Continuous production facilities for wire

A train of equipment to continuously manufacture steel wire comprising continuously connecting:

• a finish hot rolling block mill having an entry side and an exit side for providing hot rolled steel wire and comprising at most four roll stands;
• a water cooling and recuperation equipment located at the entry side of the finish hot rolling block mill;
• a winder located at the exit side of said finish hot rolling block mill for winding said hot rolled steel wire into rings;
• a controlled cooling apparatus comprising a first controlled cooling apparatus located after said winder for receiving said wire rings and having means for selectively converting into one of a water cooling device, a blast cooling device, and a slow cooling device having a cooling rate of 0.1° C./second or less;
• at least one bundling apparatus located after said controlled cooling apparatus for packing said wire rings into bundled coils;
• an in-line tunnel heat treatment furnace located after said at least one bundling apparatus for receiving said bundled coils from said at least one bundling apparatus, said in-line tunnel heat treatment furnace having a capacity to accommodate ¼ to all of a number of said bundled coils produced in 1 hour at an actual rolling capacity of said finish hot rolling block mill.