A mobile removable hearth skid for a furnace and/or cooling chamber including: a base, the base including a top horizontal surface supporting a refractory platform which possesses a perimeter edge including a front perimeter edge, a rear perimeter edge, and at least two side perimeter edges. The rear perimeter edge and the at least two side perimeter edges form a continuous shoulder extending beyond the base perimeter edge. Also disclosed is a furnace and/or cooling chamber including a refractory lining with a continuous ledge at the bottom edges of the refractory linings mounted on the rear wall and the at least two side walls. A gap is formed by the furnace supports between a bottom surface of the ledge and a surface supporting the furnace supports. The shoulder and ledge form a removable refractory seal.

A radiant tubes support device, which can be used in furnaces for the thermal treatment, for continuous lines for galvanising and annealing strips or panels made of metal sheet or other products made of steel or other metals, including a furnace side wall support, constrained to a wall of the furnace, a radiant tube support provided with a tubular element and anti-sticking means between the tubular element and the furnace side wall support for supporting the radiant tube and allowing the lateral oscillation thereof, avoiding the sticking on the furnace side wall support.

A hot stamping system of automotive parts to enable the production of the body in white and moving parts, which form the body of a car in a single production plant (1) from blanks. Said system consists of two by two operating groups (2 and 3) of equipment, namely: a group for the fixed parts and a group for the moving parts, each composed of production units (4), which are fed (5) with blanks, previously individually cut into the required dimensions (5) and inspected (6), for entry into the stamping tool (matrix) in accordance with the shape and dimensions of the part to be made in the respective unit, distributed (7) both to the group of fixed parts and to the group (3) of moving parts. Each of the production units comprises: a blank feed rack (8), two to three handling robots (9, 11 and 13), a Joule heating device (10), A press (12) with the tool (matrix) relative to the workpiece to be stamped, and a storage rack (14).

Embodiments are described for annealing systems and related methods to process microelectronic workpieces using vertical multi-batch perpendicular magnetic annealing systems that allow for a side-by-side configuration of multiple annealing systems to satisfy reduced footprint requirements.

A process and apparatus for forming a sheet metal component using an electric current passing through the component. The process can include providing an incremental forming machine, the machine having at least one arcuate tipped tool and at least electrode spaced a predetermined distance from the arcuate tipped tool. The machine is operable to perform a plurality of incremental deformations on the sheet metal component using the arcuate tipped tool. The machine is also operable to apply an electric direct current through the electrode into the sheet metal component at the predetermined distance from the arcuate tipped tool while the machine is forming the sheet metal component.

A workpiece transport unit including a pair of arms, an opening/closing mechanism configured to open and close the pair of arms in a horizontal direction, a pair of first placement surfaces provided at the pair of arms and configured for a first workpiece to be placed thereon, and a pair of second placement surfaces provided at the pair of arms and configured for a second workpiece to be placed thereon.

A heating apparatus, a heat treatment apparatus, and a heating method are provided. The heating apparatus includes a workpiece support on which a ring-shaped workpiece is placed, a rotary drive assembly, and a heater configured to heat the workpiece. The workpiece support includes a plurality of rotating rollers arranged in a circumferential direction. The rotary drive assembly is configured to rotate the plurality of rotating rollers to rotate the workpiece placed on the workpiece support along a ring shape of the workpiece. The heater includes a heating coil configured to induction-heat the workpiece on the workpiece support at a heating position, and an actuator configured to move the heating coil at the heating position relative to the workpiece to adjust a distance between the workpiece and the heating coil.

A production line sequentially includes a feeding platform, a feeding robot, a pressing unit, a conveying robot, a quenching device, a discharging robot, and a conveyor belt. The pressing unit includes a heating device, a die device, and at least one press used for mounting the die device. The heating device is used for wholly or partially heating the preformed blank to produce a hot blank, and the die device is used for stamping the hot blank, holding the hot blank at a certain pressure, and shaving and punching the hot blank, so as to produce a hot stamped part. The production line can continuously achieve rapid heating, stamping, pressure holding, shaving, punching, and quenching. Heating efficiency is improved, and a transferring process before stamping the hot blank is avoided.

A slab library for separate storage of cold blanks and hot blanks of heavy plates and heating furnace layout, and a furnace loading method are provided. The slab library and heating furnace layout comprises: 1 # slab library and 2 # slab library span, arranged side by side; continuous casting blank delivery roller way connected to the continuous casting process; heating furnace span arranged at the outlet of the 2 # slab library span; slab preparatory library span, which is across the inlets of the 1 # slab library span and the 2 # slab library span; span-crossing traverse trolley roller way and the heating furnace span; span-crossing Horary-spa roller way and the 1 # slab library span; and, feeding roller way and the heating furnace span, and across the hot blank zone and the cold blank zone of the 2 # slab library span and the two ends of the heating furnace span.

A hot-forming line and a method for operating the hot-forming line is disclosed having a temperature-control station and a hot-forming and press-hardening tool. A linear conveyor system for conveying the metal blank or the formed steel-sheet products, respectively, through the hot-forming line is provided.