Dual-purpose guide and drum cleaner for Steckel mill coiler furnace

In a coiler furnace of the type used in conjunction with a reversing rolling mill, said furnace having a transversely rotatably mounted winding drum for steel strip to be coiled within the furnace and an entrance/exit port for passage of steel strip into or out of the coiler furnace;

• a dual-purpose strip guide provided with a cleaning element fixed thereto for cleaning the exterior cylindrical surface of the winding drum when the cleaning element is brought into engagement with scale or debris on the said surface;
• said guide being pivotally mounted about a transverse pivotal axis located in the vicinity of the entrance/exit port of the coiler furnace, thereby permitting the guide to pivot from a rest position at the bottom of the coiler furnace out of the way of the steel strip wound upon the winding drum into a selectable one of two operating positions, namely a strip guiding operating position in which the distal end of the guide relative to the pivotal axis is positioned adjacent the surface of the winding drum for the coiler furnace so as to guide the leading edge of incoming steel strip into engagement with the winding drum, and a drum cleaning operating position in which the cleaning element fixed to the guide is brought into engagement with scale or debris on the exterior cylindrical surface of the winding drum.