Abstract: Procedure for regulating the heating of a furnace implementing a conventional means of regulation and a fuzzy logic supervisor which, on the basis of the given situation and the information which it receives on its inputs, adapts the parameters of the regulator, wherein the procedure includes the following steps:detection of the state of the process to be controlled and regulated;transient state or steady state is selected depending on the instructions/measurement discrepancy;selection of a control algorithm on the basis of the state (transient state or steady state) with the aid of a toggle based on the principle of fuzzy logic, while ensuring a smooth changeover between the states, with no discontinuity of control; andcalculation of the parameters of the regulator on the basis of the specific requirements, taking into account the following factors: volume production and rate of production, i.e., of the mass of the products treated in the furnace and of the speed of production; and temperature of the charge.

Abstract: This device comprises: two pairs of lateral flanges rotatably mounted respectively on a shaft pivoting in the frame of the furnace, each pair of flanges receiving a strip support roll by the agency of removable fastening means; means for driving said pairs of lateral flanges, ensuring that their angular displacement is synchronized during the interchange operations; central buffer provided with raising means, which is designed to shut off the orifice provided in the hearth of the furnace, for carrying out the operations of discharging a roll outwards from the furnace containment at the end of an interchange operation; two raisable buffers, one for each support roll, which may be displaced in a vertical translational movement in order respectively:to ensure the sealing of the orifice provided in the hearth of the furnace during the roll interchange phase;to ensure that the rolls are supported when the roll bearings are demounted in order to remove the inoperative roll from the corresponding flanges, andto carr

Abstract: Process for the continuous heat treatment of a metal strip, the latter travelling through a furnace, which is thermally insulated, and in a protective atmosphere; the said furnace consisting of at least one section, for heating, for temperature hold and for cooling; the said strip being guide by a plurality of rollers arranged especially in the lower part and in the upper part of the said sections, so as to form a plurality of runs, wherein the strip passes through at least one partial or total isolating device positioned within at least one section or between two sections, so as to ensure different heat transfer properties on the strip compared with at least one other adjacent section having a different atmosphere, by adjusting the composition of the atmosphere consisting of a gas mixture whose hydrogen or helium content exceeds 5% and more particularly 15%, in order to allow differentiation of the thermomechanical properties of the atmosphere.

Abstract: A process for the protective or decorative coating of a continuously moving metal sheet, in which the sheet, after having received its coating, is heated by electromagnetic induction in a tunnel oven in order to evaporate the solvents and to cure the coating. The solvents are continuously extracted from the chamber of the oven, wherein a gas at a temperature greater than the dew point of the solvents is injected into the oven and which is gastight and thermally insulated in order to keep the hot internal walls above this dew point.

Abstract: Furnace for storing, reheating and holding ferrometallurgical products, in which the products travel along a displacement path on members placed so as to connect, in the tranverse direction, a charging zone and a discharging zone, the reheating and holding zones including, on the one hand, product-supporting members and transporting members placed at a certain distance from the supporting members and being able to perform a rising movement with respect to these and a horizontal displacement movement making the product advance step by step.

Abstract: Method of continuous heat-treatment of metal strips, wherein the strip which is to be heat-treated passes through a furnace which is thermally isolated and in a protective atmosphere, consisting of heating, holding and cooling sections; the said strip is guided by a plurality of return rolls situated in the upper and lower parts of the said sections and thus forms a plurality of lengths and they pass in front of cooling and traditional heating (generally produced by a radiation source or using naked flames), and induction means, the latter are placed upstream of at least one traditional heating section and are used combined and simultaneously with the other heating means in order to compensate for the variations in the heat-treatment parameters.

Abstract: Cooled rollers for handling and conveying metallurgical and ferro-metallurgical products, moving inside a furnace, each of these rollers being formed by a water-cooled central shaft on which discs are mounted perpendicularly to the said central shaft in order to serve as a support for the ferro-metallurgical products, wherein the said central shaft are provided with thermal insulation shields for avoiding radiative heat transfer between the atmosphere in the furnace and the cooled shaft of the said roller.

Abstract: A system for handling iron and steel products, such as, in particular, slabs, blooms, billets and similar products, which have intersecting translation movements. These include apparatus for gripping, handling and transporting iron and steel products and adapted for being driven in a translation movement along a running path, and a transfer carriage on which the apparatus for gripping and carrying a product is positioned. The transfer carriage is capable of being displaced along a running path, according to a translation movement perpendicular to the translation movement of the gripping apparatus in order to bring the product to any desired location.

Abstract: An installation for the thermal treatment of metallurgical products, such as, particularly, thin slabs, obtained from at least one continuous-casting line and to be subjected to a rolling operation, which comprises:an induction-heating furnace which is located at the exit of the continuous-casting line and the power of which is adjusted so as to increase the temperature of the slabs to a mean value determined by the rolling requirements, without correcting the local temperature heterogeneities of each slab and;an equalizing or homogenizing furnace or zone located at the exit of said heating furnace, in order to correct the thermal heterogeneities inherent in each slab.

Abstract: Independent installation for discharging, storing and transferring products, such as steelworks products, which comprises fixed beams on which rest the products to be handled, and moveable beams placed between the fixed beams and driven in a rectangular cycle of displacement, each moveable beam comprises, at one of its ends, a discharging arm or fingers so that when a product taken from among those stored on the fixed beams is being transferred, said product rests on the end of said fingers and can be displaced and transferred to a discharging or removal zone in a manner entirely independent of the products which remain stored on said fixed beams.

Abstract: A metallurgical product storage device located downstream from two parallel continuous casting lines and upstream from a rolling line includes: a heated storage chamber having a length at least equal to the length of the products to be stored and having opposite inlets and outlets for the products originating from the continuous casting lines and delivered to the rolling line, these products being displaced in the chamber on tables with rollers disposed, respectively, along the axes of the continuous casting lines; and a storage zone in the chamber located between the two tables with rollers and including movable support beams for supporting the products, capable of being displaced vertically between several levels, and movable transport beams, separated from the support beams and capable of being displaced vertically and horizontally for advancing the products step-by-step according to a series of successive rectangular movements.

Abstract: An automatic installation for obtaining in large series circular pieces of small thickness, such as notably spring diaphragms, for the automobile industry, in forming, swaging, quenching, tempering and peripheral tempering stations, these various working treatment stations being placed one after the other so that the pieces to be worked be successively transferred from one station to another, characterized in that:it includes a machine allowing realizing automatically and in series a forming operation by hot swaging and quenching of spring diaphragms or circular pieces;each entirely automated working station includes a press provided with individual heating means, said working stations receiving the pieces one by one from said automatic machine, with the assistance of transfer means withdrawing one by one the pieces to be treated from the quenching stations of the automatic machine for transferring them successively thereafter and one by one to each of the working stations;means are provided for blowing into

Abstract: A radiating tubes system of the double-pin type that is in the shape of a "W" used in heating ovens, notably in continuous heating ovens for metallic bands, for providing the heat transfer between combustion bases released by a burner and the products to be heated. In the invention system, the burner is positioned in the lower branch of the tubes; the support device of the cold bend, in the upper portion of the tubes, is made in the form of a simple bearing base; the cold bend and the hot bend are connected to one another without a connecting-rod type intermediate part, and the intermediate bend and the lower tube are connected to one another with a settable play between these two elements.

Abstract: Air heater resisting corrosion, using combustion products from thermal equipment, the combustion products containing polluting and corrosive agents such as sulfur oxidized components and sodium and vanadium salts, the air heater including at least one tube nest through which flows the air to be heated, which is placed in the path of travel of the corrosive fumes prior to their discharge to the atmosphere, the corrosive fumes flowing countercurrent to the air to be heated and flowing through the tubes, this heater further comprising a protective tubular nest placed upstream of the tube nest, this protective nest being fed with a constant flow of cold air circulating in the same direction as the fumes, this cold air flow and the exchange surface of the protective nest being chosen in such manner that the temperature of the first tubes of the heater tubular nest is at all times below the sodium and vanadium corrosion critical temperature.

Abstract: An apparatus for providing the outer quenching and the inner quenching of tubular pieces, notably of steel tubes, characterized in that it includes successively, in the advancement direction of the tubes:slanting rollers allowing the tubes delivered continuously to move forward successively by rotating about their axis;an outer quenching system;a clamping and locking system for the tube;a retractable carrier supporting an injection lance for carrying out the inner quenching, said carrier being provided with said clamping and locking system for the tube;means allowing the carrier to move backward with the tube clamping system in order to accompany said tube in movement while the outer quenching is carried out; andretractable rollers which come in position to support the tube as the carrier moves backward while disengaging the tube from the outer quenching system.

Abstract: A method of degreasing a cold rolled metallic band, through the chemical effect of an atmosphere of a determined composition, according to which the heating and degreasing actions are separated, wherein the heating is carried out in an enclosure provided with means for applying heat by radiation, and the degreasing is obtained by the chemical effect of said atmosphere in the heating enclosure, said method being characterized in that said atmosphere is made of a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen enriched with steam injected in the degreasing section of said enclosure.

Abstract: A buffer stop for an opening on a side-loading and side unloading furnace is mounted on a parallelogram linkage connected with a fixed support and is moved into position and out of position by the movement of a counterweight along a shaft on a member of the parallelogram linkage.

Abstract: An automated installation for the rapid thermochemical treatment of parts, notably for the mechanical industry, characterized in that it includes: a transfer lock for the parts under a controlled atmosphere; a plurality of treatment modules of the parts, all said modules being connected to said transfer lock; a loading lock; an unloading lock, and a handling robot for the parts, disposed in said transfer lock in order to provide for the successive transfers of parts between the various modules.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for measuring the thickness of thin metallic layers deposited on a conductive support, wherein the thickness is determined from the measurement of the losses corresponding to the Joule effect, due to the eddy currents which appear when a magnetic circuit excited by an alternating voltage is brought close to the metallic surface.

Abstract: At least two successive assemblies are formed by respective walking beams and actuatable independently of one another to advance articles through an oven, with a respective hydraulic jack connected to each of the assemblies for horizontally displacing each assembly. A respective pump is connected to each of the jacks in a respective circuit having two sides, with a respective nonreturn valve provided on one of the sides of each of the circuits between each jack and the respective pump. A pair of distributors are provided in the other side of one of the circuits between one of the jacks and the respective pump, with a respective distributor provided in each of the sides of the other circuit between another of the jacks and the respective pump, and hydraulic lines connecting the distributors of the circuits.