Casting practices influencing inclusion distributions in billets

Abstract

A macro-etching method has been used to analyze the distribution and amount of inclusions along billets and on cross sections. Main parameters that have been varied are holding time before casting and amount of liquid remaining after casting. The result show that short holding times, in the order of 10 minutes, give increased amount of inclusions in the beginning of the billets, but holding times in the range from 30 to 60 minutes do not show any significant differences. If the melt remaining in the furnace after casting is less than about 3000 kg, the inclusion density increases towards the end of the ingots. The distribution of inclusions over the cross section of billets show that most inclusions are found in the centre of the billets, however, at increased total amount of inclusions, they tend to appear evenly over the whole cross sections. The results are discussed based on convection in furnace and settling rates and convection at solidification front.