Ingot Casting

H. K. D. H. Bhadeshia

Stainless Steels

Photographs taken at POSCO Special Steels.

		Ingots of special steels.
Ingots of special steels.	Ingots of special steels.	Ingots of special steels.
Ingots
The drilled stainless steel ingots.	The drilled stainless steel ingots.	The drilled stainless steel ingots.

The first ingot ever at CST in Brazil

Photograph of the first steel ingot ever produced at the at CST in Barzil.

Joao Batista Ribeiro Martins, S. B. Messineo, Harry and Charles de Abreu Martins. Steel ingot in the background.

Ingot Solidification Microstructure

This is a macrograph of an aluminium ingot (about 5 cm wide) made by casting commercially pure aluminium in a metal mould. The liquid in contact with the mould wall solidifies relatively rapidly, giving a fine, equiaxed grain structure there. This zone is called the 'chill zone'. The grains then start to grow towards the centre, in the general direction of maximum heat flow, giving a columnar-grain structure. Those grains which have their maximum growth directions most parallel to the heat flow stifle the growth of less favourably oriented grains, leading to a coarsening of the columnar structure as solidification progresses towards the centre.

There is sometimes a region of equiaxed grains in the centre of the ingot, arising from solid particles that form at the liquid surface, or from fragments of metal solidifying from the mould wall.

The central pipe is due to the contraction of the liquid as it solidifies.

Higher resolution images (0.5 Mbytes) of ingots are also available:

• Ingot 1
• Ingot 2
• Ingot 3
• Ingot 4

More on solidification.

Sections through Ingots at Ovaco Steel

Photographs of metallographic sections through ingots of steel for the manufacture of mechanical bearings at Ovaco Steel in Sweden.

Sections through large ingots of steel	Sections through large ingots of steel
	Sections through large ingots of steel