Saarstahl AG, Völklingen, Germany:

G. Ney, Eng., Head of Section of the Continuous Casting, gerhard.ney@saarstahl.com

K. Harste, Dr.Eng., Chairman of the Board

K.-J. Richter, Dr.Eng., Head of Production of Liquid Steel

U. Reinstädtler, Engineer of optimize the oxygen-converter smelting

S. Wagner, Eng., Head of Production S2/S3

E. Korte, Dr.Eng., Head of Technology of Steelmaking

R. Thome, Head of Innovation in Continuous Casting

SMS Concast AG, Zurich, Switzerland:

S. Feldhaus, Dr.Eng., Managing Director of the Group

A. N. Grundy, Dr.Nat., Eng., Metallurgy and Processes

Saarstahl AG is one of the world’s leading suppliers of long products of unalloyed and alloyed quality and high-grade steels. Traditionally the company is at the forefront of casting technologies for products with the highest demands on quality. In order to increase this technological lead and to achieve improvements both with respect to the quality of the products as well as to increase the flexibility and capacity of the production an investment was made in a new five-strand bloom caster, termed S3. The S3 is equipped to cast 240 mm·240 mm and 265 mm·340 mm blooms with lengths of 3.0 to 12.5 m. 25 months after awar ding the contract for building the new caster S3 the first heat was cast in September 2009. The following paper outlines the main features of the caster and presents metallurgical results. Location of equipment at LD steel works of Saarstahl AG in Völklingen is shown, schematic comparison of the withdrawal straightening units of the S3 and the S1 casters are presented. Surface quali ty results and straightening temperatures for the casters S1 and S3 are compared. Production ramp up curve of these casters is analyzed since July 2009, taking into account relining of the blast furnace. Production spectrum of the  caster S3 during 2010 included 60% of alloyed steels, 22% of non-alloyed steels, 13% of free-cutting steels, 3% of bearing steels, 1% of spring steels etc.

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