ABSTRACT

An activity was made, targeted to forging steels fabrication routes in TKAST-Terni ASEA plant, to evaluate the two bath stirring techniques reliability in enhancing steel cleanliness, favouring inclusion floatation. To this purpose, use of numerical modelling was made, describing fluid flow and inclusion trajectory. Electromagnetic stirrer proved to be the most reliable technique, within the coil current values (150 A in our case) harmless for the interface steel-slag stability. Gentle melt stirring is less effective, with lower efficiency in inclusion dragging to the surface and slower attainment of homogenisation conditions in the melt. The indications achieved, applied in current practice, allowed to improve cleanliness, especially as regards to the content of inclusions with diameter smaller than 30 micrometers