State of the art Rolled products, typically bars with a round, square or shaped section, resulting from a rolling train, are generally cooled at temperatures near room temperature by means of a cooling plate. The rolled product is then picked up and conveyed to an area equipped with various machines performing cleaning or surface finishing operations of said product. Bars are generally divided into single elements before being introduced into said machines, and at the end of the cleaning cycle, carried out with said product still, they are taken out, possibly cut to dimension and con- veyed to the inspection and control area in order to test their surface and inner quality. After that they can reach the bundling, lashing and storing area. The cleaning process usually takes place in batches, so as to accelerate production.

Generally, devices such as blasting machines or the like are used to clean rolled products, for instance to remove surface scales. Said blasting machines consist of a system throwing blasting powders at extremely high speeds onto the still bars, which have previously been introduced in batches, thus achieving a mechanical pickling action.

A further kind of finishing system of the state of the art provides that rolled prod- ucts are cooled directly on the cooling plate. Systems for straightening said bars and for cutting them to dimensions are then arranged in line. After the final cutting said bars are sent to the bundling, lashing and storing area.

In order to reduce the temperature of the casted product to a value near room temperature and to carry out the surface cleaning and quality control operations out of the line, the prior art mainly provides for two solutions.

The first solution consists in employing very long cooling plates. This solution has the disadvantage that it increases investment and management costs for said

plates, highly increasing their overall dimensions.

The second solution consists in employing forced cooling systems, such as fans, spraying systems and the like, introduced directly into the plate. This solution shows the disadvantage that it increases manufacturing costs for the cooling sys- tems, requiring larger areas and causing a high production of steam and sprayed water which affect all the machines of said system. If cooling fans used, the plant would also be more noisy.

The above-mentioned prior art solutions therefore show a low efficiency, a low ca- pacity to control product temperature and high investments costs, not allowing to carry out in-line surface cleaning and quality control operations for the rolled prod- uct.

Summary of the invention A main aim of the present invention is to overcome the aforesaid disadvantages by carrying out a device for in-line treatment which does not show the above- mentioned disadvantages.

A further aim of the present invention is to carry out a device of the above- mentioned type which performs in-line cooling and surface cleaning for the rolled product, allowing to use cheaper finishing devices with a reduction of their ageing.

An additional aim of the present invention is to provide for a device of the above- mentioned type which achieves such a temperature and a surface finish of the rolled product to allow in-line surface and inner controls with common, and there- fore cheaper, instruments.

These and other aims which will be evident in the light of the following description are achieved according to claim 1 by means of a device for treating rolled metal products having an elongated shape, such as bars, plates, structural shapes or the like, arranged in line with and downstream from a rolling system, said treatment means comprising a cooling plate, characterized in that said treatment means in- clude pickling means arranged in line downstream from said plate and upstream from a lashing and/or bundling area of said metal product.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention said device is characterized in that it provides a cooling box arranged in line between said plate and said pickling means.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the present invention the above- mentioned device is characterized in that it provides of quality control means of said metal products arranged in an area placed between said pickling means and said bundling and/or lashing area. Other preferred embodiments of the device for in-line treatment are described more in detail in the dependent claims.

Thanks to these features the device for treating bars, plates, structural shapes and so on, allows to cool these products, coming from a rolling train or an area where in-line heat treatments are carried out, up to a temperature of 200-400°C by means of a cooling plate. When these rolled products come out of said cooling plate, they are conveyed to the cooling box to be further cooled in a controlled way to the temperature at which finishing operations give optimum results.

Said temperature is advantageously lower than 100°C. Indeed, too high a tem- perature, higher than 100°C, could cause a reduction of the mechanical resistance of the rolled product, thus increasing its surface roughness due to the action of the blasting agent at high temperatures. An increase of roughness, however, cannot be tolerated for the following two main reasons.

First of all, it makes the correct performance of surface quality control operations more difficult. Ultrasonic systems for the detection of inner defects and induced current systems for the detection of surface defects are preferably used for said operations.

The performance of quality controls also requires product temperatures lower than 100°C, since above said temperature the accuracy of the results is reduced, with the danger of a greater wear of said instruments, or, which is even worse, their damaging.

The second reason is that a poor surface quality cannot be accepted for certain kind of products, and therefore it would be necessary to carry out additional fin- ishing operations which would raise production costs.

By means of the aforesaid arrangement of the various parts of the treatment de- vice it is possible to carry out an accurate control of the product temperature thanks to the in-line use of the cooling box, in view of the successive operations, also carried out in line, i. e. surface cleaning and finishing on the one hand, and surface and inner quality control on the other. Moreover, the surface cleaning can

be carried out in view of the successive operations, also carried out in line, i. e. cutting to dimension, bundling and packaging said bars.

Brief description of the figures Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent thanks to the detailed description of a preferred embodiment of a device for treat- ing rolled metal products, shown by way of a non limiting example by means of the enclosed drawings, in which: fig. 1 is a schematic plan view of an in-line rolling/heat treatment device compris- ing the device for the final treatment of the rolled product according to the inven- tion; fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view of an embodiment of the device for in-line treatment according to the invention; fig. 3 is a longitudinal side view of a portion of the device of fig. 2; fig. 4 is a schematic plan view of another variant of the treatment device of fig. 2.

Detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention With reference to the above-mentioned figure 1, an in-line rolling/heat treatment system 1 manufactures the product, such as bars, plates, draw pieces and the like, which is worked and undergoes a heat treatment on the system line following the direction of the arrow 2. The product is worked in the rolling train 3, followed by a temperature control device 4, by a shearing machine 5, by a reduction and cali- bration block 6, by a shearing machine 7 and by a temper line 8, and proceeds to other heat treatment stages.

A cooling bed or plate 9 is placed downstream from the temper line 8. A bar dis- charge system 10 is placed at the outlet of the temper line 8, said system dis- charging the bars onto the cooling bed 9. Optionally, a tempering chamber 11 is placed downstream from the cooling bed 9, where said bars can pass in order to undergo a suitable additional annealing or tempering treatment when this is thought to be necessary to obtain a given kind of product. In such a case the dis- charge system introduces the bars into the cooling bed 9.

At the outlet of the cooling bed 9 said bars are introduced into a cooling box 13 and then into the blasting machine 14. Eventually, the bars are introduced into the area 15, where cutting, quality control, bundling and lashing operations occur.

The cooling box 13 and the blasting machine 14 can be placed near other devices for bar treatment according to the requirements and in view of the operations to be carried out onto the rolled products.

In the main embodiment, shown in Fig. 2, an area for product quality control 16 is arranged in line downstream from the blasting machine 14, said products passing through said area after undergoing a possible cutting-to-dimension and cutting-off operation made with suitable known means, not shown in the figure. After the quality control the products are conveyed to the packaging area 15.

Fig. 3 shows a side view of the structure of the cooling box 13 and of the blasting machine 14, placed one after the other according to the embodiments in figs. 1 and 2.

The cooling box employed in the device according to the invention allows the si- multaneous passage, according to the production requirements and to the casted product dimensions, of a suitable amount of bars. The bars in transit are struck by a series of water jets, or another cooling fluid, depending on their size, shape and transit speed. At the end of the water cooling area a drying area is arranged, said area operating with air streams 17.

The water flow is adjusted so that the bars at the outlet of the cooling box have a temperature lower than 100°C, so that the blasting operation can be carried out di- rectly in line. The use of the cooling box allows to carry out an additional effective and targeted cooling stage of the rolled products, thus avoiding the above- mentioned drawbacks resulting from the use of the cooling plate only.

For instance, it has been observed that in the case of a rolled product with a nomi- nal diameter of about 50 mm and a feed speed of 0,4 m/sec, in order to reduce its temperature from 400°C, taken up at the outlet of the cooling plate, to tempera- tures lower than 100°C, which it takes up at the inlet the blasting machine, a water delivery of about 25 m3/h for each passing bar is used. The openings of the blast- ing machine 14 for the outlet of the blasting powder are arranged transversally with respect to the bar axis so as to increase the effect of the surface cleaning ac- tion.

The embodiment of fig. 4 differs from the one which has been previously described in figs. 1 and 2 in that quality controlled is not performed in line and in that a bar

straightening section 21 is provided downstream from the cooling plate 9 and from the cooling box 13. Said section is followed by the blasting machine 14 and by a shearing machine 18 for cutting to dimension the products, which for instance re- duce the length of the bar portions from 72 m to segments of commercial length varying from 6 to 12 m, and by a possible cutting-off machine 19 for the finish cut of the bar ends, and by the bundling and packaging section 15.

If necessary, in order to complete the treatment of the metal products another sec- tion 20 is provided, between the shearing machine 18 for cutting to dimension the bars or the cutting-off machine 19 and the bundling or packaging section 15, in which the treatment with anti-corrosive means, varnishes or drying means occurs.

In another variant according to the invention the blasting machine 14 is replaced by a product surface de-scaling system using a high pressure water jet or chemi- cal pickling.

In the aforesaid device according to the invention the rolled products, such as bars, plates, draw pieces or the like, undergo the treatment according to the fol- lowing modes.

The casted metal products, manufactured with a continuously fed crystallizer, not shown, undergo a hot rolling in the rolling train 3. After further possible treatments, which are not an object of the present patent application, the bars are conveyed onto the cooling plate 9 and, for the additional cooling stage, go through the cool- ing box 13 and through successive pickling systems, possibly a blasting machine 14 or an equivalent pickling system.

Additional cutting-to-dimension, head-or tail-cutting-off stages of the metal prod- ucts can be suitably provided after the pickling stage and before the bundling and/or lashing stage. Said operations are carried out by means of suitable shear- ing machines 18 and cutting-off machines 19.

After the cutting-to-dimension stage the quality control of the metal products is car- ried out by means of ultrasonic or induced current instruments.

The treatment can also include the additional straightening stage of the metal products, which is carried out after the cooling stage in said cooling box.

If necessary, the treatment of the rolled products also includes a treatment of said products with anti-corrosive agents, varnishes or drying means. Finally, the bun- dling and lashing stage of the products is carried out.