Patent ID: 7575639

Claim:
An apparatus for processing elongated sheet material comprising, a plurality of processing stations through which an elongated length of said sheet material is passed along a direction of travel, said processing stations each being operable for processing the sheet material as it passes through the processing station, said processing stations including an application station for applying a processing medium onto the sheet material, said application station including a plurality of application zones including therein processing medium fluid spray nozzles, each fluid spray nozzle being operable for applying a processing medium to a portion of a transverse width of the sheet material during passage through the application station, at least one of said application zones having a plurality of processing medium fluid spray nozzles disposed at longitudinally spaced intervals in the direction of travel of the sheet material, and at least one of said application zones having a plurality of processing medium fluid spray nozzles disposed width wise across the sheet material transversely to the direction of travel of the sheet material, said applications zones each having a respective sensor for sensing a condition of the respective portion of the transverse width of the moving sheet material, and a controller for independently controlling the operation of each application zone based upon a preset setting of the controller and the condition sensed by the sensor of the respective application zone.