A Review of Temperature Measurement in the Steel Reheat Furnace

The incentive for conducting research and development on reheat furnaces is substantial; the domestic steel industry spent approximately one billion dollars on fuel in reheat furnaces in 1981. Bethlehem Steel Corp. spent $145 million of that total, and neither figure includes fuel consumed in soaking pits or annealing furnaces. If we set a goal to save 10% of these annual fuel costs, that translates into $100 million for the domestic steel industry and $14.5 million for Bethlehem Steel. These large sums of money are significant incentives.

The purpose of this paper is to review the historical heating practices and equipment at steel reheat furnaces along with current practices and instrumentation.