An oxidation furnace for the oxidative treatment of fibers having a housing which is gas-tight, apart from passage openings for the fibers, inter alia. A process chamber is located in the interior of the housing. Deflecting rollers guide the fibers through the process chamber in a serpentine manner so that the fibers lie next to one another as a fiber carpet which spans a plane between opposite deflecting rollers. An atmosphere-generating device can generate a hot working atmosphere and includes a blowing device with at least one outlet window through which a hot working atmosphere can be blown into the process chamber between two adjacent planes of the fiber carpet (22a). The working atmosphere is guided into the process chamber by a flow guiding system. The flow guiding system includes exchangeable flow guiding elements with flow passages which can be detachably and/or movably mounted on the blowing device, before the outlet window.

A steel-strip production apparatus adapted to produce a hot-dip-plated steel strip and a cold-rolled steel strip includes a continuous annealing furnace, a snout connected to the continuous annealing furnace, a contact-type seal plate device and a noncontact-type seal roll device, a hot-dip-plating tank that is movable, and a roll configured to turn the path direction of the steel strip after passing through the snout, wherein a hot-dip-plated steel strip production unit configured to produce a hot-dip-plated steel strip by bringing the steel strip continuously annealed in the continuous annealing furnace into the hot-dip-plating tank; and a cold-rolled steel strip production unit configured to produce a cold-rolled steel strip by transferring the steel strip continuously annealed in the continuous annealing furnace without causing the steel strip to pass through the hot-dip-plating tank, are configured to be switchable with one another.

An induction heating device for a metal strip, including: an induction coil provided on one side or on both sides of a front face side or a reverse face side of a metal strip, and that induces an induction current in the strip when a primary current is passed through the coil, the induction current configuring a closed loop as viewed from a direction perpendicular to a metal strip face; plural magnetic cores disposed at a specific position, this being a position at a back face side of the coil and separated from the strip by a specific distance, to concentrate magnetic flux generated by the coil in the strip; and a moving mechanism coupled to the magnetic cores, and that moves the cores to increase or decrease a disposed number of the cores at the specific position disposed side-by-side along a metal strip width direction.

A heat treatment apparatus includes: a plurality of rollers guiding a substrate, each of the rollers having a roller width greater than a substrate width; a heater including a heating surface which has a width greater than the substrate width; and a heat shield member arranged between a heating surface exposed portion of the heating surface, which is exposed while protruding from an end of the substrate in a width direction of the substrate along the width direction and a roller exposed portion of the specific roller included in the plurality of rollers, the roller exposed portion being exposed while protruding from the end of the substrate in the width direction to the same direction in which the heating surface exposed portion protrudes, the heat shield member shielding heat radiation from the heating surface exposed portion to an outer circumferential surface of the roller exposed portion.

A heat treatment apparatus includes: a plurality of rollers guiding a substrate, each of the rollers having a roller width greater than a substrate width; a heater including a heating surface which has a width greater than the substrate width; and a heat shield member arranged between a heating surface exposed portion of the heating surface, which is exposed while protruding from an end of the substrate in a width direction of the substrate along the width direction and a roller exposed portion of the specific roller included in the plurality of rollers, the roller exposed portion being exposed while protruding from the end of the substrate in the width direction to the same direction in which the heating surface exposed portion protrudes, the heat shield member shielding heat radiation from the heating surface exposed portion to an outer circumferential surface of the roller exposed portion.

A method of manufacturing ceramic tape includes a step of directing a tape of partially-sintered ceramic into a furnace. The tape is partially-sintered such that grains of the ceramic are fused to one another yet the tape still includes at least 10% porosity by volume, where the porosity refers to volume of the tape unoccupied by the ceramic. The method further includes steps of conveying the tape through the furnace and further sintering the tape as the tape is conveyed through the furnace. The porosity of the tape decreases during the further sintering step.

A machine for applying spouts to containers includes a heating tunnel for heating spouts, and a conveyor for conveying spouts through the heating tunnel for heating. The conveyor is a loop conveyor including a plurality of spout holding rack assemblies mounted thereon, wherein the loop conveyor defines a conveyor path from a spout loading zone, through the heating tunnel and then back to the spout loading zone. The machine includes (i) multi-material warp resistant rack holding assemblies, and/or (ii) a spout infeed track at a spout infeed side of the conveyor that includes an adjustment assembly for permitting adjustment of a number of spouts fed from the spout infeed track into an aligned spout holding rack assembly, and/or (iii) a spout emptying passage at a spout outfeed side of the conveyor, and/or (iv) a controller configured to track the position of each spout holding rack assembly along the conveyor path.

A method for heat-treating a metal strip, where the metal strip is pre-heated continuously in a pre-heating zone with the aid of hot gas and subsequently undergoes further heat treatment in a directly fired furnace in a reducing and/or oxidizing atmosphere. The metal strip is pre-heated in the pre-heating zone with hot inert gas and further heated with an electric heating system before entering the directly fired furnace. A furnace plant for implementing the process and a related heat recovery system are also disclosed.

A method for heat-treating a metal strip, where the metal strip is pre-heated continuously in a pre-heating zone with the aid of hot gas and subsequently undergoes further heat treatment in a directly fired furnace in a reducing and/or oxidizing atmosphere. The metal strip is pre-heated in the pre-heating zone with hot inert gas and further heated with an electric heating system before entering the directly fired furnace. A furnace plant for implementing the process and a related heat recovery system are also disclosed.

A strip flotation furnace for controlling the temperature of a metal strip has a flotation nozzle bar extending through the furnace transversely to a strip running direction of the strip. The flotation nozzle bar has two opposing first flotation nozzle rows spaced apart by a central region of the flotation nozzle bar. The rows are set up so that corresponding flotation nozzle jets, with a directional component toward the central region, can be generated to provide pressure cushioning for metal strip guiding. A temperature-control nozzle bar extends transversely to and is spaced apart from the flotation nozzle bar along the strip running direction. The temperature-control nozzle bar has two additional opposing temperature-control nozzle rows spaced apart by an additional temperature-control nozzle bar central region. These rows are set up so that corresponding temperature-control nozzle jets, with a directional component opposite to the additional central region, can be generated.