Abstract:
The invention relates to a method and to a system for thermally treating elongate, flat metallic material, in particular aluminum rolled ingots (2), in a furnace, a ring hearth furnace (1) being used as the furnace, said ring hearth furnace having a rotary-driven ring hearth floor (7a) between a thermally insulated outer housing (3) and a thermally insulated inner housing (4), said ring hearth floor being sealed off from the housing (3, 4), and at least one closable charging and discharging opening (15; 15a, 15b). For convection-heating of the aluminum rolled ingots (2) introduced into the ring hearth furnace (1), air, which is sucked upwards by circulation fans (19), which are provided on the ceiling side and distributed over the circumference of the ceiling (6), out of the ring hearth interior (1a), which is enclosed by the outer and inner housing (3, 4), is first conducted along heating means (20a, 20b; 21), which are arranged on the ceiling side and project into the hearth interior (12) and then flows into pressure ducts (22), which extend on the inner walls of the outer and inner housing (3, 4) and from which the air, which is increasingly heated up during the heat-up phase, is blown at the aluminum rolled ingots (2) via slot nozzles (23) in order to heat the aluminum rolled ingots (2).