Determining a presence or absence of water in a DC casting starter block : method and direct chill apparatus claims

A Direct Chill (DC) casting equipment (50) comprising

• a casting pit (71),
• a plurality of DC casting molds (10) arranged in the casting pit (71),
• a starter block (15) for each casting mold (10) of the plurality of casting molds (10), wherein each starter block (15) is vertically moveable with respect to the corresponding casting mold (10), and wherein each starter block (15) comprises a cavity (20) having a non-horizontal surface (23) for supporting a cast product,
• a manifold (5) for distributing liquid metal from a reservoir to each of the casting molds (10) of the plurality of casting molds (10),
• a device (D) to determine a presence or absence of water (21) in the cavity (20) of the starter block (15), the device comprising
• a sensor (30) for generating a wave (25), and for detecting a reflected wave (25),
• wherein the sensor (30) is arranged and configured such that the sensor (30) detects the wave (25) that is reflected on a horizontal surface of water (21) in the cavity (20) and does not detect the wave (21) reflected on the non-horizontal surface (23) of the starter block (15),
• a controller (35) configured to determine that water (21) is present in the cavity (20) if the sensor (30) detects the reflected wave (25) and to determine that water (21) is absent in the cavity (20) if the sensor (30) is not detecting the wave (21) while the sensor (30) is generating the wave (25).