Patent Grant
11104983
The present disclosure relates to a method of producing a hot-dip metal coated steel strip and a continuous hot-dip metal coating apparatus, and in particular, to gas wiping for adjusting the amount of molten metal adhered to the surfaces of a steel strip (hereinafter also referred to as “coating weight”).
In a continuous hot-dip metal coating line, as illustrated in
In such gas wiping method, due to one or both of (1) oscillation caused by impact pressure of the wiping gas and (2) viscosity unevenness caused by oxidation/cooling of the molten metal, a wavy flow pattern called bath wrinkles (saggings) is likely to occur on the coating surface of the hot-dip metal coated steel strip produced. A coated steel sheet with such bath wrinkles inhibit the surface condition of the coating film, particularly smoothness, when the coating surface is used as the coating base surface in the use of an exterior plate. Thus, coated steel sheets with bath wrinkles can not be used for exterior plates requiring a coating process with excellent appearance, which greatly affects the yield of coated steel sheets.
The following method is known as a method for suppressing coating surface defects, bath wrinkles. JP2004-27263A (PTL 1) describes a method for making bath wrinkles inconspicuous by changing the surface characteristics of temper rolling rolls and the rolling conditions during temper rolling which is a post-coating process. JPS55-21564A (PTL 2) describes a method whereby prior to introducing a steel sheet into a hot-dip galvanizing bath, the surface roughness of the steel sheet is adjusted according to the coating weight using a skin pass mill, a tension leveler, and the like to suppress generation of bath wrinkles.
PTL 1: JP2004-27263A
PTL 2: JPS55-21564A
However, according to the study made by the inventors of the present disclosure, the method of PTL 1 only reduces minor bath wrinkles, but has no effect on severe bath wrinkles. Further, according to the method of Patent Document 2, there is a cost problem due to the necessity of installing a skin pass mill, a tension leveler, and the like upstream of the hot-dip galvanizing bath. Even when these are installed, it is considered difficult to obtain ideal surface roughness due to the chemical and physical change of the galvanizing film accompanying pickling and recrystallization in the pretreatment apparatus and the annealing furnace, and to suppress the occurrence of bath wrinkles sufficiently.
It would thus be helpful to provide a method of producing a hot-dip metal coated steel strip and a continuous hot-dip metal coating apparatus capable of sufficiently suppressing generation of bath wrinkles and producing high-quality hot-dip metal coated steel strip at low cost.
In view of the above, the inventors focused attention on the installation angle of the gas wiping nozzle. Normally, gas wiping nozzles are installed such that the gas injection direction is substantially perpendicular (that is, horizontal direction) with respect to the steel strip. In this respect, the inventors discovered that the occurrence of bath wrinkles can be sufficiently suppressed by installing gas wiping nozzles at an angle such that the gas injection direction is downward by a predetermined angle or more with respect to the horizontal direction.
The present disclosure was completed based on the above discoveries, and the primary features thereof are as follows.
(1) A method of producing a hot-dip metal coated steel strip, comprising: continuously dipping a steel strip in a molten metal bath; and blowing a gas from a pair of gas wiping nozzles arranged with the steel strip therebetween to the steel strip while being pulled up from the molten metal bath so as to adjust a coating weight of molten metal on both sides of the steel strip to thereby continuously produce a hot-dip metal coated steel strip, wherein each of the gas wiping nozzles comprises an injection port portion that is installed downward with respect to a horizontal plane such that an angle θ formed between the injection port portion and the horizontal plane is 10° or more and 75° or less, and has a header pressure P below 30 kPa.
(2) The method of producing a hot-dip metal coated steel strip according to (1), wherein the molten metal comprises a chemical composition containing (consisting of) Al: 1.0 mass % to 10 mass %, Mg: 0.2 mass % to 1 mass %, and Ni: 0 mass % to 0.1 mass %, with the balance being Zn and inevitable impurities.
(3) The method of producing a hot-dip metal coated steel strip according to (1) or (2), wherein a temperature T (° C.) of the gas immediately after discharged from a tip of each of the gas wiping nozzles is controlled to satisfy TM−150≤T≤TM+250 in relation to a melting point TM (° C.) of the molten metal.
(4) The method of producing a hot-dip metal coated steel strip according to any one of (1) to (3), wherein the gas is an inert gas.
(5) A continuous hot-dip metal coating apparatus comprising: a coating bath configured to contain molten metal and to form a molten metal bath; and a pair of gas wiping nozzles arranged with a steel strip therebetween, and configured to blow a gas toward the steel strip to adjust a coating weight on both sides of the steel strip, the steel strip being continuously pulled up from the molten metal bath, wherein each of the gas wiping nozzles comprises an injection port portion that is installed downward with respect to a horizontal plane such that an angle θ formed between the injection port portion and the horizontal plane is 10° or more and 75° or less, and has a header pressure P that is set below 30 kPa.
(6) The continuous hot-dip metal coating apparatus according to (5), further comprising: a memory in which a relation between the header pressure P and a suitable angle θ is recorded in a range where the header pressure P is below 30 kPa; an angle detector configured to detect the angle θ; a nozzle driver configured to change the angle θ; and a controller for the nozzle driving device, wherein the controller is configured to read from the memory a suitable angle θ corresponding to the pressure P after being changed in response to a change in operation conditions, and configured to, when a detection angle detected by the angle detector does not satisfy the suitable angle θ, control the nozzle driver to set the detection angle to the suitable angle θ.
(7) The continuous hot-dip metal coating apparatus according to (5), further comprising: a surface appearance detector configured to observe surface appearance of the steel strip after wiping; a nozzle driver configured to change the angle θ; and a controller for the nozzle driver, wherein the controller is configured to control the nozzle driver based on an output from the surface appearance detector to finely adjust the angle θ.
According to the method of producing a hot-dip metal coated steel strip and the continuous hot-dip metal coating apparatus disclosed herein, generation of bath wrinkles can be sufficiently suppressed, and a high-quality hot-dip metal coated steel strip can be produced at low cost.
In the accompanying drawings:
Referring to
Referring to
Referring now to
The gas wiping nozzle 20A is generally configured to be wider than the steel strip width in order to cope with various steel strip widths, positional deviation in the transverse direction at the time of pulling up the steel strip, and so on, and to extend further outward than the widthwise ends of the steel strip. As illustrated in
The method of producing a hot-dip metal coated steel strip of this embodiment comprises: continuously dipping a steel strip in the molten metal bath 14; and blowing a gas from a pair of gas wiping nozzles 20A and 20B arranged with the steel strip S therebetween to the steel strip S while being pulled up from the molten metal bath 14 so as to adjust the amount of molten metal adhering to both sides of the steel strip S to thereby continuously produce a hot-dip metal coated steel strip.
One cause of generation of bath wrinkles described above is the generation of initial irregularities at the point where the wiping gas collides with the molten metal surface (stagnation point). The generation of initial irregularities is considered to be caused by the molten metal irregularly flowing on the steel strip as a result of one or both of (1) swing of the wiping gas collision pressure and (2) viscosity unevenness due to oxidation/cooling of the molten metal. Therefore, suppression of the phenomena of (1) and/or (2) is considered to lead to reduction of bath wrinkles.
From this viewpoint, in the present disclosure, it is important that the gas wiping nozzles 20A and 20B are installed downward with respect to the horizontal plane such that the angle θ formed between the injection port portion and the horizontal plane is 10° or more. By setting the angle θ to 10° or more, generation of bath wrinkles can be sufficiently suppressed. On the other hand, when the angle θ exceeds 75°, occurrence of bath wrinkles can not be suppressed due to an unstable pressure accumulation to be described later. Therefore, the angle θ is set to 75° or less. As used herein, the phrase “the angle θ formed between the injection port portion and the horizontal plane” means the angle formed by, when viewed in a cross section perpendicular to the steel strip, the horizontal plane and the extending direction of the parallel part, which is a part where the upper and lower nozzle members 24A and 24B are opposed to each other so as to form a slit.
In the present disclosure, the header pressure P of the wiping nozzles is set below 30 kPa. This is because if the header pressure P is set to 30 kPa or more, the wind speed when the wiping gas collides with the bath surface becomes fast, and bath splashing frequently occurs. When the target coating weight is high, the header pressure P is decreased, yet in that case, the above-described bath wrinkles easily occur. In contrast, by setting the angle θ of the gas wiping nozzles as described above, even when the header pressure P is as low as below 30 kPa, the occurrence of bath wrinkles can be sufficiently suppressed. When the header pressure P is below 10 kPa, in particular, the collision pressure at the edges of the steel strip becomes weak, and thus the coating weight at the edges becomes too large, possibly resulting in a non-uniform coating weight in the transverse direction of the steel strip. Therefore, the header pressure P is preferably 10 kPa or more.
In the present disclosure, by controlling the angle θ of the wiping nozzles in this manner, the range of the collision pressure acting on the steel strip S is widened, and the occurrence of bath wrinkles is suppressed. Since the wiping nozzles are normally installed such that the gas injection direction is substantially perpendicular to the steel strip S, the collision pressure increases. Accordingly, measurement was made of the collision pressure under the condition that bath wrinkles were generated, and it was found that the collision pressure swings with time. One cause of this is considered to be that especially in the case of low gas pressure, the potential core did not sufficiently develop at the parallel portion inside the nozzles (see
In the case where the collision pressure swings, if the collision pressure acts locally, the swing directly leads to unevenness of the coating weight. On the other hand, even if the collision pressure swings, when the range of action is wide, irregularities of the liquid film caused by the swing overlap, and unevenness of the coating weight will be less likely to occur. As a simple method to expand the range of action of the collision pressure, a method of controlling the angle θ of the wiping nozzles was implemented.
Wiping was performed while changing the angle θ, and the surface appearance after wiping was inspected. Bath wrinkle defects occurred at θ=0°, while improvement tendency was observed at θ=10° or more.
As illustrated in
On the other hand, at θ=80° where the angle was further increased, the full width at half maximum of the collision pressure distribution (d) was still more gentle and broader than that in (b), but the appearance of the steel strip after coating deteriorated again. Presumably, the reason why the external appearance deteriorated at this time is that when the angle θ of the wiping nozzles is increased with the distance d between the tip of each wiping nozzle and the steel strip kept constant, the gap between the upper portion of each wiping nozzle and the steel strip S becomes extremely narrow such that the wiping gas is not properly discharged from the gap, resulting in an unstable pressure accumulation (see
Further, regarding the upper limit of the angle θ, it is preferably set as follows in relation to the header pressure P from the viewpoint of more effectively suppressing generation of bath wrinkles. That is, θ≤75° is preferable when the header pressure P is 0 kPa to 10 kPa, θ≤60° is preferable when the header pressure P is more than 10 kPa and 20 kPa or less, and θ≤50° is preferable when the header pressure P is more than 20 kPa and 30 kPa or less.
In addition, the temperature T (° C.) of the gas immediately after discharged from the tip of each gas wiping nozzle is preferably controlled to satisfy TM−150≤T≤TM+250 in relation to a melting point TM (° C.) of the molten metal. When the gas temperature T is controlled within the above range, cooling and solidification of the molten metal can be suppressed, and thus viscosity unevenness hardly occurs and generation of bath wrinkles can be suppressed. On the other hand, if the gas temperature T is below TM-150° C. and is too low, it does not affect the flowability of the molten metal, and it is not effective in suppressing the generation of bath wrinkles. Also, if the temperature of the wiping gas is TM+250° C. and is too high, alloying is promoted and the appearance of the steel sheet deteriorates.
The gas injected from the nozzles 20A and 20B is preferably an inert gas. By using an inert gas, it is possible to prevent the oxidation of the molten metal on the surface of the steel strip, and thus to further suppress viscosity unevenness of the molten metal. Examples of the inert gas include, but are not limited to, nitrogen, argon, helium, and carbon dioxide.
In this embodiment, it is preferable that the molten metal comprises a chemical composition containing Al: 1.0 mass % to 10 mass %, Mg: 0.2 mass % to 1 mass %, and Ni: 0 mass % to 0.1 mass %, with the balance being Zn and inevitable impurities. It is confirmed that if Mg is contained in this manner, viscosity unevenness due to oxidation/cooling of the molten metal is likely to occur, and so are bath wrinkles. Thus, when the molten metal has the above chemical composition, the effect of suppressing bath wrinkles according to the present disclosure is remarkably exhibited. In addition, in the case where the composition of the molten metal is 5 mass % Al—Zn or 55 mass % Al—Zn, the effect of suppressing bath wrinkles according to the present disclosure can be obtained.
Examples of the hot-dip metal coated steel strip produced by the production method and the coating apparatus disclosed herein include hot-dip galvanized steel sheets, including both galvanized steel sheets (GI) not subjected to alloying treatment after hot-dip galvanizing, and galvanized steel sheets (GA) subjected to alloying treatment after hot-dip galvanizing.
In this embodiment, control is preferably provided such that the angle θ is set within the above range and finely adjusted.
As a first control example, the angle θ of the wiping nozzles is controlled to be in a more preferable range or a more preferable value within the range of 10° to 75° according to the value of the header pressure P of the gas wiping nozzles. As described above, the preferable range of the angle θ of the wiping nozzles within the range of 10° to 75° changes according to the value of the header pressure P. Thus, by adjusting the angle θ as described below, suppression of bath wrinkles can be more reliably and sufficiently achieved.
Referring to
The header pressure P can be appropriately determined according to the operation conditions such as the line speed, the thickness of the steel strip, the target coating weight, the distance between the tip of each wiping nozzle and the steel strip, and the like. Therefore, upon operation under predetermined operation conditions or when changing operation conditions, the controller 46 reads a suitable angle θ (a suitable range or a target value) corresponding to the determined header pressure P from the memory 44. The controller 46 determines the necessary angle change amount from the angle θ read from the memory 44 and the output value of the angle detector 40 and controls the nozzle driver 42. The nozzle driver 42 rotates the nozzles 20A and 20B to a predetermined angle according to the output value of the controller 46. Specifically, the controller 46 is configured to read from the memory 44 a suitable angle θ corresponding to the pressure P after being changed in response to a change in operation conditions, and configured to, when a detection angle detected by the angle detector 40 does not satisfy the suitable angle θ, control the nozzle driver 42 to set the detection angle to the suitable angle θ.
As a second control example, the appearance of the steel strip surface after wiping is observed, and the angle θ is finely adjusted based on the result. Referring to
The surface appearance of the steel strip is judged according to the following criteria.
“Very Poor”: failed=
When Wa measured by the detector is 0.50<Wa≤1.00 (that is, passed, judged “Good”), fine adjustment is made to increase the wiping nozzle angle θ such that Wa to be measured satisfies 0<Wa≤0.50 (that is, passed, judged “Excellent”). This is because when the wiping nozzle angle θ is increased, the swing of the collision pressure of the wiping gas further decreases.
It is desirable that the surface appearance detector 48 performs measurement at a position where the steel strip S passes between the wiping nozzles and where the molten metal on the steel strip surface solidifies. Otherwise, at a position directly above the wiping nozzle, the molten metal is not solidified, and the measured arithmetic mean waviness Wa varies. Therefore, a desirable position is a position at which the molten metal on the surface of the steel strip solidifies, for example, a position 40 m or more on the downstream side of the wiping nozzles. Note that the measurement position is desirably immediately after solidification of the molten metal lest the responsiveness should deteriorate. Therefore, for example, a desirable measurement position is 70 m or less on the downstream side of the wiping nozzles.
If the nozzle height H is too low, a large amount of splashing occurs on the bath surface. Thus, the nozzle height is desirably 200 mm or more. In
In a production line of hot-dip galvanized steel strips, production test of hot-dip galvanized steel strips was conducted. In each example and comparative example, the coating apparatus illustrated in
As a method of supplying a gas to the gas wiping nozzles, a method of supplying a gas pressurized to a predetermined pressure with a compressor was adopted. In this way, each hot-dip galvanized steel strip was produced by passing a steel strip having a thickness of 1.2 mm and a width of 1000 mm at a steel strip speed L (line speed) of 2 m/s.
Also, the appearance of each hot-dip galvanized steel strip produced and the total coating weight on both sides were evaluated. Regarding the appearance evaluation of the steel sheet, judgment was made based on the following criteria. The results are listed in Table 1.
“Very Poor”: failed=
As can be seen from Table 1, in the case of the nozzle angle θ being 10° to 75° and the wiping gas pressure P being less than 30 kPa, Wa was low and good surface appearance was obtained, whereas in the case of the nozzle angle θ or gas wiping pressure P deviating from the range of the present disclosure, Wa or the splash inclusion ratio S increased. In particular, for the coating type B, E, and F, the effects obtained when the nozzle angle θ and the wiping gas pressure P are within the scope of the present disclosure were remarkably obtained.
According to the method of producing a hot-dip metal coated steel strip and the continuous hot-dip metal coating apparatus disclosed herein, generation of bath wrinkles can be sufficiently suppressed, and a high-quality hot-dip metal coated steel strip can be produced at low cost.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP2016-138823 | Jul 2016 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2017/020142 | 5/30/2017 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2018/012132 | 1/18/2018 | WO | A |
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| 20190300997 A1 | Oct 2019 | US |
