A continuous heating furnace including an inlet, a heating zone, a cooling zone and an outlet in this order, for carrying out a heat treatment while conveying at least one workpiece from the inlet to the outlet, wherein the cooling zone is configured such that an ambient gas for direct cooling of the workpiece can flow into the cooling zone from the outlet; the cooling zone includes a plurality of indirect coolers arranged in parallel in the conveying direction of the workpiece, each of the indirect coolers having at least one regulator for independently adjusting a cooling power; and the cooling zone includes one or more residual heat outlets for discharging a residual heat gas in the cooling zone.

Direct flame preheating section for continuous metal strip processing lines, comprising a connecting zone between an active zone provided with burners capable of operating in “no flame” mode and a recuperative zone for preheating the strip by exchange with combustion fumes originating from the active zone, the connecting zone having chambers capable of orienting the flow of fumes such that they flow head-on relative to the strip when exiting the active zone and entering the recuperative zone depending on the direction of flow of the fumes.

A device for preheating rod-like, metal workpieces, in particular aluminium rods, by means of a fluid flow heated by residual heat or waste heat of a combustion process occurring in a heating device for heating the workpieces. The device has a preheating chamber for receiving at least one workpiece, wherein, in order to transfer the heat from the fluid flow to a heat transfer medium flow in a fluid flow line between a fluid flow connection and the preheating chamber, a heat-exchanger unit is provided in such a way that the workpiece is preheated indirectly via the heat transfer medium flow heated in the heat-exchanger unit by the fluid flow.

A biomass combustion system for ceramic roller kiln, including a roller kiln including a preheating section, a combustion section and a cooling section; a biomass gasifier with a feed port, a first gas inlet, a second gas inlet and an gas outlet; a fuel manifold; and a pentane gasification device connected to the fuel manifold. The biomass or biomass waste is fed through the feed port. The gas outlet is connected to the fuel manifold through a heat exchanger. The premixer is configured to mix part of the hot air discharged from the cooling section with a mixture of biomass gas and gaseous pentane transported by the fuel manifold to obtain an air-fuel mixture, and distribute the mixture to the combustion section through burners. A biomass combustion process is also provided.

In the method of producing a martensitic stainless steel strip, a quenching furnace of a quenching process includes at least a temperature raising unit and a holding unit. When a predetermined quenching temperature is set as T (° C.), the temperature raising unit is set to be within a temperature range of 0.7T (° C.) or higher and lower than T (° C.), and a set heating temperature on an exit side of the steel strip is set to be higher than a set heating temperature on an entry side of the steel strip when the steel strip passes through the temperature raising unit. The holding unit is set to the quenching temperature T (° C.). A time spent in the furnace by the steel strip in the temperature raising unit is equal to or longer than a time spent in the furnace by the steel strip in the holding unit.

A method and an apparatus for recycling a significant amount of heat within a linear hearth furnace by means of an endless conveyor that transports briquettes through the furnace from an inlet (briquette feed) end to an outlet (DRI discharge) end and then returns to the inlet end and transfers a significant amount of heat from the outlet end to the inlet end of the furnace.

A method for treating a metal strip, where the metal strip undergoes heat treatment in a directly fired furnace and is subsequently heat-treated further in a radiant tube furnace. At least part of the exhaust gases from the radiant tubes is fed to the directly fired furnace.

The invention relates to a method and to a device for stabilizing precursor fibers for the production of carbon fibers. In the method, precursor fibers are first heated to a first temperature and held at the temperature for a predefined duration. Subsequently, the precursor fibers are heated to at least one second temperature, which is higher than the first temperature, and held at said temperature for a predefined duration. During each heating and between the heating steps, the precursor fibers are in a gas atmosphere having a negative pressure in the range between 12 mbar and 300 mbar and having an oxygen partial pressure of 2.5 to 63 mbar. The device has at least one evacuable, elongate vacuum chamber for feeding the precursor fibers through, at least two lock units and at least one heating unit. At least one lock unit is used for the sealed insertion of precursor fibers into the at least one vacuum chamber, while at least one other lock unit is used for the sealed removal of precursor fibers from the at least one vacuum chamber. The heating unit has at least two individually controllable heating elements, which are suitable for heating the at least one vacuum chamber to at least two different temperatures in heating zones which are adjacent in the longitudinal direction.

An apparatus useful in treating a carbon fibre precursor material under predetermined conditions of temperature and gaseous environment. The apparatus includes a housing, and a reaction chamber disposed within the housing. The reaction chamber is elongate and has an entry port at a first end and an exit port at a second end. The entry and exit ports are configured to allow passage of a carbon fibre precursor material into and out of the reaction chamber respectively. A heater or heating system is configured to heat a wall of the reaction chamber. In use, a precursor material is passed through the reaction chamber and is thereby heated.

A continuous annealing apparatus includes: a pre-treatment device to prepare a strip unwound from a coil; a heating device to heat the strip prepared by the pre-treatment device; a heat holding device to isothermally maintain the strip heated by the heating device; a first cooling device to cool the strip heat-maintained by the heat holding device; an annealing device including a first annealing device for annealing the strip, which, is cooled by the first cooling device, for a first time, and a second annealing device for winding the strip, which is cooled by the first cooling device, into a coil and then unwinding the coil into the strip again after annealing for a second time; a second cooling device to cool the strip annealed by the first annealing device or the second annealing device; and a post-treatment device to wind the strip cooled by the second cooling device into the coil.