Alcan Aluminum Corporation

Alcan International Limited

Carl A Wollam

J Lynn Gailey

Alexander A Chalmers

Melville D Ball

Robert Arthur Innes

Neil Louis Brockman

Lynn Gailey

Alexander F Chalmers

A method of applying a multi-layer coating to a surface of an elongated strip article (10) of variable thickness or surface height. The method involves applying at least two layers (12a, 12b,) of different coating materials in the form of solidifiable fluids directly onto the surface (10a, 47, 48) of the elongated metal strip article and reducing the layers to a desired thickness by causing the applied coating materials to encounter at least one coating surface (27) that is movable substantially perpendicularly relative to the strip article and is urged towards the strip article in opposition to hydrodynamic force generated by the coating materials on the at least one coating surface. Differences of thickness or surface height of the strip article are therefore accommodated unduly varying the coating thickness. In the method, one layer (12b) is coated on top of another (12a) in such a way that an outer coating layer is applied on an immediately underlying layer before the immediately underlying layer solidifies. The invention also relates to apparatus for carrying out the method.

Multi-layer coating of elongated strip articles

Paint or the like coating is applied to a gap between an elongated strip article and an extended surface, such as a coating head. A variable load, such as provided by air cylinders, is continuously exerted on the extended surface during operation for urging the extended surface against the applied layer on the strip, so as to maintain a uniform metering gap between the extended surface and the coated strip surface. The extended surface has a sensor for repetitively determining metering gap. A computer monitors the sensor output and causes load-exerting air cylinders to vary their applied load, in order to urge the coating head toward or away from the back-up roll, so as to reduce difference between the sensed metering gap and a predetermined gap, thus producing a uniform coating film thickness on strip articles having non-uniform surface topography.

Method for automatic film thickness control

Apparatus for automatic film thickness control

A device for on-line deburring of metal strip advancing continuously along a defined path, including a rotary knife having an inwardly facing cutting edge, and structure supporting the knife for rotation such that the cutting edge engages and shaves burr from a strip edge at a location beyond the axis of knife rotation, in the direction of strip advance. In a deburring method using such a knife, the knife is rotated by its engagement with the strip edge, in such direction as to throw the shaved burr laterally outwardly away from the strip.

Apparatus and method for deburring metal strip

Production of a longitudinally striated coating on a strip article by advancing the article past an open side of an otherwise-enclosed trench so that the article surface to be coated closes the open trench side, while delivering concurrent laminar flows of two different liquid coating materials to the trench at least at one locality spaced from the trench open side, to keep the trench completely filled and to deposit a layer of coating material on the moving article surface. Liquid circulation in the trench caused by the motion of the article surface so distributes the two coating materials along the trench that the applied coating layer is constituted of alternating longitudinal striations of the two materials. With delivery of concurrent flows of the two coating materials at each of plural localities spaced along the trench, positional and other variations of the striations can be achieved by varying the relative total flows delivered at different ones of these localities, for example to create a simulated wood-grain pattern.

Apparatus for producing straited surface coatings

In the coating of a major surface of a strip article, wherein the strip surface is advanced longitudinally past a dam and, immediately beyond the dam, past an extended wall spaced from the strip surface by a gap equal to a desired wet coating thickness, a first liquid coating material is applied to the strip surface ahead of the dam and a second liquid coating material is delivered under pressure to the gap beyond the dam through one or more apertures in the wall to produce a stripe or stripes of the second coating material. The apertures can be provided in a rotatable disk, constituting a portion of the wall; rotary movement of the disk angularly displaces the apertures so as to vary the location and spacing of the produced stripes, for example in a manner simulating the appearance of natural wood grain.

Apparatus for producing striped surface coatings

In the coating of a strip article of indeterminate length, wherein the article is continuously advanced lengthwise past a dam while liquid coating material is supplied to a major surface of the article ahead of the dam, the article is passed through a gap of extended length immediately beyond the dam, the gap being defined between uniformly spaced walls one of which faces the article surface bearing the coating material. The spacing between the gap walls is equal to the thickness of the strip article plus a desired wet thickness of the layer of coating material. Coating material of different colors or shades may be supplied to different portions of the strip surface for producing coatings of varied patterns.

Coating process and apparatus

For use with horizontal siding panels each having complementary first and second locking means respectively formed along their top and bottom margins for interlocking vertically adjacent courses of panels in overlapping array, a system for mounting, on a wall, a panel interposed between already-mounted upper and lower courses which are vertically spaced by a distance less than the height of the interposed panel. The system includes clip means for securing the second locking means of the upper-course panels to the wall while permitting upward insertion of the first locking means of the interposed panel, behind the upper-course panels, to a level above that at which the second locking means of the upper-course panels would interlock therewith, retaining means for securing the first locking means of the interposed panel to the wall at that level against upward, downward or outward movement, and means mountable on the top margins of the lower-course panels for interlocking with the second locking means of the interposed panels, the interlocking means, when thus mounted, being vertically slidable through a range of elevations relative to the lower-course panels.

Siding panel systems with panel-mounting devices

In a suspended ceiling assembly of panels carried by spaced, elongated stringers, stabilizer bars interconnecting the stringers for maintaining the stringers fixed in position relative to each other and preventing racking of the assembly. Each stabilizer bar is a rigid element having a tab at each end for snap-fitting insertion into a slot formed in a stringer, and also having flange portions adjacent each end for bearing against a stringer surface along spaced extended lines of contact, when the tab at that end is inserted in the stringer, to prevent angular movement of the stringer relative to the stabilizer bar.

Suspended ceiling assembly and stabilizer bar therefor

Process for producing striated surface coatings

Process for producing striped surface coatings

A starter strip for anchoring, to a wall, the bottom margins of the lowermost course of an array of horizontally elongated siding panels each secured to the wall along its top margin and each having an inwardly projecting, upwardly opening channel flange along its bottom margin. The starter strip includes a leg mountable on the wall, a locking flange arranged to be received within the channel flanges of the panels, and resilient biasing means such as a spring leg for acting against the inner surfaces of the panels to urge the bottom margins of the panels outwardly and thereby to hold the inner legs of their channel flanges against the inner edge of the locking flange.

Starter strip for horizontal siding panels

In the coating of a strip article by continuously advancing the article lengthwise past a dam while applying liquid coating material to a major surface of the article ahead of the dam, and advancing the article surface past a facing wall of extended length immediately beyond the dam, the article is restrained against movement away from the wall by an endless surface moving in the same direction and at the same rate as the article. The liquid coating material, in contact with the article major surface ahead of the dam, is fully confined within a reservoir or trench to which the coating material is supplied under positive pressure to maintain the reservoir or trench continuously entirely filled therewith.

Process and apparatus for coating strip articles and the like

A snap-on cover for window casings including elongated metal or like resiliently deformable case molding members mountable on brackets secured at spaced locations along a window casing. The case molding members snap onto the brackets; each bracket has a base, a pair of spaced, aligned seats projecting outwardly therefrom for engagement by the edges of a molding member, and a leg also projecting outwardly from the base for retaining the molding member against inward displacement. A screw extending inwardly through an elongated opening in the base and surrounded by a helical spring under compression between the screw head and the base secures the bracket to the subjacent casing or other structure in a manner enabling self-aligning positional adjustment of the bracket in several directions when a molding member is mounted thereon. The case molding members may be provided as overlapping sections, to accommodate a range of window dimensions. A complete casing cover kit may also include L-section trim members for covering the edges of a window casing inwardly of the margins of the molding members, and overlapping covers for a window sill.

Window casing cover

A horizontally elongated sheet metal siding panel simulating the appearance of a row of shake-type wooden shingles is produced by forming, in the panel, alternating raised and depressed shingle-simulating portions having surfaces lying in spaced parallel planes and separated by narrow portions that taper upwardly as viewed in projection in the surface planes of the shingle-simulating portions.

Growing community of inventors

Cortland, OH, United States of America

Carl A Wollam