The activity of Steel and Alloy Processing mainly concerns:

• Liquid metal treatment, casting and solidification
• Thermomechanical processing

To these fields one can add material expertise or studies taking advantage of the methodology and means of the Department.

All metals melted and refined through pyrometallurgical processes must be solidified before being transformed into products suitable to market needs. Within Eramet Group, the diversity of casting systems is considerable : From powder atomisation or ingot casting for alloyed steel to casting pits for manganese alloys.

Characteristics of the as-cast product such as surface state, element segregation, microstructure or inclusion content are often critical for downstream manufacturing costs as well as final quality. Research today follows three directions:

• Liquid metal treatment for achieving mainly an improved steel cleanliness
• Grade optimisation by addition of active elements and corresponding process development
• Casting system and praxis optimisation for improved yield.

Mastering foundry processes requires general competencies such as fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and heat transfer. It requires also more specific knowledge in metallurgy of solidification of specific alloy classes as well as on the relationship between as-cast structures and final properties of the metal.

CRT has melting and casting means of laboratory and pilot scale as well as equipment for the characterization of thermophysical properties such as a DTA-pseudo DCS and a dilatometer.

For numerical simulation dedicated software like Solid^® and general purpose software like Fluent ^®, Abaqus^® or Ansys^® are currently used.