Taper plate assemblies are disclosed that may be installed on the top of steel casting ladles to restrain and maintain refractory lining materials in compression during casting operations. The taper plate assemblies include a generally conical taper plate supported by a ring-shaped support flange and a support collar. The taper plate is located at least partially above a refractory top ring that may comprise a castable refractory material, and is designed to maintain the refractory top ring in compression during multiple casting operations.

Taper plate assemblies are disclosed that may be installed on the top of steel casting ladles to restrain and maintain refractory lining materials in compression during casting operations. The taper plate assemblies include a generally conical taper plate supported by a ring-shaped support flange and a support collar. The taper plate is located at least partially above a refractory top ring that may comprise a castable refractory material, and is designed to maintain the refractory top ring in compression during multiple casting operations.

The present disclosure addresses the technical problem of prediction of a preheat refractory temperature profile of a ladle furnace. Operational temperature of the ladle furnace, stability of sensors and placement make sensors not feasible. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations require large computation time and cannot be used for runtime applications in plants. The method and system of the present disclosure uses CFD modeling to carry out parametric study to generate data which is further processed to train an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model that serves as a prediction model for predicting the preheat refractory temperature profile for at least a portion of the side refractory and at least a portion of the bottom refractory layer separately for which a new set of input data is obtained. The trained prediction model of the present disclosure provides a quick runtime prediction in plants.

A tundish, wherein a steel passing hole (43) is provided at a lower portion of a gas-curtain weir refractory body (42); an argon duct (46), a gas chamber (45) and a gas-permeable brick (44) are connected to form a gas-curtain generating device, and the gas-curtain generating device is installed at the lower portion of the gas-curtain weir refractory body (42); the gas-permeable brick (44) is provided in association with the position of the steel passing hole (43), and a length of the gas-permeable brick is designed larger than a width of the steel passing hole (43); and a gas-curtain weir plate (4) is provided in a tundish container, the gas-curtain weir refractory body (42) crosses the tundish container horizontally, and divides the tundish container into a first region and a second region.

A strip casting system for aluminium and/or aluminium alloys comprising a casting furnace and a revolving chill mould having a casting gap. The revolving chill mould is designed as a roll pair, roller pair, caterpillar pair or belt pair. The strip casting system has an active means for transporting metal melt from the casting furnace to the casting gap and a casting region arranged in front of the casting gap. The casting region is delimited on one side by the revolving chill mould. A melt pool is formed in the casting region, from which metal melt flows or is drawn into the casting gap. The casting furnace is connected to the casting region by a pipe system with means for feeding the metal melt into the casting region, which can feed the metal melt to the casting region below the surface of the melt pool formed in the casting region.

A ductile iron composition including, by weight: about 3.1% to about 3.6% C; about 3.5% to about 4.0% Si; about 0.035% to about 0.050% Mg; about 0.001% to about 0.004% Ce; up to about 0.005% Sb; about 0.008% to about 0.016% S; up to about 0.04% P; up to about 0.3% Mn; and balance iron and incidental impurities;
The ductile iron composition includes a ratio of Sb/Ce greater than or equal to about 1.25, has a ferritic microstructure and graphite nodules, and greater than about 65% of the graphite nodules having a highly spherical geometry. A method and apparatus for forming a ductile iron composition are also disclosed.

A system and method for transferring molten metal from a vessel and into one or more of a ladle, ingot mold, launder, feed die cast machine or other structure is disclosed. The system includes at least a vessel for containing molten metal, an overflow (or dividing) wall, and a device or structure, such as a molten metal pump, for generating a stream of molten metal. The dividing wall divides the vessel into a first chamber and a second chamber, wherein part of the second chamber has a height H2. The device for generating a stream of molten metal, which is preferably a molten metal pump, is preferably positioned in the first chamber. When the device operates, it generates a stream of molten metal from the first chamber and into the second chamber. When the level of molten metal in the second chamber exceeds H2, molten metal flows out of the vessel and into another structure, such as into one or more ladles and/or one or more launders.

A system and method for transferring molten metal from a vessel and into one or more of a ladle, ingot mold, launder, feed die cast machine or other structure is disclosed. The system includes at least a vessel for containing molten metal, an overflow (or dividing) wall, and a device or structure, such as a molten metal pump, for generating a stream of molten metal. The dividing wall divides the vessel into a first chamber and a second chamber, wherein part of the second chamber has a height H2. The device for generating a stream of molten metal, which is preferably a molten metal pump, is preferably positioned in the first chamber. When the device operates, it generates a stream of molten metal from the first chamber and into the second chamber. When the level of molten metal in the second chamber exceeds H2, molten metal flows out of the vessel and into another structure, such as into one or more ladles and/or one or more launders.

Described herein is a crucible with a rod fused thereon to optimize pouring of molten material, and method of using the same. The crucible has a body configured for receipt of an amorphous alloy material in a vertical direction, and the rod extends in a horizontal direction from the body. The body of the crucible and the rod are formed from silica or quartz. The rod may be fused to the body of the crucible and provided off a center axis so that pouring molten material is improved when the crucible is rotated.

Described herein is a crucible with a rod fused thereon to optimize pouring of molten material, and method of using the same. The crucible has a body configured for receipt of an amorphous alloy material in a vertical direction, and the rod extends in a horizontal direction from the body. The body of the crucible and the rod are formed from silica or quartz. The rod may be fused to the body of the crucible and provided off a center axis so that pouring molten material is improved when the crucible is rotated.