Pit furnaces are needed to heat and bring ingots at a uniform temperature, sufficient to allow them to pass through the various rolling stages in rolling mills.
The material may be in the form of hot ingots from a BOS plant, hot steel sheet for pipes (sheets or rough casting) from a CONCAST plant or cold material.

A pit furnace is a heat-insulated chamber equipped with a sliding top cover for loading or unloading ingots. The furnace is gas-fired, therefore, temperature, gas flow, air flow and pressure must be continually monitored. Even the dilution of exhaust gas with air is subject to control to ensure maximum protection of the recirculation system.
The furnaces are equipped with a heat insulated chamber equipped with a sliding top cover; they are used for treatments such as carburising, carbonitriding, gas nitriding, tempering in controlled atmosphere, hardening, stress relieving and reclamation.

They are systems that combine technology and economy of the process. Industrial pit furnaces are available electrically heated or gas-fired and can be integrated in automatic lines, with other installations such as washing machines, warehouses or computerised systems for the management and supervision of the heat treatment cycle of the entire working area.