The Institute of Metal Technology offers consumers freezing-up technology of continous-iterative casting under a commercial agreement with technical assistance and equipment for the implementation of a fundamentally new, unparalleled in the world, method of casting hollow cylindrical castings for the required range of cast workpieces, equipment modernization under a manufacturing agreement.

Production of hollow cylindrical workpieces without the use of a rod by freezing (near-wall crystallization) in a continuous-cyclic casting mode from alloy cast iron with special properties for the manufacture of highly wear-resistant parts with an increased service life.

Parts of this type are widely used in metallurgy, the building materials industry, auto and tractor manufacturing and other sectors of the national economy. Typical representatives are piston rings, cylinder liners, brake discs of rope machines for laying cords in steel wire production, punch bushings for hollow sand-lime brick presses, dies for straightening machines used to straighten reinforcing wire and other critical products.

Reducing material and energy costs, production space, the number of production operations, replacing expensive alloy steels and bronzes with cast iron; reducing production costs, increasing productivity, operating life of machines and mechanisms provides significant potential for increasing the share of use of continuous-cyclic casting equipment and parts produced by this unique method at Belarusian and Russian enterprises.

A fundamentally new technological casting process and equipment for its implementation ensures the production of hollow cylindrical blanks without a core with a productivity of 100-240 castings/hour. The technology makes it possible to obtain casting material with high mechanical and performance characteristics.

The developed method is based on the principle of creating conditions for directional solidification of the metal. Its essence is as follows. Liquid metal is fed through a siphon gating system and a connecting cup into a steel water-cooled crystallizer, consisting of stationary and moving parts, until it is filled to a height equal to the height of the resulting casting. Then the metal supply is stopped and a period of time is taken to freeze the workpiece wall to the required thickness. The hardened crust, which makes up the body of the casting, is removed with upward grips from the stationary crystallizer and the melt. At this time, a new portion of liquid metal is fed into the crystallizer, with a volume equal to the volume of the extracted casting. The cycle repeats. Thus, the casting process is carried out in a continuous cyclic mode. The formation of the casting occurs with intense radial heat removal and abundant supply of the crystallization front with the liquid phase during the entire solidification time. This eliminates the formation of shrinkage and gas porosity, the entry of non-metallic and slag inclusions into the casting body and ensures the production of workpieces with a highly dispersed structure, increased density and hardness. The absence of a core ensures free shrinkage of castings both during the solidification process and during subsequent cooling after removal from the mold, which prevents the formation of hot cracks and microcracks.

A radical improvement in the properties of the resulting parts has made it possible to use the bulk of cast iron products instead of alloy steels and antifriction bronzes. At the same time, the wear resistance and service life of parts is up to 30 times higher than similar indicators of previously used ones. The increase in the service properties of parts has tenfold increased the service life and reliability of the machines and their competitiveness in foreign markets.

The technology makes it possible, in a continuous-cyclic mode, to produce castings with a given structure and physical and mechanical properties due to directed solidification and heat treatment, combined into a single technological process.

The achieved performance indicators correspond to the best world analogues.

Waste-free and environmentally friendly production. The process of producing blanks using the method of continuous cyclic casting most fully meets modern requirements for environmental cleanliness and resource conservation.
The absence of molding and core mixtures eliminates labor- and energy-intensive, environmentally harmful operations of their preparation, molding, knocking out, trimming, and cleaning castings. This allows you to radically simplify machining and 100% use of waste when melting metal.

Removing the casting from the mold at a temperature of more than 1000 °C allows heat treatment of the workpiece (obtaining the necessary properties) in a single technological flow without additional heating, using only the own heat of crystallization. The formation of the internal cavity of the casting without the use of a rod ensures free shrinkage of the casting, which eliminates the occurrence of stresses and, as a consequence, the absence of cracks that reduce the strength of parts.

The technology allows you to control the cooling process of castings to obtain a given structure.

It is possible to develop and manufacture equipment for the required range of cast workpieces, modernize existing equipment, and develop new technological processes.

1. Metal wire for siphon feeding of the melt into the crystallizer: Pat. 4791 Rep. Belarus: IPC B 22D 11/10 / E. I. Marukovich, V. F. Bevza, V. P. Grusha, V. S. Mazko; date of publication: 04/10/2008.(in Russian).
2. Pouring glass: Pat. 4552 Rep. Belarus: IPC B 22D 11/10 / E. I. Marukovich, V. F. Bevza, V. P. Grusha, V. S. Mazko; date of publication: 01/16/2008.(in Russian).
3. Crystallizer: Pat. 4027 Rep. Belarus: IPC B 22D 11/04 / V. F. Bevza, V. S. Mazko, V. P. Grusha; date of publication: 05/21/2007.(in Russian).

The Institute of Metal Technology is the leading scientific organization of the republic in the field of development and creation of resource-saving, environmentally friendly high-tech foundry technologies, and the production of modern materials for industrial enterprises.

The main directions of scientific and technical activities of the institute:
- Technologies for obtaining the structure and properties of powdered hard alloys based on tungsten, titanium, tantalum carbides with cobalt as a binder material;
- Methods for recycling and hardening of hard alloys in order to improve their quality performance characteristics;
- Processes for recycling high-speed steel scrap to obtain material for tool products;
- Development of theoretical foundations for controlling the processes of formation of the structure and properties of metals and alloys during their crystallization and solidification;
- Thermophysics and hydrodynamics of special types of casting;
- Creation of new materials and resource-saving technological processes for their production, processing and strengthening.

The results of fundamental research of the institute are presented in scientific publications and are used:
- when creating environmentally friendly resource-saving technologies for continuous casting of ingots from ferrous and non-ferrous alloys;
- development of new cast, including bimetallic, materials with high consumer properties (strength, ductility, density);
- development of wear-resistant carbon-based composites, including those with a gradient of physical and mechanical properties.

The Institute develops, manufactures, supplies, installs and services equipment for continuous casting of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, electroslag casting of billets, including bimetallic ones, and centrifugal casting of bimetals.

According to consumer orders, the institute will produce:
- cylinder liners for high-performance engines;
- zinc anodes for galvanic coating;
- original prizes, souvenirs, bas-reliefs, figurines, memorial plaques and other sculptural works made of bronze and aluminum;
- molding casting of parts made of chromium wear-resistant cast iron for centrifugal crushing and grinding equipment for use in the construction industry.
- by casting by quenching solidification, castings from alloy AK12 with nanostructured eutectic silicon, castings from alloy AK15, AK18, AK21 with an ultrafine structure, which have unique physical-mechanical, wear-resistant and performance properties.
- by the method of continuous horizontal casting, rectangular, round and complex cross-section blanks made of cast iron and copper-based alloys, hollow castings made of cast iron and copper-based alloys, copper anodes for galvanic coating.
- electroslag casting bimetallic workpieces, stainless steel workpieces.

The Institute develops and manufactures foundry equipment:
- electroslag remelting installations;
- continuous horizontal casting installations;
- channel furnaces for melting brass and bronze;
- continuous casting lines for copper chloride tape;
- molds with a jet cooling system for continuous casting of metals and alloys.

The Institute offers services in:
1. Study of the structure and properties of metals and alloys:
- determination of the chemical composition of metals and alloys, compressed powders, wires using atomic emission spectroscopy;
- metallographic studies of the structure;
- determination of physical and mechanical properties.
2. Modeling of casting processes:
- solving thermal problems of solidification of castings and ingots of any configuration and problems of crystallization of metals and alloys;
- optimization of casting processes and other technological processes based on multi-criteria optimization techniques.

Consumers interested in purchasing continuous-cyclic freeze casting technology under a commercial agreement with technical assistance and equipment for the implementation of a fundamentally new, unparalleled in the world, method of casting hollow cylindrical castings for the required range of cast workpieces, equipment modernization under a manufacturing agreement.