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[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seonsik] POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks (Director Lee Jinsu) announced on the 12th that it has secured world-class multi-casting technology through innovative improvement of continuous casting ratio.

Continuous casting is a process that converts molten steel produced through the steelmaking process into semi-finished products of a certain size. The continuous casting ratio, which refers to the number of charges that can be cast continuously at one time, is a key indicator representing steelmaking technology capability.

Increasing the continuous casting ratio not only improves work defect rates and productivity through continuous production but also significantly contributes to cost reduction by lowering processing costs. Furthermore, reducing the number of work preparations and completions helps ensure worker safety.

The steelmaking department at Gwangyang Steelworks recently succeeded in stably casting molten steel amounting to 21 charges at once on the No. 1 caster of the 2nd continuous casting plant and completed certification of the ‘POS-Hyper Long Casting Caster.’

This is significant as it more than doubled the continuous casting ratio compared to before, achieving the steelmaking department’s mid-to-long-term goal early as the first single caster to do so.

With the firm belief that increasing the continuous casting ratio is the future competitiveness of the steelmaking sector, the steelmaking department, under the slogan “We must increase it!” has been conducting activities to increase the continuous casting ratio since 2020 with the participation of all employees. Through collaboration with related departments such as the Technology Research Institute, Order Processing Group, and Production Control Section, they were able to innovatively improve the continuous casting ratio.

In particular, △ the development of a nozzle exchange device ensured safer and more consistent operations than before, △ improved molten steel cleanliness, △ optimal production scheduling, △ securing refractory lifespan, and △ equipment stabilization and improvement allowed operations to continue smoothly without interruption.

A steelmaking department employee said, “With the significant improvement in the continuous casting ratio, the number of operations in high-temperature areas has drastically decreased. Employees are very satisfied in terms of safety and working environment, and we are grateful.”

Lee Dongryeol, Head of the Blooming Department, said, “I appreciate the efforts of the steelmaking department employees who achieved the world’s best continuous casting ratio performance, and I ask that they continue to develop worker-centered technology and safety management with pride.”

Based on this, the steelmaking department at Gwangyang Steelworks, which won the Grand Prize for Innovation at the 2022 POSCO Group Technology Awards, plans to share continuous casting ratio improvement activities with the plate department and Pohang steelmaking department to contribute to enhancing safety, cost, and quality competitiveness.

Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seonsik hss79@asiae.co.kr

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.