User-Friendly Surveillance Tools to Prevent Bleed-Out During Cast Start

Cast house operation implies high risk processes related to molten metal handling like charge preparation or cast start. Hydro’s R&D center Bonn has the ambition to provide procedures and user-friendly tools helping to prevent these risks. Insufficient or deviating cooling conditions in the water curtain of the secondary cooling zone are common causes for bleed-outs, especially during cast start with the risk of water-melt explosions. They typically rely on the flow conditions in the sump, the stress-strain conditions in the solidifying shell and insufficient water supply for cooling. Hydro’s “water tester” is a robust tool to check the water flow rate and distribution in the water curtain of all types of casting molds. It is well accepted by operators due to its easy and ergonomic use. The thermopile-array based “bleed-out detector” represents an even more detailed analysis tool of the cooling features of the used molds. It is a cost-efficient tool visualizing the water and temperature distribution in the secondary cooling zone suitable to trigger alarms or even automatic cast aborts. This paper describes the technological approach and application cases for both tools.