Per: DANILO DI NAPOLI GUZELA (COMPANHIA BRASILEIRA DE METALURGIA E MINERACAO), antonio augusto gorni (autônomo), Felipe Monteiro Moraes de Moura Bastos (cbmm), Marcos Stuart Nogueira (CBMM), marcelo arantes rebellato (rms - rolling mills solutions)
Abstract:
The continuous slab casting process needs to comply with potentially incompatible demands: high productivity, lower costs, complex phase transformations during steel solidification and cooling, and semi-products with no defects. It is not always possible to match all these requirements intuitively, as the interactions between the various phenomena that occur during this process can be complicated and, eventually, contradictory. This was the motivation for the development of MacroSim, a digital tool based on Microsoft Excel, that analyzes operational data from the continuous casting machine and performs a process diagnosis from the point of view of slab quality and productivity. Among the analyzed parameters are the chemical composition of the steel, strand dimensions, casting speed, superheat, mold oscillation conditions, mold flux composition, secondary cooling water flow, among others. The variables that must be considered are simple and in a number that will not overburden the operational staff who must provide them. Some examples of MacroSim successful applications are described, where this tool identified the problems of the continuous casting process that were causing quality issues in the slabs.