A review of past and present developments of the horizontal single belt casting (HSBC) process

Horizontal single belt casting (HSBC) has proven to be a viable future alternative to traditional casting processes (e.g. direct chill and conventional continuous casting for aluminum and steel, respectively). The present paper summarizes HSBC developments in Canada since the 1980s. Theoretical and experimental work is summarized to provide the necessary processing parameters needed to cast a wide range of alloys at pilot and industrial scales. Compared to conventional casting technologies, it is anticipated that HSBC will be a far more versatile, economical, and environmentally friendly method that will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions from metallurgical industries. The effects of air gap dimensions and belt speeds on the stability of the “back meniscus” were also studied for a double-impingement metal feeding system to cast AA2024 aluminum alloy. Using ANSYS Fluent 19.1 computational fluid dynamics software, various combinations of these process parameters were tested to obtain optimum results for promoting back-meniscus stability and assess the effects of these parameters on other phenomena (e.g. air entrainment).