Pushing furnace for heating steel

A heating furnace, comprising a housing having a longitudinal axis and a predetermined length in an axial direction, a central region as considered in the axial direction, an inlet and an outlet spaced from one another in the axial direction, and an inlet end and an outlet end adjacent to said inlet and outlet, respectively;

• means for heating an article to be heated inside said housing from above and from below of the article;
• means for supporting the article to be heated inside said housing, said supporting means including a plurality of cooled supporting members extending substantially in the axial direction and each subdivided into two parts one of which is located at the side of said inlet end and the other of which is located at the side of said outlet end of said housing and starts at least in said central region of said housing, said other part of each of said supporting members being laterally offset relative to said one part of the same supporting member and having a length of substantially between 10% and 30% of the length of said housing;
• and a plurality of attachment elements each having a frame-shaped support arranged on a respective one of said supporting members, a plurality of pressure-resistant heat-insulating intermediate pieces received in said support, and a metallic slider resting on said intermediate pieces, said attachment elements being arranged on said other parts of each of said supporting members so that a slab arriving from the one part of said supporting members at the offset other part of the latter rests on said attachment elements and so that said attachment elements start at least from the said central region in which the temperature is high but at the same time uniform, wherefore said attachment elements are not subjected to high wear.