Hood-type annealing furnace and method for cooling an annealing material in a hood-type annealing furnace

A hood-type annealing furnace (1) for annealing an annealing material, comprising:

• a base (2), having a site (3, 4, 5, 6) on which a batch of the annealing material is able to be arranged;
• a protective hood, with which the annealing material arranged on the site (3, 4, 5, 6) is able to be covered, forming an annealing space enclosed by the protective hood and the site (3, 4, 5, 6);
• a heating hood, with which the protective hood is able to be covered, forming an intermediate space arranged between the heating hood and the protective hood and bounded at a bottom by the base (2);
• and
• a cooling gas system (7) that is communicably connected or connectable to the intermediate space by
• a cooling gas outlet (8) formed on the base (2) and by
• a cooling gas inlet (9) formed on the base (2).

A hood-type annealing furnace (1), comprising:

• a base (2), having at least two sites (3, 4, 5, 6) arranged at a distance from one another (3, 4, 5, 6), each of the at least two sites (3, 4, 5, 6) being configured to receive a batch of an annealing material;
• at least two protective hoods with which the respective batches of the annealing material arranged on the at least two sites (3, 4, 5, 6) are able to be covered, each protective hood being dedicated to forming an annealing space enclosed by the respective protective hood and a corresponding one of the at least two sites (3, 4, 5, 6);
• a single heating hood, with which the at least two protective hoods are able to be covered, forming an intermediate space between the heating hood and the at least two protective hoods that is bounded at a bottom by the base (2);
• and
• a cooling gas system (7) that is communicably connected or connectable to the intermediate space by
• a cooling gas outlet (8) formed on the base (2) and by
• a cooling gas inlet (9) formed on the base (2) for each of the at least two sites (3, 4, 5, 6),
• wherein each cooling gas inlet (9) is connected to the cooling gas outlet (8) via a cooling gas feed (10), and
• wherein the cooling gas system (7) has a single cooling unit (11) arranged on the cooling gas feed (10) and a single fan (12) arranged on the cooling gas feed (10).

A method for cooling an annealing material located in a hood-type annealing furnace (1), comprising:

• arranging a protective hood to cover the annealing material arranged on a site (3, 4, 5, 6) of a base (2) of the hood-type annealing furnace (1) and thereby forming an annealing space enclosed by the protective hood and the site (3, 4, 5, 6);
• arranging a heating hood to cover the protective hood, thereby forming an intermediate space between the protective hood and the heating hood that is bounded at a bottom by the base (2);
• passing a cooling gas, for cooling the annealing material, through the intermediate space;
• extracting used cooling gas from the intermediate space via at least one cooling gas outlet (8) formed on the base (2);
• and
• introducing fresh cooling gas into the intermediate space via at least one cooling gas inlet (9) formed on the base (2).