Patent ID: 7771577

Claim:
A method for coating a continuous metal strip and thereafter forming a coated blank therefrom comprising the following steps: (1) supplying a continuous metal strip having two major surfaces to the entrance of an electrodeposition bath located on a coating line; (2) applying an electrodepositable coating composition to both major surfaces of the metal strip as it passes through the electrodeposition bath, the continuous metal strip serving as an electrode in an electrical circuit comprising the electrode and a counter-electrode immersed in the electrodepositable coating composition, the composition being deposited onto both major surfaces of the continuous metal strip as a substantially continuous electrodeposited coating as electric current is passed between the electrodes; (3) conveying the continuous metal strip from step (2) to a drying station located on the coating line; (4) drying the substantially continuous electrodeposited coating as the continuous metal strip passes through the drying station to form a coated metal strip; (5) optionally, conveying the coated metal strip from step (4) to a recoiling station and recoiling the coated metal strip to form a recoiled coated metal strip; (6) conveying the coated metal strip from step (4) or, optionally, the recoiled coated metal strip of step (5) to an entrance of a shear located at an exit end of the drying station; (7) shearing the coated metal strip from step (6) or, optionally, the recoiled coated metal strip of step (6) to form a flat coated blank as the coated metal strip or, optionally, the recoiled coated metal strip passes through the shear; and (8) forming the coated blank from the flat coated blank of step (7).