Apparatus for continuous strip casting
AssigneeNucor Corporation
InventorsAndrew Edward Dixon, Gary McQuillis, Rama Ballav Mahapatra, Leigh Wolley
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for continuously casting thin strip includes a caster having a pair of casting rolls having a nip there between capable of delivering cast strip downwardly from the nip and an first enclosure capable of forming a protective atmosphere into which the strip can be formed in loop to extend over a plurality of rollers into pinch rolls with the strip having a strain of less than 0.4%, which may be provided by a plurality of rollers at entry of the strip into the pinch rolls to carry the strip into the pinch rolls, with at least a first entry roller having a diameter between 200 and 650 millimeters and being below a majority of other rollers.
Claims8
An apparatus for continuously casting thin strip comprising:
- a. a caster having a pair of counter-rotated casting rolls having a nip there between capable of delivering cast strip downwardly from the nip,
- b. a metal delivery system capable of forming a casting pool supported on casting surfaces of the casting rolls above the nip with side dams adjacent ends of the nip to confine the casting pool,
- c. a first enclosure beneath the casting capable of forming a protective atmosphere into which the strip can be delivered from the casting rolls to form a loop, then onto a roller table and through counter rotating pinch rolls,
- d. at least one device capable of determining the strain in the cast strip in at least two locations selected from the group consisting of a location adjacent the nip, a location adjacent bottom portions of the loop, and a location adjacent entry to the roller table, and
- e. a control system capable of comparing the determined strains and controlling loop height, rotation of the casting rolls and rotation of the pinch rolls to maintain the strain in the strip in the first enclosure below a predetermined value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.