Method and treatment device for the cooling of highly heated metal components

In a course of the production of metal components, in particular, of metal components subjected to high mechanical and thermal load, preliminary process heating is often necessary, so that the metal components can subsequently be provided, for example, with a coating. The heating of the metal components and the coating of these are carried over, as a rule, in a closed-off chamber, often in a vacuum chamber. After the treatment of the metal components, they have to be cooled, for which purpose it is appropriate simply to open the chamber and, thus, expose the metal components to the ambient temperature. As a result, however, an uncontrolled thermal shock is exerted on the metal components, and, because of the shock, it seems advisable to cool the components in the chamber with an inert cooling gas, often referred to as a quenching gas, by flooding the chamber with the inert cooling gas. A method for cooling metal components highly heated in a chamber includes effecting a uniform cooling of an entire metal component. The metal component has regions each with a given mass, some of the regions having a larger mass than others of the regions. Housings are provided around regions with the relatively larger masses. The regions are subjected to the inert cooling gas in a controlled manner to a differing extent based upon the mass size. The housings are individually subjected separately with the inert cooling gas. A treatment device for cooling metal components includes a reservoir for holding inert cooling gas and a chamber for receiving a metal component to be cooled. The chamber is connected to the reservoir and has a housing for each of the regions with the larger mass. Each of the housing has an inlet orifice separately connected to the reservoir.