Continuous Casting of Magnesium Alloy Billet Using Electromagnetic Techniques

Currently, magnesium billets produced by ingot casting or direct chill casting process, result in low-quality surfaces and peer productivity. Continuous casting technology for high-quality surface billets with fine-grained and homogeneous microstructure can be a solution for the cost barrier breakthrough. The latent heat of fusion per weight (J/g) of magnesium is similar to that of other metals, however, considering the heat emitted to the mould surface during continuous casting in meniscus region and converting it to the latent heat of fusion per volume, magnesium will be rapidly solidified in the mould during continuous casting, which induces subsequent surface defect formation. In this study, electromagnetic casting and stirring (EMC and EMS) techniques are proposed to control solidification process conveniently by compensating the low latent heat of solidification by volume and to fabricate magnesium billets with a high quality surface.