Abstract: A device for blowing gas on a face of traveling strip material, comprising at least one hollow box having its wall fitted with a plurality of blow orifices, thereby enabling gas to be directed towards said face of the strip material. The hollow box is also fitted laterally on at least one side thereof relative to a midplane (Q) perpendicular to the plane in the strip with a movable shutter member having the function of selectively shutting some of the blow orifices. In order to adapt the width of the blow zone to the width of the corresponding strip material, said movable shutter member has an edge adjacent to the inside surface of the wall fitted with the blow orifices, and an edge adjacent to a side wall of the hollow box.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of cooling a metal strip traveling through a cooling section in a continuous heat treatment line. In accordance with the invention, the method consists in projecting a refrigerant medium into the cooling section (4) onto the surface of the strip (1) to be cooled, the medium being constituted for the most part by a phase-change substance that passes into the gaseous phase at a temperature that is lower than the temperature of the strip (1) and without oxidizing said strip so that energy is exchanged within an endothermic process by a change in the phase of said phase-change substance.