Ebner Industrieofenbau (Leonding, Austria):

P. Seemann, Mag. Eng., Executive VP product, e-mail: see@ebner.cc
M. Brenninger, Mag. Eng., Expert product development

In order to meet the challenges of the automotive industry with respect to reducing the structures mass, intensive development of new steel grades is under way. This requires the use of complex heat treatment capabilities to achieve the required mechanical properties in combination with up-to-date alloying concepts. Much is expected from the appropriate heat treatment installation: higher annealing temperatures and cooling rates with a uniform distribution along the strip length and width, favorable strip shape and the possibility of reheating and isothermal transformation, as well as the best atmosphere in the working area. This paper presents the Hicon / H2Q CAL line for processing a wide strip, which enables to implement complex temperature curves and the necessary transformations.