In the steel industry core wires are often used to treat molten metal in a procedure called "calcium treatments". This is a crucial step for producing high quality steel. It improves the castability of the steel by eliminating long sulfide strips. The deoxidation process, desulfurization process and inclusion modification are all influenced by this step. Core wires contain a pure metallic calcite encapsulated with a sheath of steel and are injected by a spinneret-system into molten metal.
The sheath is made from a steel strip which is tightly wrapped and then welded around the core material. Sheaths are also sealed against oxidation. This is done by applying a passivation layer onto the sheath before it is welded.
The sheath thickness of HI CAL(r) wires is 3x thicker than that of calcium iron cored conventional wires. Due to this, HICAL(r) has a much better metallurgical performace in terms of reducing calcium injection amounts and the overall cost of calcium treatment.
Traditionally, calcium cored wires are produced with an alloyed calcium powder which contains both iron and aluminium. The compositions are usually CaFe 30/70, i.e. The compositions are usually 30 % Calcium and 70 % Aluminium. This type of cored wire is suitable for non silicon restricted steel grades and for high-strength low-alloy steel grades. CaFe is the most common variant of conventional cored wire. It is composed of 40% aluminium and 30% calcium.
This type of cored cable has some drawbacks, such as the possibility of local oversaturation during calcium treatment and an excess of calcium. With conventional cored steel, the problem is due to the high injection rate required to reach the optimal depth of molten iron. The alloyed powder also tends to mix unevenly with the steel molten due to their different specific gravities. Due to this, the calcium iron wires with cores often perform poorly metallurgically. The HI CAL(r) Calcium cored Wire offers a substantial improvement to these issues, and is a good alternative to conventional wires. It can reduce the amount molten steel that is treated, and thus reduce the total calcium treatment cost. HICAL(r) is also very economical due to its metallurgical properties. This is true especially in steel plants where the steel recovery rate is high. The HI-CAL(r), wire in these cases can help reduce the amount required of calcium by the steelmaker. This results in lower costs for operating and maintaining the plant.
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