Heating Furnace System and Method for Producing Hot Rolled Workpieces

摘要

A heating furnace system is provided for receiving finite lengths of workpieces from one or more continuous casters and form a supply of heated workpieces at a temperature suitable for rolling in a hot rolling mill. The system includes, in one aspect, a holding furnace receiving a workpiece during continuous casting until it is severed by a cutoff device to prevent unwanted cooling. The workpiece is fed from a holding furnace to a heating furnace wherein it is deposited onto one of a series of vertically spaced supports in a heated section where it remains static throughout the heating process. After heating the workpiece is removed from the stationary supports and returned to rollers of a hearth for discharge from the furnace to a rolling mill. In a second embodiment the holding furnace arrangement provides for separate holding furnaces to receive continuous castings from separate continuous casters and prevent unwanted cooling of the cast workpiece until cut to a finite length. The holding furnaces have doors and longitudinal sides walls to allow transfer of the workpieces seriatim through doors in a central heating furnace. The central heating furnace is aligned with the hearth as in the first embodiment and supplies workpieces serially through the heating furnace.