Abstract: A starter bar head for a continuous casting plant includes side faces that are directed to, and sealed relative to, the walls of a continuous casting mould, a front face closing the continuous casting mould, and at least one anchoring recess for the hot strand. The anchoring recess departs from a side face of the starter bar head, at least partly penetrates the front face of the starter bar head and is to be filled up by the metal to be cast. It is designed to be widened from the front face to a bottom face of the anchoring recess and includes at least two side walls arranged symmetrically to the longitudinal axis of the starter bar head and directed to the bottom face. The side walls of the anchoring recess pass over into a further recess whose surfaces that border at the mould side walls to be sealed off are directed upwardly, i.e. to the front face of the starter bar head.

Abstract: A starter bar to be used in continuous casting plants for extracting cast strands has a starter bar head and articulately interconnected link bodies following upon the starter bar head, and at least one of these link bodies is divided between the joints connecting it with the neighboring link bodies and the link body parts thus formed are braced together by laterally arranged connecting elements.

Abstract: A continuous casting plant for slabs, comprising a water-cooled mould from which the strand is continuously extracted, a supporting and guiding means having rollers for guiding the strand between them, and a cooling device having nozzles for spraying a coolant, in particular water, onto the strand and the rollers, has a part of the cooling device formed by flat jet nozzles arranged parallel to the surface of the strand. The longitudinal axes of the nozzles are parallel to the axes of the rollers, and two flat jet nozzles are arranged between neighboring rollers. Advantageously, the flat jet nozzles are arranged within the area defined by the slab edges of the slab sizes to be cast in the plant, and advantageously they are arranged opposite and toward each other. Furthermore, the flat jet nozzles can have nozzle openings in opposite directions, each opening pointing toward the slab edges.