A critical factor that determines the success or failure of a twin roll casting (TRC) processing plant is the ability to consistently produce high quality steel sheet products with minimal casting defects. The highly complex TRC process involves extremely rapid solidification rates, which makes it difficult to ensure high quality strip-cast products are produced with minimal defects. Systematically altering critical plant variables to understand the microstructures that form defects is also a challenge.

Using a novel substrate immersion (dip testing) technique, the research team is designing a strategic suite of strip-cast steel grades based on low-cost alloying additions. The alloys will be trialled in Baosteel’s TRC plant in Ningbo, China. The project is also addressing the need for reliable production of strip-cast steel sheet with minimal internal and surface defects. The researchers are studying the mechanisms that form strip casting defects (such as cracking) to provide metallurgical and engineering solutions that will eliminate these defects.