A ladle holding ~65 tons of liquid alloy steel is suspended by overhead crane at the casting deck of Nucor Steel - Auburn, NY.
Refactory sand in the nozzle prevents the liquid from flowing. An oxygen lance rapidly burns the sand away, allowing the steel to flow into a trough called the "tundish". The tundish distributes liquid steel to three continuous casting molds.
Once the operator opens the nozzle, the crane operator lowers the ladle onto its structure, approximately 60 feet above ground level. The steelmaking process is gravity-driven from this point on, which presents unique challenges to safety and process control.
At this point, the steel is beginning its transformation back to a solid.
Upon exiting the caster, up to three 6"x6" billets are guided by rollers into large-radius arcs. They discharge huge amounts of heat as they are straightened and cut to length. About 20 minutes after lancing, hot billets are ready to be stacked, and will continue to cool for hours.
