A continuous annealing furnace for annealing steel strips has a reaction chamber wherein the steel strips are transported vertically, the reaction chamber having openings supplied with a reactant, also called reactant openings, located at the top or at the bottom of the reaction chamber, wherein the reaction chamber further has other openings supplied with an inert gas, also called inert gas openings, the inert gas openings being located on the lateral sides of the reaction chamber.

Provided is a method for producing a galvannealed steel sheet. When the steel sheet passing through the soaking zone is a type of steel containing 0.2 mass % or more of Si, both dry gas and humidified gas are supplied to the soaking zone, where the humidified gas is supplied only from the humidified gas supply port positioned in a latter part of the soaking zone among a plurality of humidified gas supply ports, where the latter part of the soaking zone is determined considering a sheet passing speed V and a target temperature T on the exit side of the soaking zone.

A heat treatment furnace and a method for heat treatment of a steel sheet blank is disclosed having at least one furnace chamber and a transport system for conveying the steel sheet blanks through the furnace chamber. A preheating chamber, a metallurgical bonding path and a cooling chamber, wherein the steel sheet blank can be heated in the preheating chamber to a temperature of above 200 C. A method for the production of a hot-formed and press-quenched motor-vehicle part is also disclosed.

To provide continuous annealing equipment, a continuous annealing method, a method of producing cold-rolled steel sheets and a method of producing coated or plated steel sheets which enable a quick response to fluctuations in material properties and enable minimization of fluctuations in mechanical properties of products. The continuous annealing equipment is continuous annealing equipment for steel sheets including, in this order, a heating zone (6) and a soaking zone (7), the soaking zone (7) including a first soaking zone (7A) and a second soaking zone (7B) provided after the first soaking zone (7A), the continuous annealing equipment including: a first induction heating device (9) provided between first soaking zone (7A) and a second soaking zone (7B); and a measuring device (10) configured to measure austenite fractions of the steel sheets at an exit of the second soaking zone (7B).

Provided are a dew point control method for a continuous annealing furnace, a continuous annealing method for a steel sheet, a steel sheet manufacturing method, a continuous annealing furnace, a continuous hot-dip galvanizing line, and a galvannealing line by which a furnace dew point can be controlled in a short time. The dew point control method includes stopping or reducing supply of humidified gas into the furnace, and supplying dry gas along a furnace inner wall of the continuous annealing furnace in the continuous annealing furnace. According to the dew point control method, a temperature of the furnace inner wall of the continuous annealing furnace may be at least 30? C. higher than a furnace atmosphere temperature in the continuous annealing furnace.

A continuous annealing furnace for annealing steel strips has a reaction chamber wherein the steel strips are transported vertically, the reaction chamber having openings supplied with a reactant, also called reactant openings, located at the top or at the bottom of the reaction chamber, wherein the reaction chamber further has other openings supplied with an inert gas, also called inert gas openings, the inert gas openings being located on the lateral sides of the reaction chamber.

The transverse flux induction heating device allows an alternating magnetic field to intersect the sheet face of a conductive sheet which is conveyed in one direction, thereby inductively heating the conductive sheet. The transverse flux induction heating device includes a heating coil disposed such that a coil face faces the sheet face of the conductive sheet; a core around which the heating coil is coiled; and a shielding plate formed of a conductor and disposed between the core and a side end portion in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the conductive sheet, wherein the shielding plate has a protruded portion, and the side surface of the protruded portion represents a closed loop when viewed from a direction perpendicular to the coil face.

Provided is a method for producing plated steel sheet by means of an annealing device which includes at least one section and in which the at least one section is filled with a gas constituting a non-reducing atmosphere or a weakly reducing atmosphere to substantially improve the quality of plating onto hot-dipped steel sheet, including the plating properties, alloying properties, anti-pickup properties, plating adhesion properties, anti-flaking properties, anti-cratering properties and anti-ash properties, by using prior-art annealing equipment and heat-treatment cycle without any additional oxidation-reduction heat treatment process or large quantities of high-cost alloying elements.

There is disclosed a vertical vibratory thermal treatment system, comprising a heating section for thermally treating material, a retort section that is located within or connected to the heating section and includes at least one elevator system for vertically moving the material to the heating section. The disclosed elevator system is isolated from other parts of the thermal treatment section by an enclosure thereby allowing for flexibility and simplicity in the design of the retort section. There is also disclosed a method of treating materials, including hazardous or radioactive materials, such as a powder, sand, granule, gravel, agglomerate or other form of particle or combinations thereof, using the system described herein.

A steel strip continuous annealing device has a vertical annealing furnace 10 in which a heating zone 14, a soaking zone 16, and a cooling zone 18 are arranged in this order, and anneals a steel strip P passing through the zones 14, 16, and 18 in the order while being conveyed in the vertical direction in the vertical annealing furnace 10. The heating zone 14, the soaking zone 16, and the cooling zone 18 communicate through an atmosphere separation portion 36. One of a gas delivery port 38 and a gas discharge port 40 is positioned in an upper part and the other one of the gas delivery port 38 and the gas discharge port 40 is positioned in a lower part in each of the heating zone 14, the soaking zone 16, and the cooling zone 18.