Plant for producing metal strip
Description Technical field
The present invention relates to a plant for the continuous casting of thick slabs blooms and other similar products. Background art
Numerous state of the art plants for the continuous casting of thick slabs and blooms are known. These plants use containment and guiding rollers arranged under the ingot mould to support and accompany along the bend below the prod¬uct exiting the ingot mould whilst the solidification of ail the steel takes place. On exiting the ingot mould the cast product is only partially solidified and is constituted by the solidified external part, known as the skin or shell, with a thickness that grows as the distance from ingot mould outlet increases, and a still liquid part, the so-called core or metal core. The solidification endpoint, i.e. the tip of the metal core, may be more or less distant from the ingot mould outlet section according to the casting speed of the plant. As continuous attempts are made to increase the casting speed in order to increase casting plant productivity, the length of the metal core may sometimes be important.
Due to the presence of liquid steel inside the cast product exited from the ingot mould, ferrostatic pressure exists, which presses from inside towards the exterior and causes the skin to deform in the stretches in which it is not supported by the containment and driving rollers: due to this ferrostatic pressure, bulges form on the surface of the cast product in the areas comprised alternatively between two rows of adjacent rollers. This phenomenon is known as "static bulging". One problem that originates from the presence of such bulges is that of the surg¬ing of the liquid steel upwards due to the buckling of the bulges produced by the rollers during the advance of the thick slab along the rollerway. This pulsation is transmitted to the entire liquid metal column causing a pulsed variation of the me¬niscus level inside the ingot mould. This phenomenon is known as "dynamic bulg¬ing" and is amplified by the increase in casting speed; the meniscus oscillations may be so high as to make control of the ingot mould levels impossible with a con¬sequent necessary interruption of the casting process and production loss. In the worst cases, meniscus oscillations may be such as to cause the liquid steel to leak

from the ingot mould.
Another drawback caused by dynamic bulging is that relating to the internal and superficial skin cracks, which form due to the periodical bulging of the skin; these cracks create the presence of defects in the end product and may favour the rup¬ture of the skin with consequent leakage of the liquid steel, a phenomenon known as "breakout".
A casting plant that offers a solution to the drawback is disclosed by US patent 6308769, which describes a casting plant in which a thick slab guiding device is envisaged arranged immediately at the outlet from the ingot mould. The device is constituted by a number of segments that support series of rollers that constitute the thick slab containment guides. The rollers on one side are arranged with their axes staggered with respect to the opposite side of the thick slab; and the pitch of the rollers on both sides always remains constant. This particular arrangement is maintained for a stretch in which a liquid core is present in the thick slab. In any case, the solution offered by this plan is not satisfactory in those cases in which the casting speed is excessively high. In fact, the pulsation due to the passage of the bulges between the rollers continues to occur and is also due to the large vol¬ume of the bulges that in any case occur between two adjacent rollers. Fig. 1A, which illustrates a front view of a known casting plant of the type described in US patent 6308769, shows the amplitude of the area interested by the bulging phe¬nomenon between two rollers, distanced at a constant pitch "p", and indicated with the dotted line.
Furthermore, a staggered arrangement of the rollers as envisaged by the above mentioned document does not make it possible to perform "soft-reduction", in or¬der to reduce the thickness of the thick slab on outlet from the ingot mould and to improve the internal quality thereof.
A plant for the continuous casting of metal products that overcomes these draw¬backs is therefore required. Summary of the invention
The primary aim of this invention is to make a plant for the continuous casting of metal products, hereinafter generically included under the term of continuous in¬got, able to prevent and/or reduce the phenomenon of the pulsation of liquid steel following the passage between the containment rollers, placed beneath the ingot

mould, of the skin bulges generated by the ferrostatic pressure. A second aim of the invention is to limit, as far as possible, skin deformation caused by ferrostatic pressure betv^een two rows of adjacent rollers. A further aim of the invention is to minimise the above mentioned phenomena of dynamic bulging even at high casting speeds, thus making it possible to increase the productivity of the plant and guaranteeing, at the same time, the obtainment of a better quality final product.
This invention therefore aims ^t resolving the drawbacks discussed above and to achieve the aforesaid aims by making a plant for the continuous casting of con¬tinuous steel ingots, in particular, although not exclusively, in the form of thick slabs, blooms or similar products, comprising a continuous casting ingot mould de¬fining a vertical casting axis and a continuous ingot guiding device arranged under the ingot mould and in which a plurality of rotating rollers is incorporated around its own horizontal rotation axis arranged on two opposite sides of the continuous in¬got with respect to the casting axis, having a continuous ingot guiding function, each of said rollers having an axial length less than the length of said opposite sides measured according to a parallel to the rotation axis characterised by the fact that on each of said two opposite sides the rollers are arranged along at least three respective rows parallel to the casting axis so as to create a guide for the in¬got, wherein a row of first rollers is positioned in an area in the vicinity of a first corner of the ingot, wherein at least a row of second rollers is positioned in a cen¬tral area close to the casting axis, wherein a row of third rollers is positioned in an area in the vicinity of a second ingot corner, wherein the rotation axes of the two first adjacent rollers are spaced at a preset distance, wherein the rotation axes of the two second adjacent rollers are spaced at a preset distance from one another, wherein the rotation axes of the two third adjacent rollers are spaced at a preset distance from one another, wherein the rotation axes of the second rollers are spaced with respect to both the rotation axes of the first rollers and with respect to the rotation axes of the third rollers.
The dependent claims describe preferred embodiments of the invention. In one variant, the first distance between axes of adjacent rollers arranged in the rows in the vicinity of the ingot corners has different values along the casting line, and said distance may vary in a regular way or irregular way, in order to favour the damping

of the pulsation frequency of the liquid steel column and therefore disturbance at the meniscus.
In another embodiment, the distance between axes of adjacent rollers arranged in the row in correspondence with the centre of the ingot has different values along the casting line, and this distance may be the same as or different from the dis¬tance between the rollers arranged in the rows placed in the vicinity of the ingot corners.
In another embodiment of the plant of the present invention, the distances be-t>Neer\ adjacent rollers of the rows arranged in correspondence with the corners and between adjacent rollers of the rows in the centre of the ingot are different from one another, further increasing the irregularity of roller arrangement along the first stretch of ingot.
in a further embodiment of the invention, the pitch of the rollers of the rows along the corners and/or the pitch of the rollers at the centre of the continuous ingot are different according to whether they are arranged on the intrados or on the extrados of the ingot.
Each of these various combinations of pitch between rollers allows an efficient damping of the oscillation phenomena at the meniscus and contributes to the im-
nrn\/omonf nf tho i-^actin'^ rvrnr^ooc
One advantage of the plant scope of this invention consists in the fact that the area on which the ferrostatic pressure of the liquid steel acts between adjacent rollers is of a smaller dimension with respect to other state of the art solutions and therefore reduces the entity of bulge area deformation.
The characteristic of introducing pitches of different magnitude between adjacent rollers means that the rollers to not cause the buckling of the bulges with a single frequency and therefore advantageously make it possible to damp the pulsation frequency of the liquid steel column upwards.
Therefore the arrangement of the rollers according to the invention considerably reduces the risk of dynamic bulging phenomena in two ways: by reducing the en¬tity of the bulges and by damping the buckling frequency thereof. Brief description of the figures
Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become apparent in view of the detailed description of a preferred, though not exclusive, embodiment

of a plant for the continuous casting of metal products, given by way of non limiting example by means of the appended drawings wherein:
Fig. 1A shows a frontal schematic view of a continuous casting plant of the prior art,
Fig. 1B shows a frontal schematic view of the dievfce confbmn to tfie invention. Fig. 2 shows a side view of the device in Fig. 1B; Fig. 3 shows a side view of an embodiment of the device of Fig. 1B; Fig. 4 shows a frontal schematic view of a second embodiment of the device con¬form to the invention;
Fig. 5 shows a frontal schematic view of a third embodiment of the device according to the invention.
Detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention Fig. 1B shows a plant for the continuous casting of a continuous ingot 1, for exam¬ple in the form of a thick slab, bloom or similar steel product, comprising a series of containment and guiding rollers arranged under the ingot mould, not illustrated in the figure. For greater explanatory clarity of the invention, the following are defined:
- intrados and extrados of the ingot 1 are the surfaces of the ingot that are closer to and farthest from the centre of casting machine bends, respectively;
- transverse rows of rollers, are those rows arranged in a substantially orthogonal direction to the casting direction;
- longitudinal rows of rollers, are those rows arranged in a substantially parallel di¬rection to the casting direction.
In accordance with the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 1B, three longitudinal rows of rollers can be identified. The two lateral longitudinal rows that contain the ingot in correspondence with the area of the corners comprise, for example, rollers 2', 2", 2'" and 4", 4", 4'"; the central longitudinal row, substantially parallel to the casting axis X of the ingot comprises, for example, the rollers 3', 3", 3'". In accordance with the present invention, the rotation axes of the lateral longitudinal row rollers are staggered with respect to the axes of the central longitudinal row rollers so as to minimise the areas 10 of the ingot surface that are not supported by any roller and on which ferrostatic pressure is exerted. In this way, skin bulges caused by fen-ostatic pressure are smaller and the likeli-

hood of the dynamic bulging phenomenon occurring is reduced. The axes of the rollers 2', 2", 2'" and those of rollers 4', 4", 4'" are arranged along the longitudinal rows, positioned at the corners of the ingot 1, and are spaced at a constant value pitch "p". The axes of the rollers 3', 3", 3'" arranged along the longi¬tudinal row of the central area of ingot 1 are spaced at a constant pitch "m". In this embodiment the central longitudinal row rollers have a longitudinal extension greater than that of the lateral longitudinal rows in correspondence with the ingot corners. This does not exclude other embodiments wherein this relationship, re¬garding the longitudinal extension of the rollers, is different. In another advantageous embodiment, within the scope of the invention, pitches "m" and "p" are defined in such a way as to have a different value between adja¬cent rollers. The law of variation of pitch between the rollers of the various longitu¬dinal rows may be different or the differences of pitch may not follow any law, be¬ing defined only by random pitch variations.
Such measures on the choice of the values of the pitches m and p make it possi¬ble to damp the pulsation frequency of the liquid metal column. In a further advantageous variant, the pitch "m" between the adjacent rollers of the central row and the pitch "p" between the adjacent rollers of the lateral rows are of different values, and both pitch "m," and pitch "p" assume different values accord¬ing to the pair of adjacent rollers they refer to.
Figures 2 and 3 refer to two embodiments of the invention with different arrange¬ments of the transverse rows of rollers respectively on the intrados and extrados of the ingot 1. The transverse rows of rollers illustrated in said figures may refer in¬discriminately to the central longitudinal row or to one of the longitudinal lateral rows of Fig. IB.
Fig. 2 illustrates a side view of the ingot in which both some intrados rollers and some extrados rollers are visible. In this case, each extrados roller 3', 3" and the corresponding intrados roller 5', 5" of the central longitudinal rows have their re¬spective rotation axes lying on the same plane perpendicular to the ingot casting axis X. The same applies for extrados rollers A', 4" and the corresponding intrados rollers 6', 6" of the lateral longitudinal rows. More simply, the rollers 5', 5", 6', 6" along the intrados and the corresponding rollers 3', 3", 4', 4" along the extrados are arranged symmetrically with respect to the ingot casting axis.

Therefore in this variant, pitches "pe" and "me" of the extrados rollers are equal to the pitches "pi" and "mi" of the corresponding intrados roller, respectively. Advantageously, with a roller arrangement conform to this variant it is possible to perform soft-reduction of the ingot by bringing closer together with known mecha¬nisms the intrados rollers and those of the extrados.
Figure 3, on the other hand, illustrates a side view of the ingot wherein the rollers on the intrados in the different longitudinal rows have rotation axes staggered with respect to the axes of the corresponding rollers on the extrados of the ingot 1. In particular, each extrados roller 3', 3" and the corresponding intrados roller 7', 7" of the central longitudinal rows have their respective rotation axes lying each one on a different plane perpendicular to the ingot casting axis X. The same applies for extrados rollers 4', 4" and the corresponding intrados rollers 8', 8" of the lateral longitudinal rows. In this variant, the pitch values "pe " and "me " of the extrados rollers may be respectively equal or different from the values of pitches "pi " and "mi" of the corresponding intrados rollers.
In accordance with the variants illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, the pitches "p" and "m" may be equal or different to one another, or both pitch "m" and pitch "p" may re¬spectively have different values considering the different pairs of adjacent rollers to which they refer in each longitudinal row.
Further advantageous embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the sche¬matic front views of Figures 4 and 5, in which four longitudinal rows of rollers can be identified.
In Fig. 4, the two lateral longitudinal rows that contain the ingot in correspondence with the area of the corners comprise, for example, rollers 2', 2", 2'" and 4', 4", 4'"; the two central longitudinal rows, which contain the ingot in correspondence with the central part thereof comprise, for example, rollers 30', 30", 30'" and 31', 31", 31'", respectively.
In accordance with this variant, the rotation axes of the rollers of the lateral longi¬tudinal rows are staggered with respect to the axes of the rollers of the central lon¬gitudinal rows in such a way as to minimise the areas 10' of the ingot surface that are not supported by any roller and on which ferrostatic pressure is exerted. The axes of the rollers 2', 2", 2'" and those of rollers 4', 4", 4'" are arranged along the longitudinal rows, positioned at the corners of the ingot 1, and are spaced at a

constant value pitch "p". The axes of the rollers 30', 30", 30'" and those of the roll¬ers 31', 31", 31"' arranged along the longitudinal row of the central area of the in¬got 1 are spaced at a constant pitch "m".
For each transverse row of rollers there are alternatively two rollers of the central longitudinal rows, for example rollers 30' and 31, having a common rotation axis, and two lateral longitudinal row rollers, for example rollers 4' and 2' also having a common rotation axis.
It is also possible that pitches "m" and "p" are defined so as to be of different value between adjacent rollers. The laws of variation of pitch between the rollers of the various longitudinal rows may be different or the differences of pitch may not follow any law, being defined only by random variations in pitch, to be chosen according to specific casting parameters. Such measures on the choice of the values of the pitches "m" and "p" make it possible to damp the pulsation frequency of the liquid metal column. Furthermore, the pitch "m" between the adjacent rollers of the cen¬tral row and the pitch "p" between the adjacent rollers of the lateral rows may also be of different values, and both pitch "m" and pitch "p" may assume different val¬ues according to the pair of adjacent rollers they refer to.
In the embodiment in Fig. 5, unlike that in Fig. 4, the rollers of the two central lon¬gitudinal rows, for example the rollers 40', 40", 40'" and rollers 41', 41", 41'", are respectively staggered to one another.
In accordance with the present embodiment, the rotation axes of the rollers of the lateral longitudinal rows are staggered with respect to the axes of the rollers of the central longitudinal rows in such a way as to further reduce the dimension of the areas 10" of the ingot surface that are not supported by any roller and on which ferrostatic pressure is exerted. In this case, the areas 10" are more numerous but smaller and are staggered to one another as are the rollers of the two central lon¬gitudinal rows.
The axes of the rollers 2', 2", 2'" and those of rollers 4', 4", 4'" are arranged along the longitudinal rows, positioned at the edges of the ingot 1, and are spaced at a pitch "p".
The axes of the rollers 40', 40", 40'" arranged along the first central longitudinal row, are spaced at a pitch "m1". The axes of the rollers 41', 41", 41"', arranged along the second central longitudi-

nal row, are spaced at a pitch "m2".
Each of the axes of the rollers in the first central longitudinal row is staggered with respect to each of the adjacent rollers of the second central longitudinal row at a distance or pitch "q".
Each of the pitches "p", "m1", "m2", "q" may assume a value that is always con¬stant along the casting line or may vary according to the different predefined laws of variation or in a random way.
The particular configuration illustrated in Fig. 5 envisages that "p", "m1" and "m2" have a same constant value and that "q" is equal to "p72.
The embodiments of Figures 4 and 5 allow a further reduction in the dimension of the skin bulges caused by ferrostatic pressure and, consequently, the likelihood that the dynamic bulging phenomenon may occur.
In both these embodiments the central longitudinal row rollers have a longitudinal extension greater than that of the lateral longitudinal rows in correspondence with the ingot comers. Also for these variants, this does not exclude other embodi¬ments wherein this relationship, regarding the longitudinal extension of the rollers, is different.
As for the embodiment in Fig. 1B, also the embodiments corresponding to Figures 4 and 5 may present a different arrangement of the transverse rows of rollers re¬spectively on the intrados and extrados of the ingot 1. The intrados rollers and the corresponding intrados rollers of the central and lateral longitudinal rows may have their respective rotation axes lying on the same plane perpendicular to ingot cast¬ing axis X, or the intrados rollers may present the respective axes of rotation stag¬gered by a preset distance with respect to the axes of the corresponding rollers on the extrados along casting axis X.
In the first case, the rollers along the intrados and the corresponding rollers along the extrados are arranged symmetrically with respect to the ingot casting axis X. Therefore in this variant, pitches "pe" and "me" of the extrados rollers are equal to the pitches "pi" and "mi" of the corresponding intrados roller, respectively. Advan¬tageously, with this roller arrangement it is possible to perform "soft-reduction" of the ingot by bringing closer together with known mechanisms the intrados rollers and those of the extrados. Generally this occurs for the rollers that are located in correspondence with the external edges of the thick slab where at the lower outlet

of the crystalliser a skin has already formed with a thickness such as to allow such "soft-reduction" operation.
In the second case, on the other hand, the values of pitches "Pe", "me1", "me2'\ "qe" of the extrados rollers may be respectively equal or different from the values of pitches "pi", "mil", "mi2", "qfof the corresponding intrados rollers. This second con¬figuration is advantageously used in the thick slab area where "soft-reduction" is no longer necessary.

New claims ready to file
1. Plant for continuous casting of continuous steel ingots, in particular, although
not exclusively, in the form of thick slabs, blooms or simitar products comprising a
continuous casting ingot mould defining a vertical casting axis (X) and a
continuous ingot guiding device arranged under the ingot mould and wherein a
plurality of rotating rollers is incorporated around a horizontal rotation axis
arranged on two opposite sides of the continuous ingot with respect to the casting
axis (X), having a continuous ingot guiding function,
wherein each of said rollers have an axial length shorter than the length of said
opposite sides measured according to a parallel to the rotation axis,
wherein on each of said two opposite sides the rollers are arranged along at least
three respective rows parallel to the casting axis (X) so as to create a guide for the
ingot,
wherein a first row of lateral rollers is positioned in an area in the vicinity of a first
corner of the ingot,
wherein at least one row of central rollers is positioned in a central area close to
the casting axis (X),
wherein a second row of lateral rollers is positioned in an area in the vicinity of a
second ingot corner,
wherein the rotation axes of said central rollers are staggered with respect to the
rotation axes of said lateral rollers,
wherein the rotation axes of a pair of two adjacent rollers of said first and said
second row of lateral rollers are spaced at a first pitch (p, Pi, pe) in the direction of
the casting axis (X),
wherein the rotation axes of a pair of two adjacent rollers of said at least one row
of central rollers are spaced at a second pitch (m, me, mi) in the direction of the
casting axis (X),
characterised in that
said first pitch (p, Pi, Pe) has different values depending on the position of the
lateral rollers along the casting axis (X) and said second pitch (m, m,, me) has

different values depending on the position of the central rollers along the casting axis (X).
2. Piant according to claim 1 wherein rollers of said first row of lateral rollers are arranged with rotation axes staggered from the rotation axes of rollers of said second row of lateral rollers.
3. Piant according to claim 1 wherein rollers of said first row of lateral rollers are arranged with rotation axes aligned with the rotation axes of rollers of said second row of lateral rollers.
4 Plant according to one of the previous claims, wherein there are provided two rows of central rollers positioned in the central ingot area close to the casting axis (X) between-the-first and second rows of lateral rollers.
5. Plant according to claim 4, wherein the central-rollers of said two rows of central rollers are arranged coaxially.
6. Plant according to claim 4, wherein the rollers of one row of central rollers are arranged with axes staggered with respect to the axes of rollers of the second row of central rollers.

7. Plant according to one of the previous claims, wherein said first (p, pe, Pi) and second (m, m;, me) distances are different-to one another.
8. Plant according to any claim 1 to 6, wherein said first pitch (p, pi, pe) and said second pitch (m, mi, me) are equal to one another.
9. Plant according to one of the previous claims, wherein the two opposite sides of the continuous ingot define an intrados side and an extrados side of the ingot and wherein said first pitch (pe, pi) is different according to whether it is arranged on the intrados or extrados.
10. Plant according to one of the previous claims, wherein said second pitch (me,
mO is different according to whether it is arranged on the intrados or the extrados.