Entrapment of non-metallic inclusions

The final stage of steelmaking is casting. Refractory shrouds are used during casting to prevent
atmospheric exposure and therefore allow reactions to occur between oxygen and alloying
elements in the molten steel resulting in inclusions being formed. Other practices are also used
during casting which actively promote the removal of inclusions from the steel, thereby
improving steel cleanness:

Electromagnetic slag detection in the exit port from the steelmaking ladle is used to prevent ladle
top slag being carried over into the tundish and entrained in the inclusion population; as the steel
level in the ladle falls during casting, there is a chance of ladle top slag being entrained in the
steel flow through the exit port. If this happens the magnetic flux measured by detector coils
changes and sends as signal which shuts off the steel flow from the ladle.

'Tundish Furniture' is used to generate steel flows in the caster tundish which promote inclusion
removal to the tundish powder layer, with a steel cleaning effect; dams and weirs are commonly
used to set up steel flows across the steel / tundish powder interface. By doing this, the distance
which an inclusion must travel to float out of the steel and be captured in the tundish powder is
reduced, thereby promoting steel cleaning.

Flow from the tundish to the mould is controlled via a stopper rod or sliding gate mechanism
which is linked to the metal lever detector in the mould. This stream is also shrouded by a
refractory tube which is carefully designed to optimise flow conditions in the mould and promote
conditions for any further inclusion flotation.

Select different liquid steel feed rates to the tundish from the ladle to investigate the effect on the
possibility of generating non-metallic inclusions in the final steel product.

• The results of sampling at different pouring speeds can be copied and pasted into
spreadsheet applications.
• The micros are generated from the calculated size distributions - they provide a good
visualization of the importance of pouring speed.
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