<strong>The</strong> importance of points c) and d) depends on the customer who receives the product. For example, insili<strong>co</strong>n metal these points are of gre<strong>at</strong> importance for a chemical-grade customer, who wants a veryhomogeneous m<strong>at</strong>erial, and of less importance for an aluminium customer. <strong>The</strong> reason is th<strong>at</strong> tramp elementsin sili<strong>co</strong>n affect the reaction with CH 3 Cl in sili<strong>co</strong>nes production, and should be evenly distributed in thereactor. <strong>The</strong> tramp elements tend to solidify on the boundaries between the grains. With slow <strong>co</strong>oling, thesili<strong>co</strong>n crystals will be larger than the grains in the powder, and many grains will be essentially singlecrystals without grain boundaries. With smaller crystals the grain boundaries will be more evenly distributed,and most grains will <strong>co</strong>ntain some phases with tramp elements [3].In short, the standard system of casting needs the following oper<strong>at</strong>ions:• <strong>Casting</strong> from the ladle to the casting mould or to the fines beds.• Waiting until the m<strong>at</strong>erial is <strong>co</strong>ld and solidified sufficiently.• Moving the m<strong>at</strong>erial from the <strong>co</strong>oling area to the breaking up area.• Breaking up the m<strong>at</strong>erial into the first sizes.• Breaking the m<strong>at</strong>erial down to the customer’s requirements.• Picking up the fines and storing them in their own stock area.• Transporting the fines to the casting area and placing them into moulds.Figure 1. Conventional processing technology in a ferroalloys factory after metal tapping.Solidified ferroalloys need to be further crushed down to small lumps of up to 100 mm for use in customers’processes. This means it should go through two crushing processes and <strong>at</strong> least another two for sizing. <strong>The</strong>first is normally done in jaw crushers and the se<strong>co</strong>nd in roll crushers. <strong>The</strong>se oper<strong>at</strong>ions normally gener<strong>at</strong>esignificant amounts of fines, which are undesirable for their bigger impurities <strong>co</strong>ntent because the dominantfractures are transgranular. <strong>The</strong> production of fines is usually about 10%, taking into ac<strong>co</strong>unt th<strong>at</strong> them<strong>at</strong>erial is under 5 mm.
<strong>The</strong>se fines are either sold <strong>at</strong> a dis<strong>co</strong>unt of about 20% to lumpy product, or are resmelted in the same factoryin the furnace, in the bed, or in the casting mould. Fines <strong>co</strong>nstitute the main part of the impurities andfrequently the customer, who is <strong>co</strong>ncerned about chemical purity, asks for the percentage of fines to beresmelted in the casting moulds to be minimal.From the point of view of capital investment, space is needed for all these intermedi<strong>at</strong>e stocks, <strong>co</strong>olingplaces, etc., also for transporting machinery, such as bulldozers, travelling cranes and the breaking upinstall<strong>at</strong>ions in its two stages. In general all this takes up 25% of the area of a factory, and in a new factorymeans 20% of the investment.Staff and maintenance <strong>co</strong>sts for all these oper<strong>at</strong>ions obviously depend on each factory. In sili<strong>co</strong>n factories, anaverage figure of about 8% would be reasonable for the total <strong>co</strong>st for auxiliary works in the making of theproduct.Within this percentage there are two very important <strong>co</strong>ncepts, which are not included:• Losses of fines as a <strong>co</strong>nsequence of movements of stocks.• <strong>The</strong> loss of profits when the fines are sold <strong>at</strong> market prices, which are usually 20% below the <strong>co</strong>mmercialprices.In brief, all the tre<strong>at</strong>ments of the metal (from its molten st<strong>at</strong>e to its delivery to the customer) make up one ofthe most important <strong>co</strong>sts for a ferroalloy factory. Many efforts have been made to reduce such <strong>co</strong>sts and toimprove the quality and homogeneity of the product, for example w<strong>at</strong>er granul<strong>at</strong>ion. <strong>Casting</strong> onto <strong>co</strong>pperpl<strong>at</strong>es is an existing solution, the same as <strong>co</strong>ntinuous casting was for steel.2. REASONS FOR THE COPPER CASTING-MACHINE<strong>The</strong> decision to set up a <strong>co</strong>pper casting machine was taken when Ferro<strong>at</strong>lantica went into the chemical-gradesili<strong>co</strong>n market. <strong>The</strong> objective was to cast a thin layer (about 10/15 mm thick), to solidify this quickly, and notto use fines since they pollute part of the metal. Thus, a very pure and homogeneous metal would be obtainedboth in its liquid and solid st<strong>at</strong>es. <strong>The</strong>refore, we got in touch with Dr. Anton More, who has a p<strong>at</strong>ent on thissystem and who had had previous experience with it when he worked for the Wacker-Chemie <strong>co</strong>mpany inGermany before his retirement. Ferro<strong>at</strong>lantica I+D, the R&D <strong>co</strong>mpany of the Ferro<strong>at</strong>lantica Group, reachedan agreement with him, and the design for a machine which would allow for the casting of all of the factoryproduction was begun. This machine would also cast <strong>at</strong> different layer thicknesses and so c<strong>at</strong>er not only forthe chemical market, which requires thin layers, but also the aluminium one with thicker layers.<strong>The</strong> casting machine has been designed with enough capacity to cast all the production of the plant <strong>at</strong> acasting speed of around 150 kg/min. At Ferro<strong>at</strong>lantica (I+D), we have carried out, and are <strong>co</strong>ntinuing to doso, many studies and improvements with the object of achieving the most autom<strong>at</strong>ic and safest install<strong>at</strong>ionpossible. <strong>The</strong> machine has been running <strong>at</strong> normal production level since some months ago, and although wehave still not reached the full level of casting from the three furnaces, our customers are being supplied withproducts cast using it.3. MAIN FEATURES OF THE FERROATLANTICA COPPER CASTING-MACHINE<strong>The</strong> basic machine <strong>co</strong>nsists of one <strong>co</strong>pper table and two iron tables. <strong>The</strong> width and length of these tableshave been calcul<strong>at</strong>ed so th<strong>at</strong> the <strong>co</strong>oling of the elements is very efficient and the <strong>co</strong>pper, whose melting pointis somewh<strong>at</strong> more than 1000ºC can receive the molten metal which arrives <strong>at</strong> 1500 º C. <strong>The</strong> flow and speedof the w<strong>at</strong>er are very important parameters for the life span of the <strong>co</strong>oper pl<strong>at</strong>e and these were achievedthanks to a very adequ<strong>at</strong>e design of the refriger<strong>at</strong>ion circuit. <strong>The</strong>rmo<strong>co</strong>uples have been installed to measureboth the temper<strong>at</strong>ure of all the w<strong>at</strong>er circuits as well as of the <strong>co</strong>pper pl<strong>at</strong>e where the metal falls onto it. Allthis d<strong>at</strong>a is <strong>co</strong>ntrolled by a PLC, and one by one all the different oper<strong>at</strong>ions have been changed over toautom<strong>at</strong>ic.