Alcoa Inc.

William A Casada

Ho Yu

Men Glenn Chu

Alvaro Giron

A DC casting mold for casting molten metal alloy comprising a cooled tubular body that has a thermally insulated insert attached to its top surface. The thermally insulated insert has a bottom portion with a beveled sidewall, which forms an angle with the horizontal melt surface layer of the molten metal and creates an eddy. The eddy causes a substantial number of oxides that are formed during the casting process to remain in the bottom sidewall portion of the thermally insulated insert of the mold, thereby substantially reducing the number of ingot surface imperfections that promote ingot cracking. In addition, the eddy promotes break-up of the oxides into smaller pieces as the oxides flow toward the cooled inner walls of the cooled tubular body, thereby having limited surface area for growth of oxide folds. A method of casting molten metal alloys with improved surface quality is also disclosed.

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Cheswick, PA, United States of America

William A Casada