Caster alignment

   To prevent from misalignment of caster equipment of continuous casting area there is a need of careful preparation procedures of caster, alignment and adjustment of relative position for caster components and checking of equipment alignment during casting.

    As a rule, alignment and adjustment of equipment against caster centerline is performed with such tools as: rulers, templates, strings and drop leads, resulting in failure to guarantee high accuracy of works and in failure to meet requirements of caster design engineering documents.  

    Development of industrial production places stricter requirements for erection and alignment of process equipment. For the moment, accuracy for components installation of metallurgical equipment amounts to  0.1..0.4 mm. Conventional methods fail to guarantee such accuracy, moreover, these methods are time-consuming enough, involving many hours of operation. It results in great downtimes.

   At present the prospective solution of this issue is application of laser-based methods and tools. Using such methods provides opportunities to solve a number of important issues:

•Precise alignment and adjustment for caster equipment in line with caster centerline with accuracy of 1 micron per meter maximum. It is applicable to caster dimensions and meets requirements of modern design documents.
•Minimum control period of equipment alignment including several hours only. •Possibility to compare between actual caster curve and estimated curve calculated at caster engineering stage and drawn in one of CAD systems (AUTOCAD, Compass and others)

Radius-type caster centerline is made up of variable radial arc going into horizontal straight line.

 The shape of radius-type caster centerline is chosen based on the estimated maximum casting speed during casting process and minimum stress-strain level as the slab moves along the radius to the horizontal part of caster.  Minimum stress-strain level depends on caster radius curvature of the centerline.

 Precise alignment and adjustment of caster equipment position being in line with caster centerline ensures stable and safe casting process, slab quality and caster equipment reliability.

     One of important steps in caster adjustment is checking and, if necessary, adjustment of templates dimension used for caster control during preventive maintenance. As a rule, a template is of challenging shape and has to meet very high accuracy requirements.

 We would be pleased to help you in caster alignment providing all necessary measurements by laser tracker which to the fullest extent ensures fulfillment of all above-mentioned tasks.

 Caster alignment using this type of equipment is of particular concern during start-up. It provides independent verification of correct and diligent fulfillment of obligations by designers and equipment suppliers. Moreover, this verification allows finding all differences from design solutions and protecting a group of specialists to operate caster in future from critical mistakes to be corrected by themselves with long downtimes.