Development of Horizontal Continuous Caster for Steel Billet

Nippon Kokan (NKK) installed the test plant in Fukuyama Works to commercialize the holizontal continuous casting process of steel for billet, developed in cooperation with Davy-Loewy Co. (DL), and started the operation test from Nov. in 1978.The various improvements of the Davy-Basic-Process and the additional developments of process technology have been done. That is:1) Use of special refractory made from Si3N4 with dispersed BN for break ring.2) Use of Cr-Zr-Cu alloy for mold material and control of cooling water pressure of mold.3) Adoption of intermittent withdrawal mode with high speed frequency cycle and proper push-back force.These enabled the continuous-continuous and high speed casting operations by the multi-strands. The billets with 115 mm square and 120 to 210 mm rounds, cast by this process were successfully rolled to Dbar, angle, rod bar and seamless pipe.This improved horizontal continuous casting process named "HORICAST" is now used on a commercial base.