Design of Cooling Units for Heat Treatment

Abstract

Microstructure and nature of grains, grain size and composition determine the overall mechanical behavior of steel. Heat treatment provides an efficient way to manipulate the properties of steel by controlling the cooling rate. The way of heat treatment depends on many aspects. One of the most important parameter is the amount of production. Another important parameter is the size of products. We focus here on large production such as interstand [1] and run-out table cooling of hot rolled strip, run-out table cooling of sheets and plates, cooling of long products at the exit from a rolling mill, cooling of rails, tubes and special profiles [2], continuous hardening and heat treatment lines for steel strips. Such a treatment is called in-line heat treatment of materials and has become frequently used by hot rolling plants. This method achieves the required material structure without the necessity of reheating. In-line heat treatment is characterized by running of hot material through the cooling section. However, many of discussed topics can be applied on smaller production as well.