tip of the blade 8 the loading of the smoothing premetering blade 8 can be adjusted by means of separate blade load control apparatus 16 see fig2 the load control apparatus 16 is divided into independent control zones over its cross machine width so as to offer variable blade loading in that direction the apparatus 16 thus permits the adjustment of the applied coat weight and thereby obtains a desired coat profile across the width of the web since several different blade loading arrangements are well known in the art a more detailed description of such an apparatus is omitted herein the coating mix is fed at a high speed such for example as in excess of 1 m s in accordance with the present invention an excess portion of the applied coating mix is guided in the reverse direction to the travel of the web 5 past an upper lip 17 of the orifice channel 11 this excess mix is particularly important to the successful outcome of the coating process since it plays a major role in assuring a smooth and homogeneous coat the excess mix reverse flow or return flow 14 also permits an extremely accurate control of the amount of coating mix applied to the web 5 as well as the adjustment of the coat thickness including very thin coats the coat thickness adjustment may be implemented by an ordinarily skilled artisan by either controlling the blade load or adjusting the feed rate of fresh coating mix.