Seal assembly for heat treatment furnaces using an atmospheric gas containing hydrogen gas

Abstract

A seal assembly is located at an entrance and/or an exit of a heat treatment furnace with a side plate for heat treating a continuously fed metallic strip. The furnace includes an elastic rotating roll which has a roll body and a roll shaft, and is engaged with an elastic pad fixed on a surface of a seal plate and the metallic strip to seal an inside of the furnace against outside air. The seal assembly includes at least two closely-set slip disks arranged in an axial direction of an end side of the roll body, and at least one elastic disk engaging the side plate of the furnace. The at least two slip disks and at least one elastic disk are fitted over the roll shaft between the side plate of the furnace on which the elastic rotating roll is rotatably mounted and the roll body of the elastic rotating roll such that the at least two slip disks and the at least one elastic disk are in surface contact with each other. In the contact surfaces present from the roll body to the side plate of the furnace, the contact surfaces between the at least two slip disks have the lowest coefficient of dynamic friction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.