For continuously casting an ingot of titanium or titanium alloy, molten titanium or titanium alloy is poured into a top opening of a bottomless mold with a circular cross-sectional shape, the solidified molten metal in the mold is pulled downward from the mold, a plurality of plasma torches disposed on an upper side of molten metal in the mold such that their centers are located directly vertically above the molten metal in the mold, are operated to generate plasma arcs that heat the molten metal in the mold, and the plasma torches are moved in a horizontal direction above a melt surface of the molten metal in the mold, along a trajectory located directly vertically above the molten metal in the mold, while keeping a mutual distance between the respective plasma torches such that the plasma torches do not interfere with each other.

Disclosed is an electromagnetic casting method of polycrystalline silicon which is characterized in that polycrystalline silicon is continuously cast by charging silicon raw materials into a bottomless cold mold, melting the silicon raw materials using electromagnetic induction heating, and pulling down the molten silicon to solidify it, wherein the depth of solid-liquid interface before the start of the final solidification process is decreased by reducing a pull down rate of ingot in a final phase of steady-state casting. By adopting the method, the region of precipitation of foreign substances in the finally solidified portion of ingot can be reduced and cracking generation can be prevented upon production of a polycrystalline silicon as a substrate material for a solar cell.

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 continuous, high-temperature preheating plant for preheating flat semi-finished steel products has a conveying line suitable to transfer the flat semi-finished steel products from an inlet to an outlet of the continuous, high-temperature preheating plant, and a plurality of heating devices arranged along the conveying line to heat the semi-finished steel products from an inlet temperature to a predetermined final temperature. The plurality of heating devices has, arranged in sequence between the inlet and the outlet along the conveying line, a first induction furnace, a second induction furnace, and at least one electric resistance radiation furnace. The continuous, high-temperature preheating plant has a cutting apparatus suitable to cut a starting flat semi-finished steel product into a plurality of cut segments having a predetermined length less than a length of the starting flat semi-finished steel product. The cutting apparatus is arranged between the first induction furnace and the second induction furnace.

A method for heating at least one semi-finished metal products to be further laminated, via a heat exchanging device comprising a chamber containing solid particles, supporting means able to support semi-finished metal product and a gas injector, having the successive steps of: i. injecting a gas into said chamber so as to form a fluidized bed, ii. inserting at least one hot semi-finished metal product such that said at least one hot semi-finished metal product is able to transfer heat to said fluidized bed, iii. inserting said at least one semi-finished metal product to be further laminated such that said fluidized bed is able to transfer heat to said at least one semi-finished metal product to be further laminated, iv. taking out said at least one semi-finished metal product to be further laminated of said fluidized bed when the temperature of said at least one semi-finished metal product to be further laminated is less than 100 C. below the temperature of said fluidized bed.

An apparatus for producing and further processing slabs of a metal, preferably steel, comprises: a continuous casting apparatus, which is designed to produce at least one cast strand and to transport it in a transport direction; a cutting device, which is arranged behind the continuous casting apparatus, as seen in the transport direction, and is designed to cut the cast strand into slabs; at least a first route and a second route, which implement, at least in some portions, different process lines for the further processing of the slabs; and a process control system, which is designed to make a route decision on a slab-specific basis as a function of at least one measured or calculated process parameter, which route decision assigns one of the plurality of routes to the respective slab, and to initiate the further processing of the corresponding slab along the assigned route.

A copper-aluminum composite plate material prepared by aluminum liquid continuous casting and a process thereof. The method includes: S1, heating an aluminum ingot to 700-800 C. and smelting for 1-3 h; S2, degassing smelted aluminum liquid, and keeping the temperature and standing; S3, texturing a copper strip, and then cleaning; S4, heating the pretreated copper strip to 200-650 C.; S5, under the protection of inert gas, continuously casting the treated aluminum liquid on the treated copper strip, performing quenching crystallization on a copper-aluminum composite material, and performing oxygen-free continuous casting; and S6, continuous rolling: rolling the continuously cast copper-aluminum composite material to obtain the copper-aluminum composite plate material prepared by aluminum liquid continuous casting.

A copper-aluminum composite plate material prepared by aluminum liquid continuous casting and a process thereof. The method includes: S1, heating an aluminum ingot to 700-800 C. and smelting for 1-3 h; S2, degassing smelted aluminum liquid, and keeping the temperature and standing; S3, texturing a copper strip, and then cleaning; S4, heating the pretreated copper strip to 200-650 C.; S5, under the protection of inert gas, continuously casting the treated aluminum liquid on the treated copper strip, performing quenching crystallization on a copper-aluminum composite material, and performing oxygen-free continuous casting; and S6, continuous rolling: rolling the continuously cast copper-aluminum composite material to obtain the copper-aluminum composite plate material prepared by aluminum liquid continuous casting.

A device for producing hot-rolled metal strips has a casting machine that produces and transports slabs in a transport line of the casting machine. A rolling mill forms the slabs into corresponding metal strips during transport along a transport line of the rolling mill. A combination transport and temperature-influencing device is arranged between the casting machine and the rolling mill transports the slabs at least along the transport line of the rolling mill, feeds the slabs to the rolling mill and sets the temperature of the slabs to a rolling temperature. A surface device is arranged between the casting machine and the combination transport and temperature-influencing device and processes and/or treats and/or inspects at least one of the surfaces of the slabs. A temperature-influencing device is arranged between the casting machine and the combination transport and temperature-influencing device and modifies the temperature of the slabs.

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.