Patent ID: 7691450

Claim:
A coating method, comprising: conveying an object to be coated in a predetermined conveying direction; dividing a coating surface of the object to be coated into a plural number of coating areas; and performing coating with individual sprayer units reciprocating along said coating areas substantially parallel to the conveying direction of said object such that adjacent coating areas of said plural number of coating areas are respectively coated by a different one of the sprayer units, wherein during the performing the coating of at least two of the adjacent coating areas in the conveying direction, when said sprayer units are reciprocating substantially parallel to said conveying direction of said object, positions of turning paths for reciprocation, located at a boundary between the adjacent coating areas such that the adjacent coating areas abut along the boundary, are sequentially shifted from a front side to a rear side in said conveying direction of said object, and the coating is performed while forming a coating trajectory of said turning paths like a series of steps such that each successive one of the turning paths of each respective one of the adjacent coating areas on the boundary extends further in a direction opposite to the conveying direction than each previous one of the turning paths of the respective one of the adjacent coating areas.