS, CAPABILITY AND FURTHER DEVELOPMEN T OF CSP TECHNOLOGY

A total of 11 CSP facilities with a final capacity of 16 million t of hot strip have been either in operation or under construction since mi d 1995. Experts are convinced of the efficiency and the technology of the CSP thin slab casting process, but critics claim that it is not su fficiently versatile in terms of steel grades and strip quality. This article sets forth the performance range and the flexible application possibilities of this still young technology. By maintaining the tempe rature absolutely constant, CSP plants turn out products with a hither to unequalled uniformity of microstructure at a very high degree of th ickness and profile constancy. The energy requirements is - as far as is known - the lowest of all thin slab cast ing methods. The article p resents the key materials data for 10 major classes of steel grades as recorded on CSP plants during regular production or operating tests. For most of these steel groups the CSP process presents advantages. Th e report also describes further developments to optimize the process s tages, such as the geometry of the submerged nozzle, the electromagnet ic brake, liquid core reduction (LCR), hydraulic mould oscillation, hi gh-pressure descal ing, the strip edger before the first rolling stand , as well as the automatic contour and flatness controls in the rollin g mill.