Apparatus and methods for application of coatings with compressible fluids as diluent by spraying from an orifice

摘要

This invention is directed to an improved spray apparatus and corresponding methods for coating substrates with a coating material and a supercritical fluid or a subcritical compressed fluid, which apparatus is provided with an airless spray nozzle that produces a spray with reduced average velocity thereby minimizing the undesirable excessive momentum of the spray as well as the sideways deflection of the spray that occurs as it impacts of substrate. The spray nozzle is comprised of an elongated orifice passageway having a length sufficiently long in relation to the equivalent diameter so as to reduce the average spray velocity of the coating material.