Abstract: A method and an apparatus for cooling a steel sheet, which comprises: ejecting cooling water onto a steel sheet laid horizontally from above and from below said steel sheet immediately after the completion of hot rolling to cool said steel sheet; shielding each of the both side edge portions of the upper surface in the width direction of said steel sheet from said ejected cooling water by a shielding means movable in the width direction of said steel sheet so that the temperature distribution in the width direction of said steel sheet becomes uniform at the completion of the ejection of cooling water; and, determining a shielding width of each of said both side edge portions of said steel sheet, which is shielded from said ejected cooling water, on the basis of the width and the thickness of said steel sheet, the temperature and the flow rate per unit area of cooling water ejected onto the upper and the lower surfaces of said steel sheet, the period of time from start to completion of the ejection of cooling

Abstract: A method for forcedly cooling a heated metal plate, which comprises: moving a heated metal plate horizontally in the longitudinal direction of said metal plate at a prescribed speed through a cooling equipment comprising a plurality of rows of nozzles arranged at prescribed intervals in the width direction of said metal plate above and below said metal plate; and spraying a cooling liquid from said nozzles onto the upper and lower surfaces of said metal plate during moving of said metal plate through said cooling equipment to cool said metal plate to a prescribed temperature.