Salt bath quenching apparatus

A salt bath quenching arrangement comprising a quench tank containing a molten salt bath, said tank having opposite side walls and a bottom wall, a vertical partition wall in said tank extending between opposite side walls and dividing the tank into an agitation zone and a quench zone, said partition wall being common to said two zones so that the agitation zone extends laterally to one side of the partition wall and the quench zone extends laterally to the opposite side of said partition wall, the upper edge of the partition wall being disposed below the level of the molten salt so that the upper portions of the agitation and quench zones are in direct communication above the upper edge of the partition wall, the lower edge of the partition wall being disposed above the bottom wall of the tank so that the lower portions of the agitation and quench zones are in direct communication below the lower edge of the partition wall and means for circulating the molten salt between said two zones while vigorously agitating the bath in the agitation zone and simultaneously causing the bath in the quench zone to assume a quiescent condition, said means comprising means in the agitation zone for producing two high volume, high velocity flow paths in the agitation zone, one of said flow paths being directed vertically upwardly in the agitation zone and the othere being directed vertically downwardly in the agitation zone.