The original UPCAST® technology

The Upward Continuous Casting method, better known as the UPCAST® system, originally developed by Outokumpu in the late sixties for the production of oxygen free (OF) copper and copper alloy wire rod, has established itself as the leading production method in its field. Today this original UPCAST® technology is being supplied by UPCAST OY.

UPCAST® continuous casting technology provides top quality OF copper wire rod with excellent conductivity, drawability and surface finish. It is a simple process with easy operation through an advanced, highly automated control system. UPCAST® is available in both single- and double-furnace configurations and single-furnace lines can easily be expanded to a double-furnace configuration. UPCAST® multi-strand casting machines are run by servomotor drives enabling flexible variation of the product mix. A wide range of rod sizes can be cast even simultaneously and production output can easily be adjusted to daily needs.

Several interesting, new developments have been introduced to the UPCAST® system. Among these are:

- Output from our single-furnace system extended up to 12,000tpa capacity
- Output from our double-furnace system extended up to 40,000tpa capacity
- A new double-loop type inductor doubling the available power range together with a marked decrease in specific power consumption
- A transistor converter type stepless power control system offering reduced specific power consumption, increased inductor lifetime and the elimination of harmonic resonance effects
- A “Universal” type coiler handling a wide range of rod sizes

These together with a number of other new features to be presented will offer the user of an UPCAST® system further improved economics and reliability without compromising the all-important rod quality.