Aluminum Alloy Strips Casting Using an Unequal Diameter Twin Roll Caster

An unequal diameter twin roll caster was devised in order to increase productivity of the strip. This caster could cast the strip thicker than 6mm at the speed of 5m/min. The feature of this caster is that the lower roll was four times larger than the upper roll. The solidification length of the strip could be set longer easily than the conventional twin roll caster for aluminum alloy. Lowsolidification rate semisolid casting and low superheat casting were adopted. These were effective to increase the casting speed without decreasing the thickness of the strip. In the present study, the unequal diameter twin roll caster was designed and assembled. The test castings were operated and the characteristics of this caster were shown.