A vessel having an opening for receiving the product and walls surrounding the vessel at all sides except the opening. The interior of the vessel is filled with a fluid having a specific gravity lower than a specific gravity of a medium surrounding the walls outside the vessel. While the vessel is oriented with the opening facing downwards, the vessel and/or product is/are conveyed to ensure that the product enters the interior through the opening.

A load transport mechanism for moving a heat treating load in a multi-station heat treating system is disclosed. The transport mechanism has a compact construction that allows it to fit in a centrally located stationary transport chamber. The transport chamber is adapted to provide ready access to multiple treating chambers arrayed around the chamber. The transport mechanism includes a load translation mechanism for moving the load linearly and a load rotation mechanism for rotating the load within the transport chamber. A multi-station heat treating system having a centrally located quenching chamber that includes the load transport mechanism is also disclosed.

A conveyor belt, in particular a pouch conveyor belt, with a first layer, which comprises a material with high flexibility, and to a conveying installation, in particular a pouch conveying installation, with such a conveyor belt.

A heat treatment system includes heating chambers configured to perform heat treatment on objects to be treated, and a conveyance device configured to load each of the objects to be treated into the heating chambers, unload the object to be treated from the heating chambers, and convey the object to be treated under an oxygen-free atmosphere, wherein the conveyance device includes a cooling device configured to perform cooling treatment on the object to be treated.

There are disclosed a heat treatment installation and a method of producing shaped components having at least two microstructural regions of different ductility or strength from semi-finished products of hardenable steel, using a continuous furnace which permits heating of the semi-finished products to a first temperature in a first region and permits heating of the semi-finished products to a second temperature, which differs from the first temperature, in a second region. The two regions are separated from one another by partition walls extending in the transport direction, and the continuous furnace includes a lifting-step chain conveyor as a transport device.

A threading apparatus for transporting an electrode plate includes an oven, a first guide rail and a second guide rail, and a threading assembly. The first guide rail and the second guide rail are spaced apart from each other inside the oven in a first direction. A first opening and a second opening are respectively provided on a surface of the first guide rail and a surface of the second guide rail that face each other. Two ends of the threading assembly in the first direction are movably disposed in the first guide rail and the second guide rail through the first opening and the second opening, respectively. The threading assembly is configured to be connected to the electrode plate for transporting the electrode plate inside the oven.

A method of adjusting a position of a blank entering a furnace includes measuring a position of a heated blank exiting the furnace, recording one or more offset values from a nominal value of the heated blank exiting the furnace, calculating a revised position of a subsequent blank entering the furnace as a function of the one or more offset values, and adjusting a position of the subsequent blank entering the furnace as a function of the one or more offset values. The position of the heated blank exiting the furnace can be measured with an electronic vision system, a robot can adjust the position of the subsequent blank, and offset value(s) can be an elapsed furnace operation time, a number of heated blanks that have exited the furnace, and a physical dimension between an actual position of the heated blank and the nominal value of the heated blank.

An apparatus for loading/unloading workpieces, including a furnace heating a workpiece, and a robot loading and/or unloading a workpiece into/from the furnace. The robot may include a manipulator linkage and a fork at an end of the manipulator linkage. The fork may have an upper side on which a workpiece is placed while being loaded into and/or unloaded from the furnace. The fork may include a parallel arrangement of fork elements, each fork element in the fork having a length and rectangular cross section perpendicular to the length. Each fork element may have a workpiece carrying surface on which a workpiece is placed and an opposite surface to the workpiece carrying surface. The fork element may include a heat insulator disposed on the workpiece carrying surface at least over an area where a workpiece is placed to equalize longitudinal thermal expansions in the workpiece carrying surface and the opposite surface.

The present invention relates to a device for carrying component parts to be temperature-controlled, in particular coiled metal strips or metal wires, in a temperature-control device. The carrier device has a base body and a carrier element, to which a component part is attachable, wherein the carrier element is detachably attached to the base body. The base body has a transport coupling, which is configured such that the transport coupling is detachably fixable to a handling system for handling the device.

A method of adjusting a position of a blank entering a furnace includes measuring a position of a heated blank exiting the furnace, recording one or more offset values from a nominal value of the heated blank exiting the furnace, calculating a revised position of a subsequent blank entering the furnace as a function of the one or more offset values, and adjusting a position of the subsequent blank entering the furnace as a function of the one or more offset values. The position of the heated blank exiting the furnace can be measured with an electronic vision system, a robot can adjust the position of the subsequent blank, and offset value(s) can be an elapsed furnace operation time, a number of heated blanks that have exited the furnace, and a physical dimension between an actual position of the heated blank and the nominal value of the heated blank.