The “Continuous Casting” committee once again brought together experts from the industry involved in continuous casting with each other and with experts and young scientists from research institutions and universities, for specialist presentations and for an exchange of practical experience. The digital format of the conference was chosen because there was no scheduled visit, and in view of the other meetings of committee members in Neuss and Jena last month, to avoid travelling.

A central item on the agenda was continuous casting under current and future emissions- and energy-related conditions in metallurgical process technology. Prof. Dr. Herbert Pfeifer, Head of the IOB at RWTH Aachen, introduced the topic with a highly knowledgeable and detailed presentation entitled "Potentials of electric heat and CO2-neutral fuels for thermal process technology", which was followed by a detailed discussion between the participants.

From the working group of Prof Dr Eckehard Specht at OVGU Magdeburg, Mr. Stephan Ryll reported on current research on water cooling with jet fields. Towards the end of the current AIF project at the end of February 2024, there will be a detailed video conference presentation on the project results.

Dr Bernd Prillhofer reported from the working group "Furnace-independent Mould - Aluminium". The working group meets twice a year at different locations of the member companies, and will celebrate its 100^th meeting in May 2024. The group works on current technological topics in an expert-orientated manner. The working group "Copper Materials" will meet with Dr. Hartmut Ricken at its 49^th meeting in March 2024 at the companies Otto Junker in Lammersdorf and August Blecher in Remscheid.

Dr. Stefan Klein reported on the latest developments at the DGM. The special features of a committee with an industrial focus have their fixed place in the large community of the DGM. The technical committee confirmed the substantive focal points of its work, which determine the individual characteristics of its administration.

With regard to the organisation of future annual meetings of the "Continuous Casting" technical committee, those present were exclusively in favour of holding these annually and in person, rotating between a company in the light metal industry, the heavy metal industry and a university or plant engineering company. The personal contacts and mutual company tours, even beyond the technical focus of the working groups, are simply indispensable, for which one would take on the sometimes long journey. In addition to getting to know new colleagues (members of the working group should be known in the commitee) and the reports from the working groups and institutes, interdisciplinary topics of general interest should be defined and discussed in the technical committee.

Content, location and date for the 2024 committee meeting will be determined in consultation with the working group chairpersons.

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rüdiger Böhmer
Chair of the Expert Committee Continuous Casting