Process for cooling and solidifying continuous or semi-continuously cast material

Claim 1

A process for casting a material comprising: casting said material, said casting step comprising applying a fluidized bed of particles to cool said material, the improvement wherein said casting step comprises: electromagnetically containing and forming said material at a casting zone into a desired casting shape; and controlling a most upstream position at which said fluidized bed contacts said material being cast in the casting zone, said control step comprising: providing a flow of a fluidizing gas at a first desired pressure for fluidizing said bed of particles, said fluidizing gas flow including gas flow through said casting zone; providing a gas at a second desired pressure which is flow directed in opposition to the direction in which said fluidizing gas is flowing through said containment casting zone to reduce the flow rate of said fluidizing gas while continuing the flow of fluidizing gas through said casting zone; and adjusting a pressure differential between said pressure of said gas flow for fluidizing said bed of particles and said opposing gas pressure so that a surface of said fluidized bed which defines said most upstream position can be moved as desired as said pressure differential is either increased or decreased.