Patent ID: 7968046

Claim:
An apparatus for cooling a metal strip, comprising at least two nozzle fields disposed opposite of each other with respect to the metal strip conveyed continuously in a longitudinal feeding direction of the metal strip, the at least two nozzle fields comprising nozzles facing towards the respective strip surface and being attached to blowing boxes for a cooling gas, and flow conduits provided between the nozzles for discharging deflected cooling gas from the nozzles, the deflected cooling gas being deflected on the surface of the strip, wherein the nozzles are combined in groups in nozzle strips disposed next to one another in parallel with respective lateral spaces being formed between adjacent nozzle strips, the nozzle strips comprising gas conduits connected with the blowing boxes and comprising nozzle openings facing the respective strip surface and being distributed over the length of the nozzle strips, wherein each flow conduit of the flow conduits for discharging the cooling gas is provided in a respective lateral space of the lateral spaces between the adjacent nozzle strips extending transversely to the blowing boxes, and each flow conduit is defined by side walls of adjacent nozzle strips wherein said side walls of adjacent nozzle strips are not in contact with each other, and wherein each nozzle field has at least one blowing box arranged transversely to the feeding direction and connected to a plurality of the nozzle strips extending in the feeding direction.