Patent ID: 7556692

Claim:
An apparatus for applying a coating liquid to a web moving in a travel direction, the apparatus comprising: a hopper defining a distribution chamber extending transversely of the direction, a flow face extending generally in and transverse to the web-travel direction, a slot extending between the chamber and the flow face and elongated transversely of the direction; means for supplying the coating liquid to the chamber, thence through the slot to the flow face, and thence along the flow face and for dropping the liquid as a transversely extending and downwardly flowing curtain from an edge of the flow face onto the web; a pair of transversely spaced edge guides having upper guide elements having transversely confronting faces and fittable complementarily to the flow face, the upper guide elements lying in a use position substantially directly on the flow face to limit liquid flow to a region thereon defined between the transversely confronting faces that hence define the width of the curtain; means for transversely positioning the edge guides and thereby adjusting the curtain width; and respective lower guide elements each having an inner face aligned vertically with the face of the respective upper guide element, the lower guide elements being fixed to and transversely displaceable with the respective upper guide elements.