한국주조공학회

Strip casting process, a new casting technology which makes thin strip of 0.5~5 mm thickness directly from molten metal, has been dramatically developed for past 10 years and faced commercialization in the case of STS304 strip. In this study, ductile cast iron strip which is 1.1 mm thick and 100 mm wide is manufactured by the twin roll strip caster. Graphite and matrix structure of the strip can be controlled through heat treatments and the mechanical properties are examined. The microstructure of the as-cast strip consists of cementite and pearlite. Especially the equiaxed crystal zone of pearlite exists in the center region of the thickness due to the characteristics of the strip casting process. Matrix structure can be transformed into fully ferrite or ferrite/pearlite mixed structures by the different graphitization heat treatments. The heat- treated strip with ferrite/pearlite matrix structure showed higher hardness and tensile strength than that with full ferrite matrix structure.