Method and plant for the manufacture of a thin-rolled steel strip

摘要

The manufacture of thin hot-rolled steel strip comprises the steps of: (i) forming a liquid steel into a cast slab having a thickness of less than 100 mm in a continuous casting machine; (ii) rolling the slab in the austenitic region into an intermediate slab having a lesser thickness than the cast slab; and (iii) rolling the intermediate slab in the austenitic region into a strip. The slab or the intermediate slab is held for a period of time in a furnace in which a non-oxidizing atmosphere is maintained in contact with its surface. The thickness of the intermediate slab is in the range 5 to 25 mm and in step (iii) the intermediate slab is rolled to a final thickness of less than 1.2 mm. This enables production of particularly thin hot-rolled strip, using a simple plant.