Danieli has started up a new 5-strand special steel bloom caster at Corus Engineering Steels' Aldwarke Steel Works in Rotherham, U.K.

The state-of-the-art caster is designed for casting 700,000 tonnes per year of 180- and 210-mm square blooms in top quality high carbon and alloy steels. The new 10 meter radius conticaster has replaced a 16 meter radius caster for larger size blooms.

Smaller-size blooms coming from the new caster will be directly fed into the hot rolling facilities, bypassing the blooming mill operation, thus easing the plant's production route and reducing transformation costs. The machine is also equipped with MPMD mould powder level detection system, the latest Danieli innovation in continuous casting operation, based on the use of both radioactive and electromagnetic HiLEVEL^® sensors.