METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SOFTENING HEAT-TREATMENT OF WIRE ROD

PURPOSE:To perform the softening treatment of a steel wire rod within a very short time, in heating and softening the steel wire rod, by rapidly heating the steel wire rod at a predetermined temperature with a high frequency heater and then coiling it in a heating oven at a lower temperature. CONSTITUTION:A coiled wire rod 1 at an uncoiler 2 is straigthened by passing it through a reformer 3 and then rapidly heated at 700-900 deg.C by passing it through a heating coil 5 provided with a high frequency oscillator 4. The heated wire rod is fed through a guide pipe 9 unto an over 16 by a driving roll 6 and recoiled at a space between an inner drum 14 and an outer drum 13 on a rotary disc 12 in the oven held at 650-750 deg.C with a heater 15. After the whole of the wire rod is recoiled, it is held in the oven for a proper time, a cover 17 is detached from the oven 16, and then the recoiled wire rod is taken out together with the inner drum 14. In this way, the softening heat-treatment of the wire rod is completed. The treatment for softening the wir rod can be performed in a treating time extremely shorter than that in a conventional manner.