Abstract: A method and system is used for achieving increased precision of steering of the flexible, metallic endless belts of continuous metal-casting machines. Such belts usually have the imperfections inherent in the parent strip metal from which the belt is made. For example, in low-carbon steel, there is generally a "camber," a curvature of the edges in the plane of the strip material. Belts, revolving in the machine, are normally steered through sensing the lateral position of one edge. If the edge is not true, due to camber, the servo steering system of the prior art will continually "hunt" caused by variations in lateral position of the cambered edge. The present invention provides a steering method and system responsive to a single signal source, fixed on a belt edge. This single signal source is achieved by notching or otherwise cuing a belt at one place along an edge so that the steering sensor senses this cue notch as the belt revolves.

Abstract: Continuous casting methods and apparatus are described wherein a defect in the cast surfaces consisting of longitudinal bands of sinkage, sometimes called "sinks", which are spaced relatively far inwardly from the edges of wide, relatively thin slab or strip, usually being spaced inwardly away from the edges by a distance of 3 to 7 times (sometimes up to 9 times) the thickness of the cast slab, is practically eliminated by means of a coating or covering of non-wettable refractory ceramic material of low heat conductivity applied to the inner faces of the edge-dam blocks for reducing heat flow out of the edges of the slab or strip being cast. Numerous such blocks are strung onto a flexible metal band or cable to constitute each of the two edge dams which define the edges of the mold space.