The 2024 National Continuous Casting Academic Annual Conference of the Chinese Society for Metals' Continuous Casting Branch was successfully held.

From May 16 to 17, the 2024 National Continuous Casting Academic Annual Conference organized by the Continuous Casting Branch of the Chinese Society for Metals was successfully held in Jiangyin City, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. The conference was co-hosted by China Metallurgical Group Corporation and Jiangyin Xingcheng Special Steel Co., Ltd. The theme of the conference was "Technological Innovation Leading High-Quality Development of Continuous Casting," and Baihui Machinery was invited to participate, led by Chairwoman Ru Fengfang.

Attendees included Qu Yang, Vice President of China Metallurgical Group Corporation and member of the Party Committee, Hao Zhizhong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese Society for Metals, Yue Wenyuan, Party Secretary and Chairman of China Metallurgical Group Corporation, and Bai Yun, Party Secretary and General Manager of Jiangyin Xingcheng Special Steel Co., Ltd. The meeting was chaired by Chang Hai, Director of the Continuous Casting Branch and Deputy Chief Engineer of China Metallurgical Group Corporation, Zhang Lifeng, President of Beifang University of Technology, and Zhu Miaoyong, Professor at Northeastern University.

The conference had over 300 participants from 33 steel enterprises, 16 higher education institutions and research institutes, 46 engineering technology companies, and upstream and downstream continuous casting enterprises. They exchanged ideas on recent technological advancements and development trends in continuous casting technology in China in areas such as theoretical research and production applications, showcased the latest technological achievements, and discussed industry hot topics and challenges along with solutions. The conference received significant attention from various sectors, with over 70 papers submitted and 51 presentations arranged.

Qu Yang delivered a speech at the conference and wished for its success.

Hao Zhizhong welcomed scholars and experts who traveled from afar during his speech at the conference. He stated that continuous casting technology plays a crucial role in producing high-quality steel. Since the 21st century, China's continuous casting technology has developed rapidly, with significant progress in domestic equipment manufacturing. This conference showcased major technological advancements in the field of continuous casting over the past year and discussed future development directions. He hopes that continuous casting professionals will engage in in-depth exchanges on high-end process equipment, high-quality production, green low-carbon technology, extreme energy efficiency, and intelligent manufacturing.

Bai Yun delivered a welcome speech at the conference, expressing heartfelt gratitude to experts and leaders for their long-standing concern and support for Xingcheng Special Steel. He pointed out that in 2024, the steel industry will still face a complex situation with both opportunities and challenges. Optimizing product structure and reducing redundancy in the industrial chain will be a major trend. Enhancing industrial foundational capabilities and levels is an important task for high-quality development in the steel industry. The continuous emergence of new materials, processes, and technologies is driving innovation and development in continuous casting technology towards green low-carbon solutions and intelligent transformation. This annual meeting aims to build a communication platform for the vigorous development of continuous casting endeavors, promote advancements in continuous casting technology, and facilitate high-quality development in the steel industry.

The conference also specially invited experts from institutions such as Beijing University of Science and Technology, Northeastern University, Xingcheng Special Steel, Beifang University of Technology, Shanghai University, North China University of Science and Technology, Institute of Metal Research at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shougang Technical Research Institute, Baosteel, Xiangsteel among others to give presentations.
Zhang Lifeng from Beifang University of Technology gave a keynote presentation titled "Forecasting the Three-Dimensional Spatial Distribution Transient Evolution of Non-Metallic Inclusions in Continuous Casting Billets." The presentation introduced a forecasting model for the dynamic evolution of inclusion quantity, size, and composition during steel solidification and cooling processes. It revealed the mechanisms by which temperature changes affect inclusions during solidification, cooling, and reheating processes. A kinetic model for inclusion composition transformation was established that coupled with flow heat transfer solidification cooling processes as well as inclusion collision dynamics to achieve precise forecasting of inclusion quantity, size, and composition distribution in continuous casting billets.

Professor Zhu Miaoyong from Northeastern University presented on "Key Continuous Casting Technologies for Efficient Green Production of Thick Plates." The report addressed frequent issues faced during thick plate manufacturing such as concavity due to deviation angles in continuous casting slabs, hot delivery cracks, edge cracks during rolling processes. It systematically elaborated on mechanisms related to these issues from aspects like mechanism analysis, equipment design, and process optimization. It clarified the two-stage causes behind concavity formation due to slab deviation angles as well as essential mechanisms leading to edge cracking during longitudinal rolling due to large width ratios. New ideas were introduced for solving these problems at their source through controlling high plasticity at slab surfaces along with new continuous casting equipment such as lens-shaped crystallizers.

Professor Zhang Jiaquan from Beijing University of Science and Technology presented on "Key Technologies for Quality Control in Continuous Casting of Extra-Large Round Billets." The report analyzed quality issues related to continuous casting of extra-large round billets including physical symmetry between inner and outer arcs as well as metallurgical effects under extremely large flow distances leading to poor quality outcomes. Solutions such as induction heating technology suitable for extra-large round billets were proposed along with new electromagnetic stirring technologies emphasizing the importance of quality traceability.

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Chang Hai from China Metallurgical Group Corporation delivered a keynote report on "Key Technology Development for Continuous Casting of Extra-Large Section Irregular Billets," introducing how leveraging Minmetals' complete technical industrial chain advantages can facilitate widespread applications of large-scale irregular billets through continuous casting technology. He discussed challenges faced by these types of steel grades along with technical difficulties while presenting key research conducted by China Metallurgical Group Corporation in extra-large section continuous casting technology along with sharing accumulated experiences over time.

Professor Yang Jian from Shanghai University presented on "Surface Quality Control Technologies for Automotive Outer Panels," introducing quantitative analysis results regarding inclusions and slag defects on automotive outer panels while clarifying distribution patterns among defects during steelmaking processes. He elaborated on the analytical process behind longitudinal stripe defects revealing mechanisms leading to these defects due to poor machine cleaning resulting in micro-segregation of oxygen elements. Through optimization of machine cleaning equipment and processes he eliminated longitudinal stripe defects caused by machine cleaning issues. Finally he introduced recent results from mathematical simulations studying slag entrapment phenomena within continuous casting crystallizers emphasizing how multi-dispersed gas bubbles can more accurately predict slag entrapment phenomena.

Dr. Liu Jigang from Jiangyin Xingcheng Special Steel delivered a keynote report titled "Intelligent Assistance for High-Quality Continuous Casting Control: Practices and Thoughts," introducing online process-equipment intelligent control systems used during special steel continuous casting processes along with online quality assessment systems.

This conference also invited Professor Ren Zhongming from Shanghai University, Professor Liu Qing from Beijing University of Science and Technology, Professor Wang Engang from Northeast University, Chief Expert Yu Yan from Baosteel, Professor Li Baokuan from Northeast University, Professor Kang Yonglin from Beijing University of Science and Technology, Chief Expert Li Haibo from Shougang Research Institute of Technology, Chief Expert Xu Longyun from Xianggang, Professor Chen Wei from North China University of Science and Technology, Researcher Cao Yanfei from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Metallurgical Technology Expert Park Jihwan from Pruitt, and Technical Director Zhou Congda from Dalian Dashan to give special invited reports. Invited Vice President Ren Ying from Beijing University of Science and Technology, Professor Lei Hong from Northeast University, Professor Ji Cheng from Northeast University, and Associate Researcher Zhong Honggang from Shanghai University to give special invited reports for young scholars.

The Continuous Casting Subcommittee will work solidly under the leadership of the Chinese Society for Metals to effectively carry out the society's work. It will focus on solving key common technologies and industry bottlenecks in the green transformation and upgrading of the steel industry, providing a platform for mutual communication and academic sharing among industry peers. It will comprehensively summarize, analyze, and exchange the innovative achievements and accumulated production experience in the continuous casting field of China's steel industry over the past two years to better meet the needs of user industry development, achieve green and intelligent manufacturing in steel, and promote the transformation and upgrading of China's steel industry to achieve high-quality development.