Patent ID: 7595092

Claim:
A method for coating a cementitious fire-resistant substance onto a substrate comprising the steps of: forming a nip between two rollers; supplying to the nip a pliable carrier veil in a traveling web having a selected thickness; supplying said cementitious fire-resistant substance to the nip in slurry form, to form a reservoir of said cementitious fire-resistant substance defined by said nip of two rollers; controlling the amount of said cementitious fire-resistant substance impregnated in and on said carrier veil web, wherein controlling comprises setting a nip dimension between said two rollers according to the selected carrier veil thickness such that the two rollers exert a pressure on the carrier veil that determines an amount of the cementitious fire-resistant substance passing with said carrier veil through said nip of the two rollers and impregnating the veil exiting the nip to form a veil layer effective to provide a selected fire resistance; delivering the veil layer uncured to a moving substrate surface by advancing the substrate and veil layer at the same rate such that the veil layer and substrate are coupled in a continuous feed by gravity and slurry surface tension of uncured cementitious fire-resistant substance in the veil, without positive pressure on the veil layer during such coupling; applying an initial amount of heat to the impregnated veil layer sufficient to accelerate a curing reaction in the cementitious fire-resistant substance; and removing the accelerating heat after a few minutes to control water loss from the veil layer and allow the cementitious fire-resistant substance to slow cure to promote a cementitious bond with the substrate surface.