Patent ID: 8084099

Claim:
A process of coating a fiber with a metal by a liquid method, comprising: drawing a fiber through a bath of molten liquid metal so as to be coated with the metal, the liquid metal bath being maintained in a crucible of the “levitation” type, which at least partly eliminates contact between the liquid metal and the crucible, wherein the bath is fed with metal, during the process, by a metal powder using a feed module including a powder reservoir, a vibrating plate, a first tube which supplies the metal powder from the powder reservoir to a first end of the vibrating plate, and a second tube disposed below and spaced apart from a second end of the vibrating plate which supplies the metal powder from the vibrating plate to the bath by gravity, wherein the vibrating plate vibrates with respect to a horizontal such that the metal powder moves from the first end of the vibrating plate to the second tube disposed below and spaced apart from the second end of the vibrating plate, and wherein the vibrating plate includes a partition which separates the metal powder fed to the bath into two paths.