Continuous furnace for aluminium strips

Abstract

The present invention relates to a continuous furnace system for heat treating a metal component, in particular an aluminium strip. The continuous furnace system has a first heating unit, in which the metal component is heatable for solution annealing up to a first temperature in the range of from 350° C. to 700° C., a cooling unit, in which the metal component is coolable from 300° C. to 750° C. down to 70° C. to 250° C., and a second heating unit, in which the metal component is heatable up to from 150° C. to 290° C. The first heating unit, the cooling unit, and the second heating unit both have a common support structure, on which the first heating unit, the cooling unit, and the second heating unit are fixed together. Furthermore, the continuous furnace system has a common conveyor track, which extends through the first heating unit, the cooling unit, and the second heating unit, wherein the conveyor track is configured in such a way that the metal component is passable along the conveyor track in the conveying direction through the first heating unit, the cooling unit, and the second heating unit for heat treatment.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.