Effect of mold rotation on the bifilar electroslag remelting process

A novel electroslag furnace with a rotating mold was fabricated, and the effects of mold rotational speed on the electroslag re-melting process were investigated. The results showed that the chemical element distribution in ingots became uniform and that their com-pact density increased when the mold rotational speed was increased from 0 to 28 r/min. These results were attributed to a reasonable mold speed, which resulted in a uniform temperature in the slag pool and scattered the metal droplets randomly in the metal pool. However, an ex-cessive rotational speed caused deterioration of the solidification structure. When the mold rotational speeds was increased from 0 to 28 r/min, the size of Al2O3 inclusions in the electroslag ingot decreased from 4.4 to 1.9μm. But the excessive mold rotational speed would de-crease the ability of the electroslag remelting to remove the inclusions. The remelting speed gradually increased, which resulted in reduced power consumption with increasing mold rotational speed. This effect was attributed to accelerated heat exchange between the consumable electrode and the molten slag, which resulted from mold rotation. Nevertheless, when the rotational speed reached 28 r/min, the remelting speed did not change because of limitations of metal heat conduction. Mold rotation also improved the surface quality of the ingots by pro-moting a uniform temperature distribution in the slag pool.