| 摘要 |
<PICT:1001223/C6-C7/1> In vacuum apparatus for the continuous heat-treatment of material such as strip the treatment chamber is enclosed by liquid seals and the heat is developed by direct passage of electric current through the material under treatment, the current being introduced by means of molten metal contacts. The apparatus is further characterized by consisting of a plurality of vessels arranged in two planes one above the other, the upper vessels forming vacuum chambers and the lower ones forming liquid containers, and the upper and lower vessels being connected with each other by vertical tubes. As illustrated, upper vessels 4 and 5 constitute vacuum chambers while lower vessels 1 and 2 contain liquid metal, e.g. tin or lead, and vessel 3 contains a molten salt, which may be such as to effect a cleaning action on the emergent metal. The liquid in baths 1 and 3 serves to seal off the treatment chambers from the atmosphere while bath 2 divides the apparatus into heating and cooling sections, the molten metal in vessels 1 and 2 forming contacts by means of which current introduced by electrodes 21 is caused to traverse the strip. Vertical tubes 8, 9 of the cooling section may be cooled externally or saturated steam may be injected into them to cool the strip. |
