CASTING IRON BASED SPECIALITY ALLOY

摘要

A process for producing an iron based specialty alloy intermediate product, which method comprises: (a) forming a melt of desired alloy composition; and (b) casting the melt under solidification conditions to produce an iron based specialty alloy intermediate product that has a microstructure and other properties that renders it suitable for a finishing operation. The solidification conditions are selected and controlled to produce in the intermediate product a relatively fine microstructure and to minimise or avoid macro segregation of alloy components and surface oxidation and cracks. The finishing operations can be typical metal working operations such as cold rolling, hot rolling, annealing. Preferably the melt is cast as a thin section, strip, foil or wire of thickness about 2 mm or less. Generally, the properties of iron based specialty alloys are attributable to the inclusion of relatively high proportions of alloying element levels, e.g. and/or Cr, Ni, Cu, Si, Al and the remainder Fe.