Continuous casting production process: High-temperature molten steel is continuously poured into one or more water-cooled copper crystallizers. The molten steel gradually solidifies into a billet shell along the perimeter of the crystallizer. Once the molten steel level reaches a certain height and the billet shell has solidified to a certain thickness, a straightening machine pulls the billet out. The billet then passes through a secondary cooling zone where water spraying ensures complete solidification. Finally, a cutting device cuts the billet to the required length according to rolling requirements. This process of directly pouring high-temperature molten steel into billets is called continuous casting. Its emergence fundamentally changed the steel ingot-rolling process that had dominated for a century. Due to its simplified production process, increased production efficiency and metal yield, energy savings leading to significantly reduced production costs, and high-quality billets, it has rapidly developed. In modern steelmaking enterprises, whether using long-process or short-process steelmaking, the use of continuous casting machines has become almost indispensable.
The production process of continuously casting high-temperature molten steel into billets with a specific cross-sectional shape and size is called continuous casting.
The equipment required to complete this process is called a complete continuous casting system. The electromechanical-hydraulic integration of steel casting equipment, continuous casting machine body equipment, cutting area equipment, and dummy bar collection and conveying equipment constitutes the core equipment of continuous steel casting, which is conventionally referred to as a continuous casting machine.