Method of heating metal strip and apparatus thereof

A method of heating metal strips or other coilable strand metal object to an elevated temperature without oxidation of said metal object, which is oxidisable in air at said elevated temperature, comprising:

• passing said metal object in a heating section through a furnace chamber that is made at least partly of an insulating and electrically non-conductive material while being heated through transverse flux induction heating (TFIH) by transverse flux induction heating elements located outside of said chamber which contains a protective non-oxidising gas or gas mixture;
• heating the metal in said chamber to a processing temperature between 700 and 1200° C.,
• maintaining said metal at said temperature between 700 and 1200° C. long enough for the metal of said metal object to re-crystallize completely, said metal object being a stainless steel object that has been cold rolled to a very high degree of surface reflectivity;
• annealing the stainless steel metal object at said processing temperature;
• and, when it has re-crystallized completely,
• cooling directly from the processing temperature at a rate of at least 100° C./s to below a temperature of 600° C. in a cooling section through which protective non-oxidising gas is passed, wherein the protective gas at least substantially consists of a reducing gas or gas mixture.