Abstract: A pre-metering rod is located between a coating applicator and an air knife, and replaces the smoothing roll in some existing air knife applications. The pre-metering rod consists of a small diameter rod of about one and one-half inches in diameter that rotates at 10-500 rpm against the direction of the coating layer on the web. The web is wrapped around a portion of the circumference amounting to about twenty-five degrees of the rod's surface as it travels over the rod. The rod is supported in a rod holder supported on a support beam. Actuators move the support beam away from the web for threading and maintenance, and towards the web to engage the rod with the web. The combination of the rod diameter, the amount of wrap on the rod, and the speed of the rod rotation determine the amount of pre-metering of the coating, which determines the thickness of the coating layer on the web that is presented to the air knife section. As a result, the thickness of the coating layer can be decreased.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for automatically threading a traveling web strip, such as a so-called paper tail in a papermaking machine, utilizes a doctor for doctoring the web strip from the surface of a roll. A stream of compressed air is projected against the oncoming web strip in the vicinity of the point where the doctor blade contacts the web on the roll and urges the oncoming web off the roll surface upstream of the doctor. A foil is brought into proximity with the outer surface of the web spaced over the roll to urge the strip outwardly and against a serrated knife to sever the web strip against the force of its momentum. The severed end of the web strip is then guided onto a plate for conveyance into a downstream section of the machine for further processing.