Patent ID: 6849290

Claim:
A method for controlling at least one of a deflection and a position of a doctor blade mounted in a support beam, the doctor blade being used in an apparatus used for coating a web of material, the support beam comprising a plurality of compensation elements mounted in the support beam and being capable of altering at least one of a deflection and a position of the support beam relative to the web, each compensation element being operable in a respective working direction essentially orthogonal to a longitudinal axis of the support beam, the method comprising: defining a reference point positioned (a) substantially at an intersection of vectors of the respective working direction of each compensation element, or (b) substantially close to the center point of an area delineated by the vectors; defining a plurality of control sectors radially delineated relative to the longitudinal axis of the support beam by limits of movement of each compensation element and limited circumferentially about the longitudinal axis of the support beam by the respective vectors of the working directions of the compensation elements; when the support beam is desired to be moved, selecting a set point to which the reference point is to be moved by at least one of deflecting and moving the support beam so that, when the reference point is substantially at the set point, the support beam and the doctor blade mounted therein are in a desired position; determining an active control sector in which control sector the set point is located; determining which two compensation elements have vectors of their respective working direction which bound the determined active control sector; and activating the two determined compensation elements to move the reference point so that the reference point moves substantially to the set point, so as to at least one of deflect and move the support beam and the doctor blade mounted therein.