Caracterización de Fundentes para Molde de Colada Continua de Acero

Abstract

Fluxes for continuous casting mold of steel fulfill several key functions in order to produce slab steel of good quality. In this work, four commercial fluxes were characterized by laboratory tests (Petrographic study, X-ray diffraction and scanning electronic microscope with microprobe). The characterization of the commercial fluxes reveals that they are produced by simple mechanical blend of minerals, using feldspars and clays as base materials, containing SiO₂, Al₂O₃, Na₂O and in less quantity K₂O, MgO, Fe₂O₃ y MnO; limestone as the main source of CaO, fluorspar (CaF₂) used to control the viscosity and graphite as carbon source. This information is useful to establish design parameters to obtain fluxes with raw materials available in the local market.