Industrial furnace for the thermal treatment of metal workpieces

In an industrial furnace, especially a single chamber vacuum furnace, for the thermal treatment of non-uniformly shaped charges and metal workpieces;

• wherein the furnace includes a heating chamber, which is disposed in a furnace housing, and is adapted to receive a charge;
• wherein the heating chamber can be heated by heating elements, and is provided with at least one closable chamber opening through which cooling gas can be delivered to said charge;
• wherein the cooling gas is delivered to said chamber openings via respective delivery pipes, and is circulated via a blower through said delivery pipes, said heating chamber, and a heat exchanger;
• wherein a distribution means, which is moved back and forth during a cooling process, is pivotably mounted in the vicinity of each of said chamber openings so that supply of cooling gas from above and below the charge can be regulated and, as a result, non-uniformly shaped charges can be uniformly cooled since a greater quantity of heat can be dissipated from a given side thereof;
• comprising the improvement in combination therewith wherein said distribution means is in the form of jet nozzles pivotally mounted and provided at each of said chamber openings to control and regulate jet flow of said cooling gas adaptable to flow resistance of said charge, as said cooling gas comes from said delivery pipes, in a location directly before said chamber openings so that said cooling gas flows through said jet nozzles prior to striking said charge to enhance useful life expectancy of said jet nozzles and without need for thermal protection of said jet nozzles so that heat can be dissipated outwardly continuously by said jet nozzles due to lack of thermal protection and also to save energy in that said jet nozzles are kept from having to be heated-up and cooled-off unnecessarily for overall increase in heat-technical effeciency of the furnace, flow direction of said cooling gas being reversible via control and regulation thereof to adjust to optimum cooling conditions.