PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR PROFILE CONTROL OF DIRECT COATERS

摘要

A process and apparatus, and including a separate coating head, for coating a strip article with a coating material. The process involves coating a strip article (14) with a film of coating material (13) by passing the strip article through a coating apparatus having at least one floating coating head (12, 12') provided with a coating face (32) facing and extending laterally across a surface of the strip article (14) to be coated. The coating head extrudes a coating material and floats on the coating material as it meters the coating to a film of the desired thickness. The coating face of the coating head has a preferred coating profile between its opposite ends (136, 137), and wherein distortions of the preferred coating profile during coating of said strip article are substantially prevented or corrected by modifying heat flux to or from selected parts of the coating head to compensate for distortions caused by differences of temperature within the coating head.