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Melting, Remelting, and Casting for Clean Steel

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REVIEW
Melting, Remelting, and Casting for Clean Steel
John Campbell

The control of the metallurgy of steels is now highly developed. This is in contrast to the
casting techniques for steels. Although continuous casting is generally conducted well,
current ingot casting techniques are poor, unnecessarily introducing masses of oxides. For
some steel compositions, double oxide films, bifilms, are entrained. This mechanism,
occurring naturally during pouring, but till now generally overlooked, appears to be
capable of explaining most of the features of steel defects in all their forms. For most Ni
alloys and some steels it appears capable of generating a dense population of cracks,
greatly impairing subsequent mechanical working and even final properties. In other steels
the effects are much less severe. The techniques to avoid this damage to liquid steels and
Ni alloys are described, including contact pouring, and naturally pressurized filling system
designs. An ultimate system is counter gravity casting. For remelting processes, the risks
of unreliability because of cracks intrinsic to VIM and VAR are discussed for both shop floor
production and laboratory research. The potential crack-free properties of ESR when
correctly made are recommended. Even so, remelting processes might constitute an
unnecessary luxury if steels and Ni alloys were cast to avoid the entrainment of oxides.

1. Introduction As an aside, it is important for the reader to realize that

Vast resources have been poured into the development of
steels for over one hundred years. The subject has
therefore reached some degree of maturity, especially
for the new ladle refining processes and for those steels
produced by continuous casting.[1] However, all of our
current bulk steel casting processes suffer turbulence in
the form of air entrainment and mixing in the liquid during
pouring to some extent. Continuous casting methods all
have a well-known series of vulnerable entrainment
locations,[1] but these are generally much less damaging
than those experienced during ingot casting, which is still
widely used for special steels and nickel alloys. This paper
is an evaluation of the serious issues introduced by
turbulence mechanisms, and attempts to explain the
consequences for both cleanness and properties.
Steelmakers may be surprised to see that the paper also
includes consideration of Ni-based alloys; the special
advantages of steels are only highlighted when contrasted
with the behavior of their cousins, the Ni-base alloys. In
addition to continuous casting and ingot casting, impor-
tant lessons from shape casting of steels and Ni alloys are
valuable and are included here.
[
] J. Campbell
Emeritus Professor of Casting Technology, Department of Metallurgy
and Materials, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
Email: jc@campbelltech.co.uk
DOI: 10.1002/srin.201600093
“turbulence” in this paper refers to “surface turbulence”
assessed by the dimensionless Weber Number, We. The
turbulence beneath the surface of the liquid, which I call
“bulk turbulence,” assessed by Reynolds Number, Re, is
largely not relevant to most of the issues described here.[2]
2. Background
During the turmoil of pouring of a liquid metal, random
collisions between droplets and waves cause the surface
oxide films on the liquid to impinge. An analogous action
occurs during the folding over of the liquid surface. The
two surfaces come together, dry oxide to dry oxide, thus
forming an interface between two stable oxide films, but
with no bonding between them. The double film, known
for convenience as a bifilm, is submerged, resembling a
crack in suspension in the liquid. During a turbulent pour,
the liquid metal is thereby filled with cracks (Figure 1).
This entrainment of the surface oxide film is the
mechanism by which reoxidation of the steel occurs, but
has been curiously overlooked till now. In contrast, the
mechanism is well known and has been carefully studied
in many different alloy systems, including those based on
Mg, Al, Cu, and Ni. Other interesting developments of this
approach extend to an explanation of the morphologies of
flake and nodular cast irons.[2,3]
The entrainment of the surface leads to bifilm creation.
Also, of course, in very severe turbulence of the surface,

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REVIEW

Figure 1. The formation of bifilms during turbulence of the surface

of liquid steel.

pockets of air can be entrained, as air bubbles. The only

difference between bifilms and bubbles is the amount of
air which each contains. Also, small bubbles are often
observed to be entrapped in the centers of bifilms  these,
of course, are merely locations in the bifilm where the two Figure 2. A bubble, sloughing off its oxide skin as a bubble trail.
Trails are collapsed oxide tubes containing residual air or argon.
films have not accurately come together. The major They are commonly more than a meter long, and their tangles
difference between bifilms and bubbles is in their flotation become major areas of apparent porosity on radiographs and
behavior. Bifilms remain in suspension as a result of the metallurgical sections.
low buoyancy and high drag, but bubbles have significant
buoyancy and generate further problems as a result.
As bubbles rise to escape, their oxide skins split (but
These large populations of cracks in the liquid alloy are
immediately reform) on the crown of the bubbles. The
naturally frozen into the solidifying alloy, with a conse-
oxide effectively slips around the bubble, and finally
quent significant loss of properties. The oxide films formed
coming together under the bubble, dry oxide to dry oxide
in the brief transient events of the pouring turbulence have
surfaces, as a long collapsed tube (Figure 2). The bubble
little time to grow to more than a few nanometers thick,
trail is a lengthy variety of oxide bifilm, growing to a meter
and are consequently so thin as to be normally invisible to
or more in length. Bubble trails can form excellent cracks
casual observation. It is for this reason their presence has
and leak paths through cast metals, but in severely
been unsuspected for the past 6000 years. Often they will
turbulent conditions often become scrambled together
sit at a grain boundary, actually forming an unbridgeable
in a tangled mass, forming agglomerations resembling
division between the grains. Tensile strain will open these
Arizona tumble weed. They have been observed to tumble,
boundary bifilms giving the impression of “weak grain
meandering around in the casting, finally coming to rest in
boundaries,” a common misconception, whereas molecu-
unexpected corners of castings.[2]
lar dynamics computer simulations[4] and careful bicrystal
experiments[5] confirm that boundaries are actually
immensely strong and unlikely ever to fail under tension.
So-called grain boundary precipitates will form on the
John Campbell trained as a physi-
bifilm (not on boundaries without bifilms) because the
cist, then a metallurgical engineer,
strain energy to form a precipitate of different volume and
but finally specialized in casting
shape can more easily be accommodated because of the
manufacture. He became Professor
residual “air-gap” between the two halves of the bifilm. It
of Casting Technology, Birming-
seems that most inclusions and second phases from the
ham University, UK, for 15 years.
liquid state precipitate only on bifilms; the bifilm is often
While in industry, he developed the
opened a little by the strains involved, giving the
Cosworth Casting Process in 1978–
appearance of a crack through the particle suggesting
1985 which still leads the world for
that the particle is brittle. The well-worn phrase “brittle
quality and productivity of automo-
grain boundary carbides” has become a cliche  in
tive cylinder blocks. He is the author of two small books
metallurgical studies.[6] In most cases such precipitates
“Concise Castings” and “Quality Castings” plus the
as carbides are immensely strong and crack resistant, and
weighty “Complete Castings Handbook.” These are the
observations of their significant plastic deformation
distillation of a lifetime’s experience targeted to save
are occasionally reported.[7–9] In those cases where
costs and raise quality. He continues to be Emeritus
the precipitate forms on only one side of the bifilm, the
Professor at Birmingham, mixing teaching with
appearance is that of the matrix decohering from the
industry.
precipitate  another phenomenon which would not

2 steel research int. 87 (2016) No. 9999 ß 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.steel-research.de

normally be expected from the immense strengths of most
such inter-phase boundaries. The reader is respectfully
referred to a paper by the author in which such traditional
metallurgical thinking and expressions are critically
assessed.[6]
2.1. Bifilm Evolution in Steels and Ni Alloys
Bifilms are formed by the impingement of the oxidized
surface of the liquid metal during turbulent pouring events
or during the entrainment of air bubbles. The two surface
oxide films come together as a planar defect with no
significant bonding, and therefore resembling a crack. The
central unbonded interface will usually contain some air or
other gas entrapped in folds, and in regions where the films
failed to contact completely (regions we could call
“bubbles” or pores). The films would continue to react
with this entrained air, consuming the oxygen and
nitrogen to form oxides and nitrides, but finally leaving
the inert and insoluble 1% argon.[10] The residual argon is a
permanent feature which explains the ease of initiation of
pores and cracks from entrained inclusions. We shall
return repeatedly to this important aspect of entrained
defects.
In lower melting point metals such as Al alloys,
Al-bronze, and Ni-base alloys the temperatures are
sufficiently low that oxide films remain as solid films.
Consequently, the oxide bifilms become a major control-
ler of the microstructure and properties of these alloys.[2]
Figure 3a shows dendrites on the fracture surface of a cast
Ni alloy CY40, the cavity initiated on an oxide bifilm
which (practically invisibly) covers the surface of
the dendrites. Some oxide debris decorates the bifilm
surface (Figure 3b) (Please note, of course, that
whereas solidification shrinkage drives the growth of
the observed cavity, the bifilm appears essential for the
initiation of the cavity[2]).
REVIEW
The addition of Mg to Ni alloys for a reason lost in the
mists of history is a mistake (its use was rumored to
desulfurize the metal  clearly a waste of time for modern
low-sulfur metal). Regrettably, the addition of Mg gen-
erates a strong MgO film on the melt which makes the
caster’s task even harder because every little splash of
the liquid creates a new entrained defect (Figure 4). The
addition of Mg, and excesses of other strong oxidizers such
as Li, to Ni alloys are clearly highly counter-productive to
the quest for clean metal.
The bifilms in steels exhibit a more complicated
behavior because of the higher temperatures involved in
steel making. The oxide surface film on steels, from which
bifilms may be formed, can therefore evolve in a number of
ways. These various developments are considered below:
1. At steel casting temperatures, the oxide film may be
liquid. This is the case for carbon steels which have been
deoxidized with the correct proportions of Al and Ca,
because the Al2O3 and CaO oxides form a eutectic with a
melting point of only about 14008 C.[11] When these
oxidized surfaces impinge during turbulent transfers,
the liquid-to-liquid impingement simply mutually
assimilates, forming droplets which quickly float out.
No bifilm is created. This use of Ca is likely to be similarly
beneficial to Ni alloys. Figure 5 illustrates a carbon steel
in which the Al2O3/CaO ratio was, unfortunately, not
optimum, resulting in a thick, solid oxide, leading to
wrinkles on the surface of a casting. The example is a
clear instance of deep folds constituting bifilms as cracks
penetrating the steel surface.
A number of other steels benefit from a liquid oxide
surface. Hadfield manganese steel (13 Mn) is one such
steel because of the low melting point of its oxide, MnO2.
Similarly boron-containing steels, containing only 0.005 B,
probably have a liquid borate surface layer, with a melting
point of only 10008 C or less, explaining the excellent

Figure 3. a) Dendrites on a fracture surface of cast Ni-base CY40 alloy. They are not deformed, indicating a location of the fracture
surface separated without stress as a result of the presence of a bifilm extending over the fracture surface. (The dendrites are clearly
visible through the oxide bifilm, which was less than 1 mm thick. The remainder of this film is expected to have been sucked down into the
dendrite mesh.) b) Oxide debris sitting on top of the bifilm, which in turn covers the dendrites (the dendrites are those seen in figure A,
and visible here as the widely spaced vertical traces on the image). Courtesy Furniss & White.

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REVIEW
Figure 4. Two Monel castings from the same melt, same tundish entrance, same vortex gate system, subjected to dye penetrant test a)
without and b) with Mg þ Li additions (Courtesy Furniss & White Limited, UK).
properties of such steels, and their high hardenability (the
absence of layers of residual entrapped air in bifilm cracks
increases the thermal conductivity of boron-containing
steels). An interesting future prospect would be the
extension of this benefit to a wide range of engineering
steels, since the tiny boron addition would be of negligible
metallurgical detriment in most cases.[2,6]
2. If the surface oxide is only partially melted, the folding
in of the oxide will result in the two halves adhering, and
subsequent bulk turbulence in the melt will scramble
the bifilm into a compact sticky ball. These can float out
quickly as a result of their compact form and their low
density, forming the familiar “ceroxide” (ceramic oxide)
defects on the cope surfaces of castings.[2,12]
3. If the oxide has a high melting point it will of course
retain its form as a solid film, becoming a solid
double film (a bifilm) when entrained, with therefore
the greatest potential for damage to properties.
Although some steels may retain this defect in this
form, its seriousness will be reduced if it is scrambled
into a compact shape, as happens quickly after
entrainment. Nevertheless, given time in sufficiently
heavy sections, the scrambled form has a number of
ways of becoming gradually unscrambled, by the
precipitation of gas (carbon monoxide, nitrogen, or
hydrogen), or by the straightening and flattening action
Figure 5. A carbon steel casting exhibiting wrinkles caused by a
solid, slightly rigid, oxide film on the liquid metal.
4 steel research int. 87 (2016) No. 9999
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of the advance of dendrites.[2] The progressive flatten-
ing action progressively reduces the properties.
If the oxide has a high interfacial energy with the matrix,
or if temperatures are especially high for sufficiently long,
the solid film can break down, coarsening under the
driving force of the reduction of its surface energy, to
create a number of different morphologies as listed in the
work of Dekkers.[13] Sometimes, however, the film
degenerates into holes, then ligaments, and finally
separate particles. The elegant physics behind this
phenomenon is explained by Wang and Glicksman in a
nice theoretical review.[14] An analogous action is seen in
the break-up of a thin film of liquid ferroalloy when
manufacturing ferroalloy granules (Figure 6).
The familiar inclusion type known as “alumina string-
ers” seen commonly in rolled steels, and consisting of lines
of cracked alumina particles together with associated
pores, are clearly not one-dimensional stringers, but
Figure 6. Ferromanganese granule production, by pouring the
liquid on to a flat refractory target, spreading as a film, then
disintegrating by the formation of holes, then ligaments, and
finally, droplets. (Courtesy Uddeholm Technology, Sweden, 2015).
ß 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.steel-research.de
two-dimensional planar arrays of alumina particles[2,15]
which are most probably the coarsened remains of two-
dimensional alumina bifilms (Figure 7).
The patches of porosity accompanying such “stringers”
may identify such alumina “stringers” as the remnants of
the unbonded central interface of the bifilm. The
entrapped air in the original bifilm would have been
consumed, leaving only the residual insoluble argon,
although the argon may have been supplemented by
hydrogen or other gases diffusing into the residue of the
central bifilm interface.[10] (Other morphologies of alu-
mina inclusions in the melt, such as dendritic forms, seem
to have nucleated and grown in the steel. Their consequent
atomically perfect alumina/matrix interface will be
expected to preserve its integrity during plastic working
[see below] and therefore not develop associated cracks
and pores when rolling). More research is needed to clarify
these issues.
It is probably worth emphasizing that the initiation of
voids in association with inclusions is unlikely to be the
result of stress concentration as generally assumed
(although, naturally, stress can extend such defects). This
is because it is easily shown that non-condensed phases
(volume defects such as voids, cracks, decohered inter-
faces, etc.) cannot be nucleated in condensed phases such
as liquids or solids at normal engineering stresses.[16,17]
This perhaps surprising conclusion, and regrettably
counter to much traditional thinking, follows simply from
the fact that interatomic forces are immensely strong. Both
liquids and solids are atomically close-packed, and are
resistant to opening up to form cracks or pores until the
stress reaches the normally unattainable theoretical
strength in the region of 50–100 GPa.
Naturally, however, the pores associated with inclu-
sions, resulting from their inheritance of the residual argon
entrapped in bifilms, form excellent initiation sites for
failure when subjected to stress. All the theories of crack
formation and propagation require the presence of a pre-
existing initiating crack.[16] The pores, plus whatever
remains of the bifilm crack, constitute these Griffith cracks
required to initiate failure. The residual argon pore
associated with most inclusions in steels (since over
90% inclusions are entrained, not formed in situ[12]) is
probably the reason for inclusions to act as initiation sites
Figure 7. A deep-etched steel revealing an apparently 1-D alumina “stringer” to actually be a planar 2-D feature as would be predicted for
the eventual morphology of an alumina bifilm.[9]
ß 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
REVIEW
for cracks. The tessellated thermal stress associated with
an inclusion may not be sufficient to open up a crack either
in the inclusion or at the inclusion/matrix interface as a
result of the strength of interatomic bonds.
The original speculation that Griffith cracks might be
initiated by lattice mechanisms as dislocation pile-ups or
vacancy condensation appears to be untrue. Dislocation
pile ups can never lead to the opening of cracks simply
because the interatomic bonds in metals are too strong
(see for instance the atomistic simulations carried out by
Wang[17]). Similarly, vacancies never condense to form
cracks or pores for the same reason; they only form
collapsed, consolidated features such as dislocation rings
and stacking fault tetrahedra, never pores or cracks.[16] By a
series of eliminations, we have to conclude that Griffith
cracks appear to be only formed by bifilms; bifilms are the
Griffith cracks.[16]
The immensely important implication for the potential
properties of engineering metals therefore follows imme-
diately: crack initiation is not intrinsic to metals, but is
introduced by extrinsic circumstances during manufac-
ture, and clearly therefore, is avoidable.
As a result of these several effects listed above, in which
bifilms are either completely avoided or evolve into less
damaging structures, steels in general can avoid some of
the worst aspects of bifilm degradation of properties. The
contrast with many Ni-base alloy systems could hardly be
more striking: at their lower temperatures, Ni alloys retain
their bifilms in their original pseudo-crack morphology.
Thus, Ni alloys often exhibit properties which can only be
explained by them being extensively pre-cracked. Many
shape casting foundries which cast both steels and Ni
alloys find steels of nearly all types comparatively easy to
produce, but struggle with Ni alloy castings, to the point
that some foundries refuse to make them.
Similarly, Ni alloy ingot producers also often experience
difficulties in the subsequent working of ingots. The ingots
crack under the forge, breaking in half or falling to pieces,
or edge cracking during rolling, crocodile cracking during
extrusion, or exhibiting weak centers in finished bar and
rod material. This problem is the opposite of expectations
based on traditional metallurgy; the face centered cubic
lattice structure of Ni, with its numerous slip planes, would
be expected to be highly ductile and so highly resistant to
steel research int. 87 (2016) No. 9999 5

REVIEW
Figure 8. A Ni alloy test bar, showing a typical distribution of bifilm
cracks, opened up by the tensile test (courtesy Furniss & White
2015).
the formation and propagation of cracks. Figure 8 shows a
cast test bar of a Ni-based alloy containing bifilms of the
order of 10 mm diameter, and therefore failing in an
alarming way. In contrast, most steel test bars reveal no
cracks, and enjoy elongations to failure of 50% or more.
Perhaps, if they were able to eliminate the residues of
bifilms this favorable performance could be greatly
improved: ductilities achieving reductions of area of
100% would be expected. The significant amount of work
carried out on the scatter of elongation results for light
alloys corroborates the expectation that elongation is
significantly controlled by bifilms.[18,19]
The entrained defects are expected to survive significant
plastic working. Toda[20] studied hot and cold deformation
of an Al–Mg alloy up to 22% strain which failed to close
pores permanently. Even for the hot rolling of steel, Joo
et al.[21] observed the closure of some pores, but generally
found that bonding was rare or not at all.
3. Steelmaking Practice
When taking time to consider these new concepts in terms
of our current steelmaking practice, the major turbulent
event in which bifilms are created en mass is the pouring of
the metal from the melting furnace into the ladle. This
catastrophic event has to be witnessed to be believed.
Tons of liquid metal are dropped from a height of several
meters into the ladle, a process awesomely reminiscent of
the Niagara Falls. The oxidation of the surface of the liquid
during the fall naturally impinges on other drops and
splashes forming bifilms. Tens of square meters of oxide
film must be formed and entrained in this process.
This oxidation process during the pour from the furnace
is the well-known “reoxidation” reaction, in which residual
deoxidizing additions are consumed by contact with the
air. It is known from inclusion counts and assessments
from steel foundries that nearly 83% of all inclusions in
6 steel research int. 87 (2016) No. 9999
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steel castings arise from reoxidation plus a further 16%
from mold erosion products, making a total of nearly 99%
entrained by turbulence.[12] Both reoxidation and erosion
are eliminated in appropriately designed metal handling
and transfer systems for casting. What is not generally
appreciated is the film-like, actually double film-like,
quality of the inclusions as a result of them arising from the
entrainment of the surface oxide on the liquid metal as it is
plunged beneath the surface.
However, fortunately, after the pour into the ladle, there
is some time before the ladle can be transferred to
the casting area, allowing some time for a percentage of the
entrained reoxidation bifilms to float out. The slag which
forms to a depth of 100 mm or more on the top of the melt
in the ladle is comprised of the bifilms, which have
separated by flotation. If the bifilms are assumed to be in
the region of 10–100 nm thick, the 100 mm slag layer must
contain a depth of approximately a million or ten million
bifilms. As well as the deoxidation additions, those
proportions of the oxidizable elements in the charge are
mostly lost at this point in the steel production process,
giving the charge hand the problem of estimating these
losses when calculating the charge make-up at the start of
melting.
Because of the significant density difference between
the entrained oxides and the liquid matrix, a large
proportion of the population of bifilms in suspension in
the liquid steel rise rapidly, within a few minutes, to the
surface of the melt from where they can be removed. For
this reason steels have excellent ductility, with elongations
to fracture generally in the region of 50%. (This contrasts
with Al alloys whose alumina bifilms are of nearly neutral
buoyancy, taking hours to sediment, with the result that
cast Al alloys often display only a few percent elongation,
typically 1–5%, with exceptional values achievable in
recent times in the region of 10–15%).[18]
We can speculate about the probable history of the steel
quality up to this point. The metal quality in the melting
furnace is almost certainly excellent as a result of the time
available for inclusions to float out. This quality is
destroyed by the pour into the ladle, but is largely, but
not completely, restored prior to casting. Unfortunately,
more damage is to be expected by turbulence introduced
during casting. This is particularly important because any
bifilms introduced at this late stage will have little or no
chance to detrain; a significant proportion will be trapped
in the solidified steel.
For the past 50 years, the casting process for bulk steel
production has been continuous casting, originally devel-
oped of course partly to avoid the losses of end cropping of
batch produced ingots, and partly to eliminate much hot
rolling. This excellent development has an important
further benefit for steel quality, unlooked-for and widely
unappreciated: the extended time of the emptying of the
ladle, often 10 times or more the time for the casting of
ingots. This slow delivery results in an extended opportu-
nity for much of the trauma of the pour from the melting
ß 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.steel-research.de
furnace to be cured by floating out. In addition, the process
is usually designed specifically to reduce the entrainment
of air, and so minimizes further degradation of the steel by
the subsequent creation of more bifilm cracks. The use of
ladle shrouding and submerged entry nozzles (SEN) are
useful here, and should really be used on every vertical fall
of the liquid during its journey from the ladle and into the
mold. Even so, it is interesting that so much development
effort is put into the study of detrainment by flotation of
inclusions in tundishes of various geometries using
computer models, which is clearly of little relevance
because the film-like morphology of the non-metallics will
have a much slower rate of rise than the assumed spherical
shapes. Thus, the effort here would be more valuably
directed to avoid further entrainment, using better designs
of ladle shrouding and SEN, since detrainment is probably
negligible.
Continuous casting contrasts with ingot casting which
is more appropriate to the production of smaller batches of
special steels. However, the current ingot pouring practice
is far from satisfactory, but which appears to be universal
as far as the author can ascertain.
A schematic illustration of ingot casting is shown in
Figure 9a. When full, the ladle usually contains liquid
metal to a depth of at least a meter. This means the exit
Figure 9. Ingot casting by teeming from a bottom pour ladle,
showing a) conventional uphill teeming of ingots using the
trumpet intake which acts as an air pump, and b) contact pouring.
ß 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
REVIEW
velocity from the bottom nozzle is in excess of 4.5 m s1.
This fierce jet is directed into a conical “trumpet” forming
the entrance into the refractory tubing which conveys the
steel into the base of a series of ingots placed around the
central down-sprue. Any mechanical or chemical engineer
will know that the conical funnel will act as a venturi
pump, pumping air into the liquid stream, with the
consequence that the melt at the base of the down-sprue
consists approximately of a 50% air/50% steel emulsion.
These are minimum expected mixtures. Mixtures of up to
80 or 90% air seem possible. This appalling scenario is
confirmed by looking down into the ingots during filling,
where the center of the rising melt is clearly seen to boil
with rising and bursting bubbles (Figure 9a). It is difficult
to envisage how good steel can be produced from this
chaotic mixture of bubbles, bubble trails, and bifilms.
Although the air entrainment is reduced somewhat as the
ingot fills, the initial entrainment is severe, and bulk
turbulence in the liquid will spread the bifilm population
up the length of the ingot, affecting the whole ingot.
The massive air entrainment resulting from the use of
the conical pouring basin is made worse by the inappro-
priate geometry and material of the channels to duct the
metal into the molds. Currently these are made from fired
clay (often known colloquially as “pots,” since the
materials and technology is imported from the pottery
industry). Their standard sizes and shapes naturally
cause an assembly of pots to be built oversize, creating
more opportunities for air to be present to further degrade
the metal. Furthermore, the air cannot escape because the
pots assemble to form a substantially leak-tight channel.
There is therefore every case for making the channels from
sand. Silica sand bonded with 1 or 2% of a resin is easily
formed into exactly the correct geometry to encourage the
complete filling of the channel with metal, thereby
excluding air.[2] Furthermore, the air can be squeezed
out through the permeable sand form. When the channels
are formed with the correct geometry, the liquid metal
pressurizes against the walls of the channels so that the
surface of the sand is supported by the pressure of the
liquid. In this way, not a single sand grain will be found in
the casting. This technology is well proven in shaped steel
castings up to 50 000 kg,[22] so there seems good reason to
expect that the technology will be applicable to all sizes of
steel products.
It is known that the use of inert gas shrouding of the
stream from the ladle is a help, but the technique cannot
be claimed to be an efficient or especially effective solution
this problem. A better solution is the provision of a tube
bolted to the underside of the ladle which is used for
submerged pouring into the tundish. However, neither of
these techniques are good solutions for preventing the
effectiveness of the conical pouring basin for entraining
air.
The deleterious consequences to steels from entrained
bifilms are currently buried in, and are intrinsic to, our
current steel specifications. The invisibility of bifilms has
steel research int. 87 (2016) No. 9999 7

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encouraged the acceptance of universally low properties
which we accept as normal.
It seems only in exceptional service conditions, and
possibly in heavy components which have received
minimal hot working, that the problem becomes clear.
The recent failure by fatigue of the huge wind turbine
bearings after less than 5 years instead of their design
target of 20 years is an example, currently threatening the
cost and future viability of wind power.[23] It is common for
bifilm cracks in these steels to be mistaken for fatigue
cracks.[23] A recent report reveals the shock of closure of
two Belgian nuclear reactors because of thousands of
cracks discovered in their pressure vessels.[24] This
situation appears to be still under review, but there is
disbelief and denial that such a number of defects can be
cracks; reports appear to attempt to camouflage the
problem, referring to the defects as “flakes.” However,
regrettably, cracks are to be expected from current steel
casting practice, and immensely strengthen the reason for
change.
4. Proposed Casting Techniques
The ultimate mold-filling technique for all liquid metals is
counter-gravity. This process has the admirable and heart-
warming potential for controlling the rate of rise of metal
in a mold so that no folding-over of the surface ever occurs.
The critical speed to ensure this mode of filling is 0.5 m s1,
although up to 1.0 m s1 seems allowable without signifi-
cant damage.[2] Thus, if it were possible in some way to
levitate the melt out of the melting furnace and directly
into the mold without once folding in the liquid surface,
the excellent original cleanness of the melt expected in the
melting furnace could be preserved. This is not as
impractical as it may first appear. Aluminum alloy
foundries have been using this technique for over 30 years.
Steel can, in principle, be raised directly from an induction
furnace, thus eliminating all damaging pouring actions, as
is illustrated in Figure 10. The Griffin foundries nearly
meet this stringent condition, having been producing steel
rail road wheels with a single pour from the melting
furnace, followed by uphill filling out of the ladle and into
the mold. They have been using this counter-gravity
technique for over 50 years, and successfully serving a
substantial fraction of the US market for railroad wheels.
However, of course, counter gravity becomes less practical
for very large cast products, and for purely practical
engineering reasons may be limited to weights in the
region of 5000–10 000 kg.
A second technique which is not nearly as perfect as
counter-gravity, but, nevertheless, can confer major
benefits to the steel is contact pouring (Figure 9b). This
technique simply arranges for the air to be excluded from
the liquid metal by directly forming a contact between the
ladle nozzle and the down-sprue. It is a powerful solution.
8 steel research int. 87 (2016) No. 9999
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Figure 10. A schematic section of an induction furnace using its
steel shell as the pressure vessel for counter-gravity casting of
shaped castings or ingots.
Most cast steels are transformed by this approach. It is so
simple, it costs practically nothing to implement. The
technique may benefit from laser triangulation and
feedback to the overhead crane to achieve good position-
ing. The seal is easily formed from compressible ceramic
fiber blanket: its compressibility gives sufficient latitude
for sufficiently accurate lowering by the crane. Although
the pot running system will work with tolerable effective-
ness, the exchange of the pots for accurately molded sand
cores represents a further benefit to quality and reduction
in costs.
The adoption of this simple technique has been
demonstrated to be of huge benefit in the casting of steel
products in the region of 50–50 000 kg.[22] Whole foundries
have adopted the method with significant benefits to
efficiency and profitability.
In summary, for the casting of shaped steel and Ni alloy
castings, the ultimate solution of counter gravity is strongly
recommended. This fundamentally perfect process can
give perfect cast products.
Alternatively, if counter gravity cannot be used, the
adoption of contact pouring together with a design of
filling system based on the author’s naturally pressurized
filling system[2] has been repeatedly demonstrated to work
well. This technique is based on a design of filling channels
which guide the liquid metal into the mold, ensuring that
air is excluded at all points, and the final filling speed into
the mold cavity is less than the critical 0.5 m s1,
corresponding to a Weber Number 1.0. This value ensures
that surface tension forces dominate over inertial forces in
the liquid, so that breaking waves, jetting, and splashing
cannot occur so that bifilm damage cannot be generated.[2]
5. Remelting Processes
When considering the quest for clean steels, it is essential
to consider the remelting processes, vacuum arc remelting
ß 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.steel-research.de
(VAR), and electroslag remelting (ESR) (sometimes,
perhaps for marketing purposes, these remelting processes
are called instead refining processes). The processes can be
preceded by vacuum induction melting (VIM) to make up
an appropriate charge and cast this into an electrode to be
consumed by the remelting process.
The casting of the electrode, whether in air or in
vacuum, is almost inevitably carried out by directly
pouring the liquid metal into the open top of an ingot
mold. This very regrettable and unnecessarily turbulent
casting process creates bifilm defects, visible as folds in the
cast surface of the electrode, which can be clearly seen
with the unaided eye from a distance of 10 m or more.
Electrodes top poured in vacuum appear to contain similar
faults, but the thinner oxide films ensure that they are not
so visible. Top poured electrodes contain such large
defects that the remelting process cannot be expected to
guarantee integrity in the finished product. The author
vividly recalls seeing a defect in an ESR ingot the size of his
hand; clearly, part of the electrode had detached prior to
melting because of a massive defect, and had fallen in to
the ingot. Unfortunately, such events are relatively
common. Both VAR and ESR suffer threats to the integrity
of their products because of poor electrode quality.
As an aside, this use of VIM, generating damaged steels
by directly top pouring into molds in a vacuum chamber is,
of course, widely used in universities and laboratories
everywhere in the world. Thus, nearly all our current
metallurgical research is unfortunately undermined by this
technique. Much of this work will require to be repeated
with improved casting methods, preferably counter-
gravity, to achieve reliable results.
To obtain the best performance from a remelting
process, whether VAR or ESR, the electrode must be cast by
bottom gating into the mold, and must employ contact
pouring so as to exclude the entrainment of air (or even the
entrainment of dilute air, as in the so-called vacuum of the
VIM process). The provision of a sand-molded series of
channels correctly designed to eliminate further air
Figure 11. a) Schematic section of VAR showing local flooding of rim to create bifilms which should be machined off. The outer surface is
faced by remelted and solidified crown material. b) ESR showing effective encapsulation of the liquid metal in liquid oxide slag.
ß 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
REVIEW
entrainment would be a valuable additional feature,
although bonded sand would be problematic in a vacuum
chamber of course.
Moving on to consider the relative merits of VAR and
ESR, the inferior attainment of integrity by VAR compared
to ESR is not widely appreciated, but, perhaps surprisingly,
is intrinsic and fundamental.
In his early days working with VAR and ESR, the author
recalls how the difficult Ni-base alloy, Waspalloy, was
produced by both processes on adjacent remelting units.
However, the VAR material had to be peeled (its surface
machined away on a lathe) to a considerable depth,
representing a large loss to the metallic yield of the process,
before it could be forged without cracking. This behavior
reflects the way in which the metal builds up to form the
ingot. Although the center of the ingot beneath the arc is
liquid, the outer regions of the ingot in contact with the
water cooled mold are solid and will gradually oxidize in
the relatively poor vacuum. The liquid metal in the center
will build up its height, held back by surface tension, until
it suddenly will overcome the resistance of surface tension,
aided by surface oxide, and will then flood, spreading as a
“pancake” over the solidified outer rim (Figure 11). The
spreading liquid will roll out its thin oxide film over the
thicker oxide film on the pancake below. The oxide-to-
oxide unbonded interface separates layer from layer as an
asymmetric bifilm crack. The spreading process may be
irregular, or may be regular, analogous to an “unzipping
wave.”[25] The unzipping wave is the common mode of
advance of liquid metals, taking the form of a breaking
meniscus wave which travels around the ingot, spiraling
upward. Several waves travelling in succession can
generate a “multi-start thread” pattern on the outside of
the ingot, as commonly seen in continuously cast Al ingots.
Waves can sometimes travel in both directions, compli-
cating the final pattern. The “thick/thin” asymmetric
bifilms which can result are commonly found in cast
structures in which one metal stream is “live” (i.e., moving)
and the other “dead” (i.e., stationary).[26]
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The potential for creation of defects in the VAR melting
process is complicated further by the “crown”  a ring of
spatter and condensed metals from the arc. This build-up
on the walls of the mold is progressively submerged into
the ingot, or occasionally falls into the melt, creating more
bifilm cracks. “White spots” may be debris from this zone,
or may be the result of released material from casting
defects entrained in the electrode; once again, such
oxidized debris forms bifilms on passing through the
oxide film on the surface of the liquid metal. There are,
therefore, a number of sources of defects which are a cause
for concern, because it is probable that not all defects will
always be detected.
The as-cast surface of the VAR ingot is surprisingly
smooth, not usually displaying the “pancakes” and
re-entrant folds schematically shown in Figure 11. This
seems to be the consequence of the remelting of the
generally lower melting point constituents of the crown.
Thus, the presence of surface cracks tends to be concealed
beneath a surface layer of different composition. The
patchy nature of this layer may be the result of the
migration of the arc, or microscopic buckling of the ingot
and mold, leading to local changes in the heat transfer
coefficient, changing the degree of inverse (dendritic)
segregation against the surface.[2]
However, of course, the presence of surface, or near
surface, cracks is convincingly proven by the necessity for
peeling. Furthermore, it is clear that the VAR ingot can
never be certain to be free from residual cracks, because of
the understandable effort to reduce the depth of the peel to
reduce losses, so that not all bifilm cracks will be
completely removed, as illustrated in Figure 11. The depth
of peel may be difficult to judge, because the wandering of
the arc and slight variations in melt rate are likely to vary
the thickness of the solidified rim, and thus the depth of
bifilm cracks. Checking by a dye penetrant test to ensure all
cracks have been removed, unfortunately, cannot be
expected to be reliable because of the extreme thinness
of oxide bifilms when produced under vacuum conditions.
Furthermore, the natural compressive stresses in the
surface which are exhibited by all cast products will assist
to keep surface cracks firmly closed, adding to the difficulty
of detection.
Returning to my early experience, in sharp contrast,
Waspalloy when produced by ESR would forge like butter,
without the removal of any of its outer skin. This contrast
in behavior was not confined to Waspalloy. The funda-
mental difference in behavior results from the liquid
oxide environment of the surface of the liquid metal in the
ESR process. It is reminiscent of the benefits of liquid
oxide films on steels discussed above, being different
merely in the depth of the surface liquid. In terms of
fundamental issues associated with the consolidation of
metals,[6] among all metals and alloys, ESR material has
the unique benefit of a complete environment of liquid
oxide which ensures its unique freedom from bifilm
cracks.
10 steel research int. 87 (2016) No. 9999
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There are a number of features of ESR which have been
claimed to limit its application when compared to VAR.
The claims can be relatively easily addressed.[2,6] They
include:
1. The assumed danger of hydrogen. There are two
aspects to this concern: the first is that hydrogen may
be innocuous in the absence of bifilms, since it will be
unable to form a dangerous high-pressure gas because
it will have no favored substrate or cavity in which to
precipitate. It will be forced to remain in solution
where it will be expected to act as any other solute,
perhaps contributing to some solid solution strength-
ening. (However, of course, this subversive new
thought requires to be proven.) The second aspect is
that the hydrogen is relatively easily reduced during
melting by the provision of a flow of dry gas over the
molten slag surface (although it has to be admitted that
hydrogen penetrating the steel mold wall or from the
water cooling will probably act to reduce to some
extent the effectiveness of this attempt to limit
hydrogen uptake).
2. The lower temperature gradient leading to channel
defects (freckles) in large molds. The segregation effects
resulting from channel defects are expected to be
relatively harmless in the absence of bifilms, but, once
again, this has to be proven. In the meantime, a move
from the full size steel, water-cooled mold to the well
proven technique of a short collar mold, which rises as
the ingot grows, solves the problem. As the ingot surface
is revealed as the collar moves higher, water cooling can
be applied directly to the ingot surface. This cooling
action is more effective than that possible in VAR
because the gap between the mold and ingot is
eliminated, greatly increasing heat transfer. Adhering
solidified slag hinders an optimum cooling effect,
requiring some mechanical action  but this would
not be difficult to provide because the slag separates
relatively easily, and the greatly increased cooling
effectiveness would be valuable.
3. The relatively low rate of solidification leading to
increased dendrite arm spacing (DAS). An increase of
DAS will correspondingly lengthen heat treatment
times for homogenization and solution treatments,
and is therefore unwelcome. It is easily avoided once
more by providing enhanced cooling using the short
collar mold technique.
In contrast to these claimed “limitations,” ESR has a
number of well-known exceptional advantages compared
to VAR:[27] (i) the significantly higher melt rate and (ii)
elimination of machining leading to higher productivity
and higher utilization of material resource; (iii) ability to
make any cross section shape; (iv) ability to change and
add electrodes generating sizes of ingot in excess of 100
tons; (v) generally finer inclusions; and (vi) the absence of
“white spot” defects.
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www.steel-research.de
6. Discussion
This paper describes the mechanism by which the
inclusions observed in steels are significantly less likely
to reduce properties and control microstructure than
entrained inclusions in lower melting point metals,
particularly Ni-base alloys and Al alloys.
Nevertheless, inclusions in steels can appear as “string-
ers” if they are the remnants of solid bifilms such as
alumina-based inclusions. The association of such inclu-
sions with porosity and decohesions cannot be the result of
the explanations of conventional metallurgy,[16] since such
volume defect features do not appear to be explicable by
homogeneous or heterogeneous nucleation, nor by stress,
or gas, or vacancy deposition. In contrast to all these
mechanisms which can be shown to be energetically as
unlikely as to be impossible, the bifilm mechanism is
logical and exhibits no nucleation difficulty. (The author is
aware of the apparent stark boldness of these conclusions,
but the reader is encouraged to check the detailed logic
and mass of evidence[2,16] which is too extensive to present
in a short paper. This new thinking will be a challenge.)
However, more often in more recent steels, inclusions
are spherical (the result of efforts of so-called “inclusion
shape control”) as a result of good deoxidation practice
which encourages a liquid film on the surface of the liquid
steel. The widespread use of Ca to supplement deoxidation
by Al is a good example relying on the generation of a low-
melting point eutectic between the oxides alumina and
calcia.[11] Thus, the turbulent pouring does not result in
bifilm cracks but in the formation of a scattered size range
of spherical slag droplets. The larger droplets float out
rapidly as a result of their high buoyancy, leaving only the
small droplets of entrained liquid oxide, whose rate of
rise is too slow to permit escape, but whose presence in the
steel is tolerated because of their small size and spherical
shape.
Even so, the clear fact is that the inclusions are present
because of an entrainment process; they have been
introduced from the outside into the bulk of the steel.
Such entrainment processes are sometimes avoidable, so
that, in principle, the entrainment of inclusions can be
eliminated. This would eliminate nearly 99% of all
inclusions,[12] making this by far the most important
factor for the steel industry to tackle if the industry wishes
to improve the cleanness of its steels.
It is of interest to note that the aluminum casting
industry now has foundry designs in which the liquid
metal is never poured, and never permitted to flow
downhill at any point. The final casting process is carried
out counter-gravity, with the metal being transferred
uphill into the mold at a speed at which the liquid surface
never suffers a turbulent entrainment event. The cast
metal can achieve a perfection previously unattainable.
Furthermore, such designs are not high cost, are highly
economical to run, and produce superb castings.[28] Such
developments have yet to be carried out for steel.
ß 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
REVIEW
Regarding the quest for highly reliable steels from
remelting processes, the choice of process has not always
been based on good logic. Naturally, compared to ESR,
VAR has the added costs of complex ancillary vacuum
equipment, and the losses associated with the peeling
process (its electrode is also machined to produce a
uniform machined surface). Despite these additional
costs, over the years the customer choice has been for
VAR rather than ESR. It is impossible to avoid the
conclusion that this selection has been influenced by
marketing considerations, possibly including such factors
as “more costly” infers “more quality.” In addition, there
are the marketing advantages resulting from the image
associated with the word “vacuum.” These in turn may be
linked to hints of the potential threats from hydrogen,
suspected to induce embrittlement.
In the view of the author, this is a sad and serious
mistake. VAR will, with regret, never be expected to achieve
the same reliability which is natural and fundamental to
ESR. The unfortunate choice of VAR over ESR has cost the
aerospace and defense industries dearly over the years in
unexplained and costly failures. It will continue to
undermine the integrity of engineering components for
years to come, particularly for the extreme vulnerability of
such complex structures as space vehicles and helicopters.
A recent tragic instance illustrates the continuing
presence of a bifilm crack in a safety-critical part produced
by VAR: a UK helicopter ditching in the North Sea was
traced to a tiny corrosion pit in a VAR steel component.
The investigating team were admittedly baffled because
the pit appeared to be far too small to have initiated the
fatigue failure.[29] It was, however, not known by the team
that corrosion pits form on bifilms.[2] In this case, it is
reasonable to conclude that, as is common, a bifilm crack
at the base of the pit was not discerned but was present and
was almost certainly extensive. Lu et al.[30] found stress
corrosion cracking (SCC) emanated from the bottom of a
corrosion pit in an austenitic stainless steel in high
temperature water. Japanese workers found SCC in Ni
690 alloy associated with nitrides and carbides (indicating
the presence of a bifilm as a preferred substrate) in primary
cooling water of a pressurized water reactor. The rate of
crack growths were inexplicably different for different
batches of alloy.[31] Analogously, Spanish researchers
found fatigue crack initiation in Al 6061 alloy was
frequently associated with corrosion pits.[32] Figure 12
gives an example of a corrosion pit together with its
initiating bifilm cracks in a stainless steel.[33] In passing,
the danger of undetected bifilm cracks in light alloy
castings, particularly gearboxes for helicopters, currently
requires to be addressed by requiring the use of contact
pouring, “naturally pressurized” filling systems, and
general observance of the 10 Casting Rules[2] to eliminate
another vulnerability for helicopters.
The dialogue between VAR and ESR has the potential for
vociferous exchanges of those defending their interests.
However, both remelting process may become irrelevant if
steel research int. 87 (2016) No. 9999 11

REVIEW
Figure 12. A corrosion pit in the steel blade of a steam turbine
revealing its originating bifilms (courtesy Metallurgical
Associates[21]).
good counter-gravity casting were to be employed, and
might even be achieved if the relatively trivial and zero-
cost contact pouring were adopted. The importance of the
casting process has been traditionally overlooked, but it
appears to have the potential for defect-free or nearly
defect-free behavior which could revolutionize metallurgy
and engineering.[4,16]
The focus of future developments of steels of greatly
improved properties and reliability has the potential for
large cost reductions, environmental benefits, and energy
savings. The control of the casting process, in particular
the control or elimination of pouring, holds the master key
to unlock future improvements. We should welcome this
opportunity.
7. Conclusions
1. The quest for clean steels has routinely overlooked the
critical importance of the casting process in which
99% of inclusions in cast steels are found to be
entrained, and are mostly reoxidation products. In
principle, all entrained inclusions can be avoided by
avoiding entrainment.
2. The properties of cast metals are controlled to a large
extent not merely by their composition or structure,
but by the presence of bifilms, which are casting
defects. They originally have a crack-like morphology
which can evolve to other forms in different steels, but
in any case appear fundamental to fracture initiation,
as dislocations are fundamental to plasticity.
3. The high temperature at which steels are processed
appears in some cases to reduce, but never completely
eliminate, bifilm problems. In contrast, Ni base alloys,
together with most metals melting at a lower
temperature, experience the full extent of bifilm
12 steel research int. 87 (2016) No. 9999
www.steel-research.de
damage, in which the inclusions adopt and retain the
bifilm crack morphology.
4. Ingot casting as currently practiced for steel, results in
relatively poor, unreliable steel as a result of gross air
entrainment, leading to the generation of a dense
population of bifilm cracks.
5. Top pouring of molds in vacuum is expected to
introduce copious bifilm populations, undermining
much current research carried out in laboratory
vacuum induction melting and casting furnaces.
Melting and casting in air would be expected to yield
a better quality if the filling system design for the mold
were correctly designed to reduce entrainment.
Melting under gaseous argon, or liquid argon, could
be preferable to melting under vacuum. Casting via a
good filling system in air would then be relatively
easily achieved, and would be preferable to top
pouring in vacuum.
6. Ingot casting as currently practiced for Ni-base alloys
not only results in unreliable material, but introduces
severe plastic working difficulties; the product often
failing by cracking during forging, rolling, or extrusion,
and the final product exhibiting weakness.
7. Ingot steel and Ni-base alloys could be greatly
improved, at negligible cost, employing contact
pouring. Accurately molded channels in resin-bonded
sand would be expected to yield a further quality
enhancement and cost reduction over refractory pre-
formed channels.
8. The reliability of remelting processes, both VAR and
ESR, is currently threatened by the use of highly
defective top-poured consumable electrodes, whether
resulting from VIM or from air melting and air pouring.
Both VAR and ESR would almost certainly benefit from
consumable electrodes poured in air, but using
contact pour geometry, with recommended sand
molded channels of correct geometry for the bottom
gating of molds to reduce entrainment.
9. The lower cost, ESR has fundamentally improved
reliability over VAR material, if carried out correctly
(using the consumable electrode produced by contact
pouring and sand-molded bottom gating into the
electrode mold). Compared to all other ingot
materials, because of its total liquid oxide environ-
ment, ESR has the potential to be uniquely free from
cracks. Customers for safety critical steels should
specify ESR together with the requirement for its
electrode to be cast via contact pour and bottom
gated using sand molded channels (this will eliminate
the current unsatisfactory use of VIM as an electrode
production route, because neither contact pour nor
bottom gating are easily provided in vacuum at this
time).
10. If ingot casting were to be carried out in air by counter-
gravity filling of molds (or perhaps even with contact
pouring and sand-molded bottom gating into molds)
the improvement to quality would probably be
ß 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.steel-research.de
sufficient to make costly remelting processes redun-
dant, eliminating the need for both VAR and ESR.
Acknowledgements
The author is indebted to his numerous students and co-
workers. In particular, it is a pleasure to record the
cooperation of the steel casting company, Furniss & White
Limited, North Anston, Sheffield, UK, who have supplied
figures of castings, and the SEM images of early trials, the
SEM expertly operated by Dr Masoumeh Faraji at Sheffield
Hallam University.
Received: March 11, 2015; Revised: April 25, 2016
Keywords: steels; bifilms; cracks; ingot casting; VIM; VAR;
ESR
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