Furnace with movable beam load handling system, in particular for heating or heat treatment of ferrous or non-ferrous metallic material, comprising:—a furnace chamber extending between a furnace-loading section and a furnace-unloading section of the material along a longitudinal direction;—first beams, arranged inside said chamber and defining a plurality of main supports for the material to be treated in said chamber,—second beams, arranged inside said chamber and defining a plurality of temporary supports for the material, wherein said second beams are cyclically movable with respect to the first beams so as to impart to said material a movement between said furnace-loading section and said furnace-unloading section having a motion component parallel to said longitudinal direction.

The subject of the present invention is a shielding shoe for covering openings in the bottom of a walking beam furnace, the shielding shoe having a semi-circular recess and can thereby be taken up by a vertical support of the walking beam furnace. The shielding shoe consists essentially of refractory cast concrete or refractory rammed concrete and, according to the invention, has a honeycomb-like structure below the shielding jacket. The present invention also relates to a walking beam furnace with such shielding shoes.

The subject of the present invention is a shielding shoe for covering openings in the bottom of a walking beam furnace, the shielding shoe having a semi-circular recess and can thereby be taken up by a vertical support of the walking beam furnace. The shielding shoe consists essentially of refractory cast concrete or refractory rammed concrete and, according to the invention, has a honeycomb-like structure below the shielding jacket. The present invention also relates to a walking beam furnace with such shielding shoes.