Method for annealing silicon steel

Claim 1

An improved method for annealing a plurality of individual silicon steel charges in a tunnel furnace having a charge vestibule and a discharge vestibule at opposite ends of a main annealing chamber of the furnace, with each vestibule having an inner door and an outer door with respect to the main annealing chamber, which method comprises: providing a plurality of silicon steel charges in the main annealing chamber of the furnace with the inner doors of the vestibules closed, providing a hydrogen atmosphere in the main annealing chamber of the furnace, circulating the hydrogen atmosphere through the main annealing chamber of the furnace by continuously feeding the hydrogen atmosphere from the main chamber of the furnace through a reconditioning apparatus and back to the main annealing chamber of the furnace, maintaining a substantially constant pressure in the main annealing chamber of the furnace, placing a cold silicon steel charge in the charge vestibule, with the charge vestibule doors closed, successively purging the charge vestibule first with nitrogen then with hydrogen, opening the inner door of the charge vestibule and moving the cold charge from the vestibule into the main annealing chamber of the furnace, after the charge has been annealed, purging the discharge vestibule with hydrogen, opening the inner door of the discharge vestibule and moving the annealed charge from the main annealing chamber to the discharge vestibule, closing the inner door of the discharge vestibule and purging the discharge vestibule with nitrogen, opening the outer door of the discharge vestibule, and removing the annealed charge from the tunnel furnace, wherein the improvement comprises: intermittently removing a substantial amount of hydrogen from the circulating hydrogen atmosphere at a location upstream of the discharge end of the reconditioning apparatus, feeding the removed hydrogen to the respective charge and discharge vestibules when a hydrogen purge is required therein, and while removing hydrogen from the circulating hydrogen atmosphere, feeding hydrogen from a separate hydrogen source to the circulating hydrogen atmosphere in an amount sufficient to maintain the substantially constant pressure in the main chamber of the furnace.