2050 – 08 – Creating Initial Casting Shapes
Continuous casting creates steels in a variety of shapes, including slabs, billets, and blooms. The ingot process, in comparison, needs additional labor to reshape ingots into slabs, blooms and billets. Continuous casting uses a long, unbroken flow of metal, and therefore it can produce different shapes much more easily.
From these shapes, manufacturers are able to form a plethora of standardized shapes, including round bars, flat sheets, or beams. This stock is then used to make a wide variety of products.