Continuous casting

<p>Continuous casting, also called strand casting, is the process whereby <a href="/facts/Melting/zhhDBo5V">molten</a> <a href="/facts/Metal/PT8hNX6R">metal</a> is solidified into a "semifinished" <a href="/facts/Billet_(semi-finished_product)/1fKMFC8H">billet</a>, <a href="/facts/Bloom_(casting)/1fKMFC8H">bloom</a>, or <a href="/facts/Slab_(casting)/1fKMFC8H">slab</a> for subsequent rolling in the finishing mills.  Prior to the introduction of continuous casting in the 1950s, <a href="/facts/Steel/aN6qWo4H">steel</a> was poured into stationary molds to form <a href="/facts/Ingot/j7kzdag2">ingots</a>. Since then, "continuous casting" has evolved to achieve improved yield, quality, productivity and cost efficiency.  It allows lower-cost production of metal sections with better quality, due to the inherently lower costs of continuous, standardised production of a product, as well as providing increased control over the process through automation.  This process is used most frequently to cast steel (in terms of tonnage cast).  <a href="/facts/Aluminium/7wmR8jYE">Aluminium</a> and <a href="/facts/Copper/I8PEE8oX">copper</a> are also continuously cast.
</p><p><a href="/facts/Sir_Henry_Bessemer/qk4H48en">Sir Henry Bessemer</a>, of <a href="/facts/Bessemer_converter/Al0kr3a3">Bessemer converter</a> fame, received a patent in 1857 for casting metal between two counter-rotating rollers. The basic outline of this system has recently been implemented today in the casting of steel strip.
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Continuous casting open-in-new

Continuous casting