On Liquid Metal Wetting of Casting Rings for DC Casting

During air–slip direct chill casting of aluminum alloys, uneven or low air pressure areas at the surface of the porous graphite ring mold, can cause the metal to stick to the graphite ring and produce traces along the billets called vertical drags (VD). To prevent this type of defect, it would be an advantage to decrease the wettability of the graphite ring. It has been shown that nanostructured surfaces can have hydrophobic properties, and a question is whether the same effect can be achieved for molten metals. A TiO2 nanowire structure is proposed to cover the casting ring, and the wetting behavior of such a structure has been studied, and compared to the wetting at a regular graphite ring surface by the dispensed sessile drop method. The results showed that the nanostructured surface very strongly de-wets metal droplets.