Abstract: Walking-beam furnace for the accelerated heating of billets or the like, in which the upper surfaces of the mobile beams (1) and of the fixed beams (1') are made up of billet-tipping ridges (5, 4) having profiles which interact during operation so as to cause rotation of the billets about their longitudinal axes as they advance through the furnace. According to the invention, the billet-tipping ridges (4, 5) of the fixed beams (1') and of the mobile beams (1) consist of a plurality of modular elements (7, 8, 9, 10) in the form of billet-tipping ridge segments which are mutually aligned along the length of the beams (1, 1'). The ridge segments (7, 8, 9, 10) have additional features which improve operation of the billet-tipping ridges (4, 5).

Abstract: In a method for quenching, particularly for steel tubes or similar, the tube (T) is quenched by a vortical flow of cooling liquid at least along the outer shell surface, with at least a circulatory motion inside the tube. The vortical flow of cooling liquid has a component of circulatory motion in the circumferential direction around the outer shell surface of the tube and a component of motion in the axial direction with respect to the tube. A device for the application of the method has a container (1) for the tube (T), with at least one source (18, 217) of supply of an external cooling liquid flow, and with an outlet (101) for the discharge of the flow from the container (1). The source (18, 217) of supply of the external cooling liquid flow is such that it generates the flow in a circumferential direction with respect to the tube (T).