Diseño de polvos de molde para colada continua de slabs de aceros bajo carbono

Commercial fluxes were characterized by laboratory tests, and their original properties were changed with additions of chemical reagents in order to establish criteria and design strategies to produce new fluxes. The characterization of the commercial fluxes reveals that they are produced by simple mechanical blend of minerals, using feldspars and clays as base materials, containing SiO₂, Al₂O₃, Na ₂O and in less quantity K₂O, MgO, Fe₂O ₃ and MnO; limestone as the main source of CaO, fluorspar (CaF ₂) used to control the viscosity and graphite as carbon source. Melting-solidification tests revealed melting and fluidity temperatures and the existence of abundant mineralogical phases formed during the flux solidification. Some important mineralogical compounds are the nepheline (NaAlSiO₄) and cuspidine (Ca₄Si₂O ₇F₂); these species have a direct influence on the heat transfer phenomena from strand to mold and therefore on the phase transformations and the shrinkage of the steel.