Abstract: An improvement in continuous metal casting machines of the type having a pair of flexible, moving casting belts which revolve along endless paths for defining a casting region therebetween and moving side dams which revolve along with the casting belts for confining the cast strip, slab or bar laterally. The casting belts are individually supported by upper and lower carriage means. The machine is provided with sensors such as load cells for sensing the displacement forces existing between the upper and lower carriages at selected points along the path of belt travel, and for sensing the side pressures exerted upon the side dams by the cooling, solidifying metal. This sensing permits the maintenance of predetermined, desired contact pressures along the length of the solidifying metal to thereby improve the physical characteristics of the cast product.

Abstract: A casting wheel cooling apparatus and method for rapid quenching of molten metal is provided. The cooling apparatus provides a multiplicity of axial conduits around the periphery of the wheel, close to the chill surface. In operation, molten metal deposits on the chill surface of the rapidly rotating casting wheel. The molten metal cools and solidifies, transferring heat to the casting wheel. By flowing coolant, preferably water, through the conduits at a sufficient rate, the heat transfer is generally radial. The molten metal cools uniformly across its width and the resulting metallic strip has substantially uniform properties.

Abstract: In order to cool the jet coming from a crucible and then the wire as it starts solidifying, there is used a gaseous cooling fluid mixture having a base of gaseous hydrogen and at least one other component which is a compound of hydrogen capable of an endothermic chemical reaction in contact with the jet (wire) and of a chemical composition such that the product or products of this reaction have a high molecular content (mol %) of free hydrogen.

Abstract: Improvement in apparatus for making metal filament by depositing a stream of molten metal onto the inner surface of an annular chill roll as it is being rotated includes provision of a rotatably mounted annular chill roll having an inner surface substantially parallel to its axis of rotation, and means for stripping the metal filament from the inner surface of the chill roll and for guiding the stripped metal filament away from the chill roll.

Abstract: The disclosed continuous casting mold is especially constructed for use with a vaporizable coolant which is nonreactive with the molten metal being cast or the mold itself and includes an inner mold body having a longitudinal solidification chamber therethrough, an intermediate mold body surrounding and spaced from the inner mold body to define an annular cooling chamber therebetween and an outer mold body surrounding and spaced from the intermediate mold body to define an annular manifold chamber therebetween. Coolant access means associated typically with the outer mold body provides entry for coolant into the manifold chamber.

Abstract: Both the position and shape of the solidification front in molten metal passing continuously through the horizontal solidification chamber of a mold body are precisely controlled in the invention by establishing a cooling probe insertion pattern in which some of the probes are inserted into cooling bores in the mold body to greater distances than others. Specifically, establishment of a solidification front characterized by a liquid/solid isotherm that is substantially symmetrical across the chamber is achieved by progressively increasing the cooling probe insertion distance from the bottom to the top of the mold body. Premature, asymmetrical solidification on the bottom of the chamber is effectively minimized and reduces hot tears, fissures and other surface defects in the casting.