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A heat treatment or heat soak furnace for use in both galvannealing and galvanizing processes including a heating apparatus configured to supply heat and remove heat. The heating apparatus may draw hot air from the exhaust of a direct fire strip annealing furnace, gas burners or electric heat exchangers as necessary. The furnace also may include a plurality of cooling mechanisms in order to ensure heat is removed and the temperature within the furnace regulated. In addition, the furnace may include baffles configured to allow portions of the interior of the furnace to be separated into different temperature zones. The furnace under this invention is capable of providing a suitable thermal environment for a desired time, duration, for steel sheet substrates with different chemistries, different coating thicknesses and different process speeds to achieve an optimum phase microstructure of the galvannealed, zinc-iron …