Clean, flawless and thinner stainless steel valves by strip casting

Compressor valves are made of hardened and tempered martensitic stainless steels. They were first produced from ingot cast material. Later continuous casting technology largely replaced this process, which led to improved, more uniform, properties and higher yields in the production of hot strip. A further development was made around the turn of the millennium, when strip casting was first used for the production of stainless steel strip, directly from the melt. In this paper the steel grade Zapp 1.4028MO produced via both production routes: a) Continuous casting - hot rolling - cold rolling and b) Strip casting - cold rolling, are compared with respect to their microstructure evolution and static/dynamic mechanical properties. It is shown that strip cast material can not only substitute that of the traditional continuous casting route, but moreover deliver performance advantages with thin stainless steel valves used within air conditioning units and household refrigerators. (paper)