There is a video with the URL somewhere here, showing a curtain coater in operation via an animation. I wish I had saved that URL. In any event, it is a very good illustration of the subject.
And, I don't disagree with anything anyone has said. I would like to point out that modern coating is more akin to making a microprocessor than a vacuum tube, and what we are doing in our home labs is more like making a crystal set, not anything like as complex as a vacuum tube or radio using one let alone something that uses the hypothetical hand-made microprocessor.
So, thus far, most of you have only seen the simplest extreme in making and coating, IE the equivalent of making a crystal set. And, if you want to take a step up, you have to bear the cost of the education, the cost of R&D and the cost of the equipment needed to make and coat at this higher level.
It is so easy to be dismissive of what I say, but I am pointing out a fundamental truth and that is that future coatings with any quality and quantity will come from existing facilities. Next will be expensive hand made products that fill a niche but are produced in moderate quantity and a medium to high price and finally are the home made hand-crafted materials which I have been fortunate to have taught some to make.
That is a pretty apt analogy. I'm certainly not even dreaming of a high tech coater - it just fit the mood of the song.
Still, home coating of film is going to be a challenge (and as you know I have a fair supply of Melenex). I can't even imagine trying to market a finished product.
Clarence, if we can meet up on your next visit to Rochester, I'll try to arrange a visit to the sub basement of GEH to see their ancient Kodak coating machine. It used to sit upstairs where the cafeteria is, before they moved the cafeteria and expanded it. That is a sight. I saw it when it was still in use.
Ahh, but they had to take it apart to move it. If I were even able to show it to anyone, I would have to be there to explain what each part meant. They may not even have anyone who knows how it goes back together. IIRC, someone from Kodak helped them move it and assemble it at GEH in the first place.
It is by no means guaranteed that I would be able to gain permission to even see it myself. I knew I should have kept my mouth shut!
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