Development of mould fluxes based on lime–alumina slag system for casting high aluminium TRIP steel

With excellent strength and ductility properties, transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steels are superior to ordinary commercial steels and have great application potential in the automobile industry. However, the continuous casting of TRIP steels is associated with challenges owing to its high aluminium content, approximately 0⋅5–1⋅8%. The reaction of aluminium near the steel/slag interface continuously changes the basicity of conventional lime–silica based mould fluxes causing variation in the flux physical properties between the solidifying shell and mould wall. Therefore, the heat transfer process is unstable and the surface quality of the as-cast slab is not guaranteed.To reduce the reactivity of aluminium in TRIP steel during casting, it is suggested to replace the lime–silica based fluxes with a lime–alumina based mould flux, based on laboratory measurements and industrial trials.The trials showed great improvement in the slab surface quality and no depression defect was noticed so far.