Abstract: A hand-held air blower device for directing a jet of air in a desired direction, including a barrel having a longitudinal axis and having a low pressure air inlet at an upstream end for admitting air at atmospheric pressure and an outlet at an opposite downstream end for the jet of air, the barrel having a throat, intermediate its ends, whose inner wall has a convex contour, and the barrel having a narrow high pressure air inlet slot, with an upstream and a downstream side wall in relation to the direction of air flow through the barrel immediately adjacent the throat on the low pressure air inlet side of the throat. The convex contour of the inner wall of the throat, along the longitudinal axis of the barrel between its ends, is disposed at a small acute angle to the downstream side wall of the high pressure air inlet slot, and changes progressively downstream to being disposed at a small acute angle to the longitudinal axis. A handle is connected to the barrel.

Abstract: A coating of paint on a panel is dried by directing a narrow jet of air from a supply, preferably from an air mover, held at a predetermined distance from the panel towards one edge region of the panel, the jet being substantially narrower, when it reaches the panel edge region, than the length of the panel edge and the jet being inclined to the plane of the panel such that the air from the jet is entrained by the panel in a spreading laminar flow across the panel surface from that edge region to all the other edges thereof. This induces such laminar flow over substantially the whole surface and replaces vapor-laden air closely adjacent the surface with fresh air to accelerate drying. In a painting booth for cars several such air movers use part of the bulk air flow in the booth.

Abstract: A coating is applied to a substrate by conveying the substrate past a number of liquid spraying nozzles (32) to which high voltage is applied to produce spray in the form of liquid ligaments which deposit as such, or in the form of droplets, on the substrate to form generally parallel tracks which merge with each other to produce a substantially uniform thickness coating. The nozzles (32) are operable in two modes: a normal spraying mode and a deflect mode in which the ligaments are deflected away from the substrate and towards a collector electrode (34). Operation of the nozzles (32) may be co-ordinated so that different formulations are deposited as separate panels in succession lengthwise of the substrate. The coating system is particularly suitable for coating multicoloured dyesheets for use in thermal transfer printing.