ROLL COOLING EQUIPMENT

PURPOSE:To make roll exchange in a short period of time by disposing plural rolls of roll cooling equipment for cooling steel strips zigzag in the vertical direction and drawing the rolls out of apertures in the direction perpendicular to the roll shafts and loading the fresh rolls therein from the opposite side at the time of the roll exchange. CONSTITUTION:While the steel strip 30 past a gas jet cooling zone 101 of a continuous annealing device is carried to a 1st overaging treatment zone 102, the steel strip passes between the plural rolling rolls 20 disposed zigzag in the vertical direction and is cooled by the rolls 20. The apertures 40 for pulling the rolls and sealing devices 50 for opening or hermetically sealing the apertures 40 are provided on the side faces of shells 10 enclosing the cooling rolls. The exchange of these cooling rolls 20 with the fresh rolls is executed by opening the sealing devices 50, pulling the rolls 20 out of the apertures 40 in the direction perpendicular to the shafts thereof, and pushing the fresh rolls 20 from the apertures 40 on the opposite side of the shells 10, then hermetically closing the sealing devices 50. The shorter time required for the roll exchange is thus necessitated and the degradation of the operating efficiency of the annealing device by the roll exchange is decreased.