Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (Duisburg, Germany):

Kemper G., Dr. Eng., Chief Technologist of Slab Production, e-mail: gerhard.kemper@hkm.de

Driven by global competition, the European steel industry produces even more complex steel grades meeting the highest quality requirements. Process flexibility and productivity are increasing. Additionally the balancing act between highest safety standards and optimum ecoefficiency has to be overcome. Against this background, the member works of the Steel Institute VDEh made serious progress to improve their competitiveness. The present paper exemplarily summarizes the current developments in the area of continuous casting of the member works. The presented innovations in the field of new materials and re-quirements to these materials, high productivity and technological flexibility, high quality and ecological cleanness, safety of work and knowledge can’t be considered as complete information. However, they refl ects the modern tendencies of innova-tion activity in continuous casting as a part of implementation of the program for further process improvement. It is displayed that international competition infl uenced by globalization, climate protection, demographic processes, urbanization and rise of mobility is really a moving force of this innovative activity.