Process and device for coating the surface of strip material

PCT No. PCT/DE93/01022 Sec. 371 Date Jun. 7, 1995 Sec. 102(e) Date Jun. 7, 1995 PCT Filed Oct. 22, 1993 PCT Pub. No. WO94/13850 PCT Pub. Date Jun. 23, 1994A process and a device for coating the surface of strip material, especially non-ferrous metal and steel strip, with a metal coating, wherein the material is conducted without reversal of direction through a container holding the molten coating material. The container has a passage duct below the level of the melting bath, in which induction currents are induced by an electromagnetic travelling field and produce, in interaction with the electromagnetic travelling field, an electromagnetic force for restraining the coating material. In order to stabilize the melt in the passage duct as well as in the container, and in order to attain, to a large extent, a counterbalance between hydrostatic and electromagnetic forces, a constant direct or alternating current field is directed opposite to the travelling field in the area near the container, damping the movement in the coating material. For this purpose, an additional iron core, which has coils running parallel to the inductor coils and can be subjected to direct or alternating current, is arranged above each inductor on both sides of the passage duct.