A heating furnace includes a bolt inserted through an insertion hole in a part of a heater and further inserted into a hole on a tip surface of an electrode rod. A first washer is between a bearing surface of the bolt and one face of the heater. A second washer is between another face of the heater and the tip surface. The relation of: |L.sub.0.Math.α.sub.0−(T.sub.H.Math.α.sub.H+T.sub.B.Math.α.sub.B+T.sub.E.Math.α.sub.E)|.Math.ΔT≦0.15(T.sub.B+T.sub.E) is satisfied, where L.sub.0 is an interval between the bearing surface and the tip surface, α.sub.0 is a linear expansion coefficient (LEC) of the bolt, T.sub.H, T.sub.B and T.sub.E are thicknesses of the part, first and second washers and α.sub.H, α.sub.B and α.sub.E are their LECs, respectively, and ΔT is a temperature increment quantity of a part where the heater and the electrode rod are fastened by the bolt.

A direct flame furnace burner unit for furnaces for the thermo-chemical treatment of steel strips in continuous hot-dip galvanizing plants includes a burner with a combustion head provided with a combustion chamber having an outlet opening of the combustion flame, and a body to which the combustion head is fixed. The body includes a first chamber which is in communication with the combustion chamber, a first lance for the injection of a fuel into the combustion chamber, a mixing chamber provided with at least a first inlet and a second inlet opening which is connectable to a second supply source, at least a second lance for the injection of the mixture into the combustion chamber. The burner is operable in two distinct operating modes, a diffusive flame combustion mode and a premixed flame combustion mode.

Provide is an annealing furnace, a method of constructing the annealing furnace, and a structure for prefabrication which make it possible to use a prefabricated construction method for the annealing furnace even in a long length. The annealing furnace includes a case, and plural rows of rolls at the top and the bottom of the inside of the case, the rolls being configured to convey a steel strip. The annealing furnace includes: horizontally parting faces where a body of the furnace can be horizontally divided, wherein each of horizontally parted sections parted by the horizontally parting faces further has vertically parting faces where the horizontally parted sections can be divided in a direction vertical to a longitudinal direction of the body.

A laser activated luminescence system is provided. Another aspect pertains to a system employing a plasma assisted vapor deposition reactor which creates diamond layers on a substrate, in combination with a laser system to at least photoactivate and anneal the diamond layers. Yet another aspect of the present system uses a laser to assist with placement of color centers, such as nitrogen vacancy centers, in diamond. The present method uses lasers to manufacture more than two activated nitrogen vacancy center nodes in a diamond substrate, with nanometer spatial resolution and at a predetermined depth.

A method of manufacturing a hot stamping includes: inserting a blank having a plating layer formed on at least one surface of a base material into a heating furnace having a plurality of sections having different temperature increase rate ranges; and multi-stage heating the blank gradually while passing through the plurality of sections. The plurality of sections include: a first heating section having a first average temperature increase rate change rate; a second heating section having a second average temperature increase rate change rate different from the first average temperature increase rate change rate; and a third heating section having a third average temperature increase rate change rate different from the first average temperature increase rate change rate and the second average temperature increase rate change rate. The third average temperature increase rate change rate includes a section in which a positive value is changed to a negative value.

Disclosed is a hot-stamping component, which includes a base steel plate; and a plated layer on the base steel plate and including a first layer, a second layer, and an intermetallic compound portion having an island shape in the second layer, wherein the first layer and the second layer are sequentially stacked, and an area fraction of the intermetallic compound portion with respect to the second layer is an amount of 20% to 60%.

There is provided a surface treatment method in which a processing gas is brought in contact with a heated processing object made of steel, an element in the processing gas is solid-solutionized, and thus a surface treatment is performed on the processing object. The processing object is heated to a heating temperature in a vicinity of a processing temperature at which the surface treatment is performed by heating an atmosphere in which the processing object is disposed. The surface treatment is performed by bringing the processing gas in contact with a surface of the processing object while the processing object which is heated is directly heated to the processing temperature.

The invention relates to use of selected materials in systems for heat treatment, various forms of such material, related systems and methods for determining such materials. In particular the invention relates to the use of a cover of analumina-chromium alloy material with a Cr content of more than 5 w % (percent by weight) for one or more parts within a system suited for heat treatment.

An annealing system and method of operating is described. The annealing system includes a furnace having a vacuum chamber wall that defines a processing space into which a plurality of workpieces may be translated and subjected to thermal and magnetic processing, wherein the furnace further includes a heating element assembly having at least one heating element located radially inward from the vacuum chamber wall and immersed within an outer region of the processing space, and wherein the heating element is composed of a non-metallic, anti-magnetic material. The annealing system further includes a magnet system arranged outside the vacuum chamber wall of the furnace, and configured to generate a magnetic field within the processing space.

A method of tempering a plate workpiece entails first fitting the plate workpiece with a shield between first and second shield parts each having a respective mask element so as to cover only an edge region of the workpiece while leaving a more central region of the workpiece exposed. The shield and workpiece are then put in an oven with the plate workpiece fitted between the first and second shield parts. The shield also comprises first and second seals on the first and second parts confronting each other and each displaceable on the respective part between a closely juxtaposed working position in which inner portions of the seals are spaced apart by a distance equal generally to a thickness of the plate workpiece and outer portions of the seal bear on each other and a starting position spaced more widely from and out of engagement with each other. The seals engage and clamp the workpiece in the working position.