The world's first commercial strip casting facility for plain-carbon steel sheet, utilizing the Castrip Process, has set a new record for sequence casting. The facility, a part of Nucor Corporation's Crawfordsville, Ind., steel plant, cast 24 ladles of steel, continuously, over a 38-hour period in late December. Total throughput for the record was 2,467 tons cast, while producing 2,387 tons of prime coils. The previous record of nine ladles and 12 hours of casting had stood until early December when it was eclipsed with a 14-heat sequence, followed a week later by an 18-heat sequence. Within 10 days, both achievements were shattered by this world-record performance.
"This record highlights not only a step change in productivity but also the remarkable strides made in product quality over the past twelve months" said Dan DiMicco, Nucor's chairman and chief executive officer. "We are very proud of the dedication and focus of the Crawfordsville team that continues to push the envelope of strip casting. Nucor looks forward to the operation of the second Castrip facility under construction in Blytheville, Ark., which is scheduled for start-up in late 2008. The synergy created from the expertise of these two plants has already redefined new standards of quality and performance for thin strip casting."
In addition to the new sequence length record, the Crawfordsville plant will enjoy a new high water mark in monthly production and shipments for December to complement an annual production record in 2007.
Based in Charlotte, N.C., Castrip LLC is a joint venture of Nucor Corporation, BlueScope Steel Ltd. of Australia and IHI Corporation of Japan. The company was formed to market and license intellectual property related to the twin-roll casting of carbon and stainless steels developed jointly by its three owners.
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