In high speed continuous casting of peritectic steel slabs, mold fluxes with high basicity are required for less surface defect product. However, the basicity of remaining liquid slag film tends to decrease in casting process because of the crystallization of 3CaO ·2SiO2 · CaF2. Thus, a way is put forward to improve mold fluxesr properties by raising the original basicity. In order to confirm the possibility of this method, the effect of rising original basicity on the properties of mold fluxes is discussed. Properties of high fluorine based mold fluxes with different basicities and contents of CaF2 , Na2 O, and MgO were measured, respectively. Then, properties of higher basicity mold fluxes were discussed and compared with traditional ones. The results show that increasing the basicity index can improve the melting and flow property of mold fluxes. With the increasing basicity, crystallization rate of mold fluxes increases obviously and crystallization temperature tends to decrease when the basicity exceeds 1.35. The method presen- ted before is proved as a potential way to resolve the contradiction between horizontal heat transfer controlling and solidified shell lubricating for peritectic steel slab casting. But further study on improving the flow property of liquid slag is needed. This work can be used to guide mold fluxes design for high speed continuous casting of peritectic steel slabs.
LONG XiaoHE Sheng-pingXU Jian-feiHUO Xu-lingWANG Qian
In continuous casting of peritectic steel grades sensitive to longitudinal cracking, the solidification properties of mold fluxes play an important role in keeping smooth running of continuous casting process and achieving high surface quality of casting strands. To reduce fluorine pollution in molten slag, types of CaO-SiO2-TiO2 （CTS） based mold fluxes were investigated. The solidification and crystallization properties, including viscosity η at 1 573 K, break temperature Tbr, crystallization ratio Rc and solidification mineragraphy were measured, which were compared with those of CaO-SiO2-CaF2 based mold fluxes. The experiments show that there are unstable viscosity-high tem- perature properties and high Tbr in part of CTS slag system, which are bad for lubrication between liquid flux film and strand. And when temperature is below Tbr, the viscosities change slowly during cooling in some part of this slag system, which imply that liquid mold fluxes solidify slowly and it is easy to cause surface longitudinal cracks on strand. Major mineragraphy of the CaO-SiO2-TiO2 based mold fluxes are CaO · TiO2 or CaO · TiO2 and CaO · SiO2 · TiO2. TiN and Ti（C,N） can be formed in mold fluxes bearing high TiO2 during the continuous casting.
HE Sheng-ping HUANG Qing-yun ZHANG Guo-xing LU Yong-jian WANG Qian
Excessive sintering of mould fluxes can readily cause defects and sticker breakouts in continuously cast strands.Studying the sintering property is important to minimize problems related to sintering arising from the use of mould fluxes in continuous casting.An effective method of measuring the apparent sintering temperature has been developed in this study.The method is based on monitoring the formation of cavities caused by melting of samples.For monitoring,the differential pressure of an inert gas flow was measured through a set volume of sample（mould flux A）held in a furnace tube.The apparent sintering temperature was defined in this test to determine sintering process.The sintering properties of fluxes with various contents of carbon black were examined along with identification of mineralogical phases and the nature of the sinter for samples of mould flux A held for one hour at different temperatures.The experimental results indicated that the apparent sintering temperature（AST）was a useful parameter to assess the threat of problems related to sinter.
WANG QianLU Yong-jianHE Sheng-pingWANG Li-juanK C Mills
