Forgemasters completes record molten steel pour

Feat sees 607 tonnes of molten steel transferred into a vast subterranean mould

Sheffield Forgemasters International has completed its biggest pour with 607 tonnes of continuous molten steel transferred into a vast subterranean mould.

The feat beats the company's previous pour record by seven tonnes and will create an ultra-large casting component which will weigh about 320 tonnes once finished, taking six weeks to cool sufficiently to be excavated.

The pouring is part of a $19 million contract with German company SMS Meer. 

John Sanderson, foundry manager at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “The process, which has many complex elements, was made even more challenging because the casting is one in a series of eleven, which meant that our deep casting pits were already in use so we had to raise the sides of a shallower pit to 12 feet above ground level to accommodate.

“Pouring 607 tonnes of liquid steel required five ladles to be poured simultaneously, with a sixth ladle used as a top-up. The steel is poured at more than 1,500 degrees centigrade and the casting will take six weeks to cool to about 1,000 degrees, when it will have solidified far enough to be dug from the sand mould. Over the next five days, it will further cool to 300 degrees at which point we will remove the feeder heads and transfer it to a furnace for a two-week heat treatment cycle."

The whole process from receiving drawings of the component, through pattern and mould making, casting, heat treatment, fettling and finish machining on a component of this scale is approximately 18 months.

The company will deliver six more similar castings over the next 18 months as part of the contract which will see more than 6,000 tonnes of molten steel produced in total. Each casting requires multiple ladles of steel to be poured continuously.