Mold assembly for continuous casting

摘要

A continuous casting mold assembly has a pair of end plates which are releasably clamped between a pair of side plates and cooperate with the same to define an open-ended mold cavity. A single tie-rod at either end of the pair of side plates spans the side plates and provides a clamping function and an alignment function. Clamping is accomplished by clamping nuts on the tie-rods and the torque required to turn the nuts is maintained at a low value by means of thrust bearings. Alignment is achieved via tongues on the tie-rods which contact the side plate to be located at the neutral axis of the continuous casting apparatus. The tongues cooperate with locator heads on the respective tie-rods to define a predetermined distance of such magnitude that the side plate contacted by the tongues lies at the neutral axis when the locator heads abut fixed reference elements on the mold table. The invention provides simplification and increased operational reliability.