Speaker
Description
Casting powders for ingot production have evolved from generic insulating materials to highly tailored products designed for specific steel and alloy families. Early powders, largely based on fly ash, provided basic thermal insulation and surface protection for ingot casting but offered limited control over melting behavior, viscosity, and steel–slag interactions.
The introduction of stainless steel ingot casting led to new powders, characterized by controlled CaO–SiO₂–Al₂O₃ chemistry, optimized basicity, and more stable viscosity. This marked a shift toward improved lubrication, heat transfer control, and surface quality suitable for stainless steels. Further refinement resulted in products specifically optimized for stainless steels and significantly improved performance in Ti‑stabilized grades by limiting titanium reactions and enhancing mould flux stability.
The need to cast increasingly complex materials drove the development of highly specialized powders.
A new casting powder with a balanced free carbon content to ensure adequate lubrication, accommodate varying solidification behavior, and minimize surface defects has been formulated for ferritic and martensitic steels with higher carbon and higher liquidus temperatures.
A product has been designed for special alloys with low melting temperatures, with characteristics that enable rapid slag formation and controlled heat extraction under extreme casting conditions.
Finally, a casting powder has been formulated for nickel‑based alloys. It combines a very low melting range, high basicity, and excellent fluidity to ensure immediate slag melting and stable heat transfer under tightly controlled superheat conditions required for these highly reactive alloys.
Overall, the evolution of casting powders reflects a transition from universal solutions to alloy‑specific formulations, enabling higher process stability, improved surface quality, and reliable casting of advanced stainless steels and special alloys.
| Speaker Company/University | Prosimet SpA |
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