A thin slab nozzle comprises: a central bore defined by a bore wall and opening at inlet orifice and extending therefrom along the longitudinal axis X1 until it is closed at an upstream end of a divider, said central bore comprising: an upstream bore portion comprising the inlet orifice and extending over a height, Ha, and, adjacent thereto, forming an upstream boundary with a converging bore portion of height He located in the connecting portion of the thin slab nozzle, and adjacent thereto a thin bore portion of height Hf located in the diffusing portion of the thin slab nozzle and ending at the level of the upstream end of the divider, first and second front ports separated from one another by said divider and coupled to the central bore portion at least partially at the converging bore portion;

characterized in that, in a section of the thin slab nozzle along the first symmetry plane 1 defined by (X1, X2) wherein X2 is normal to X1, the geometry of the wall of the central bore is characterized as follows: the radius of curvature at any point of the bore wall of the converging bore portion is finite, and the ratio of the height, Hf, of the thin bore portion to the height, He, of the converging bore portion is not more than 1, Hf/He1.

The invention provides rotating a submerged nozzle during casting to arbitrarily change the discharge angle of molten metal, causing the molten metal in the mold for slab to be rotated and stirred. A slab continuous casting apparatus according to the invention supplies molten metal from a tundish to a water-cooled mold for slab through at least an upper nozzle, a slide valve and a submerged nozzle and solidified the molten metal and provided with a submerged-nozzle quick replacement mechanism. The slab continuous casting apparatus further includes a discharge-direction changing mechanism capable of arbitrarily changing discharge angle of the molten metal as viewed in a horizontal cross section, during casting, the discharge-direction changing mechanism being provided between a slide valve device for opening and closing the slide valve and the submerged nozzle.

Plant for the production of metal products comprising: a main rolling line configured to roll thin slabs; a main casting line of thin slabs associated downstream to a heating and/or maintenance furnace to heat and/or maintain the cast thin slabs at a uniform temperature, the main casting line being positioned upstream of and aligned with said main rolling line, the main rolling line being configured to roll the thin slabs arriving at least from the heating and/or maintenance furnace; an auxiliary rolling line provided with at least one rolling unit configured to roll conventional slabs and obtain thin slabs, and with a transfer unit positioned downstream of the rolling unit and configured to transfer the thin slabs rolled by the latter to the heating and/or maintenance furnace.

A method for producing an ultra-thin strip of less than 0.8 mm from cast steel in batch/continuous operation with a casting-rolling system. The method includes casting a thin slab having a casting thickness of 90-150 mm and width of at least 1000 mm at a casting speed of 7 m/min. The thin slab is heated/homogenized to a first temperature in a continuous furnace and subsequently rolled by at least seven final roll stands into an ultra-thin band. Neither the thin slab nor strip undergo inductive heating during production. The thin slab rolling steps include rough rolling the thin slab at the heated/homogenized first temperature by a roughing stand; heating/homogenizing the rough-rolled thin slab to a second temperature by a further continuous furnace; and finally rolling the rough-rolled thin slab at the second temperature to the ultra-thin strip by the final roll stands arranged downstream of the further continuous furnace.

A method relates to producing metal strips by casting rolling. A slab (3) is first cast in a casting machine (2). The slab (3) is cleaned in a cleaning device (4) placed after the casting machine (2) in the conveying direction. The slab (3) then undergoes a heat treatment in a heat treatment device (11). Between the cleaning device (4) and the heat treatment device (11), the slab (3) undergoes a smoothing process by means of two interacting smoothing rolls (13, 14). In order to reduce energy and production costs and to improve the surface of the slabs prior to the first forming process, the smoothing process is carried out such that the slab (3) does not undergo a substantial reduction in thickness, and the roughness depth of the smoothed surface of the slab (3) is reduced.