Patent ID: 8377238

Claim:
A method for the thermomechanical treatment of seamless steel rings produced on radial-axial rolling machines, the seamless steel rings including rings of fine grain steel, heat-treatable steel, case hardened steel, or austenitic steel, the method comprising the steps of: inserting a ring blank into the ring rolling machine at a temperature in the range of 900° C. to 1150° C.; rolling the ring to an outer diameter in the range of 0.2 m to 10 m by a hot forming process; quickly cooling down the hot ring in a dipping basin by a controlled cooldown process directly following the rolling, without secondary heating, from a temperature over the conversion temperature in the austenite range to a temperature below 400° C., said dipping basin being filled with a cooling liquid, said ring being subsequently cooled at air down to ambient temperature, the temperature of said ring being measured with a radiation pyrometer before and/or after cooling, wherein the cooling time is adjusted depending on the temperature of the ring and cooling liquid measured before the dipping process, said ring being immersed in the cooling liquid of said dipping basin, wherein said ring engages the cooling liquid provided in said dipping basin, said ring in the filled dipping basin being charged with the cooling liquid at elevated pressure via nozzles distributed uniformly along a circumference of said ring, wherein a plurality of dipping operations are carried out one after another.