Coater design for low flowrate coating applications

Claim 1

In a photographic developer apparatus for developing a photographic product, said developer apparatus comprising a source of developer liquid and a coater for delivery of the liquid in a uniform layer onto a surface of the photographic product, said coater comprising a body having an internal manifold chamber of a width generally equal to the width of a photographic product, means for introducing the liquid at a point within said chamber, a slit orifice shaded to deliver a uniform layer of liquid, and a delivery channel having a length extending from said manifold to said orifice, the improvement wherein said coater delivery channel comprises spaced-apart opposed surfaces connected together for the majority of said delivery channel length at spaced intervals by a plurality of wall portions in said channel extending between said surfaces in a first direction toward said orifice to confine liquid flow into spaced-apart individual streams of flow between said wall portions, and coalescing means disposed inside said orifice next to said wall portions for coalescing said individual streams together into a substantially continuous strip of liquid while still inside said orifice, so that said developer is effluent-free, and wherein said wall portions extend substantially completely across the gap between said surfaces and to said orifice with a thickness that tapers sufficiently as the orifice is reached as to aid coalescence of said separate streams at said orifice.