Air knife device for regulating a metal deposit

Device for regulating the thickness of a metal deposit formed on a strip emerging from a galvanization bath, said device comprising at least one nozzle for blowing a gaseous fluid, said nozzle having a distribution chamber connected to an air supply circuit and opening into a slot extending transversely over the entire width of said strip, said slot being delimited by narrowly spaced, facing ends of first and second jaws converging towards each other from an outlet of said distribution chamber up to said slot in order to form an air knife, in a direction transverse to a feed plane of said strip, at least one of said first and second jaws comprises a deformable lip made up of a shaped element of elastically deformable material, and having means distributed over the entire length of said at least one of said first and second jaws to adjust a width of said slot, said slot being delimited by first and second flat parallel faces of said jaws determining a direction of said air knife, said first flat face being provided on the deformable lip, said slot extending to an inside of a recess provided at an end of said first jaw and delimited, on the upstream side of an air flow, by a flat retaining face of said jaw substantially perpendicular to the direction of an air knife, said shaped element comprising, on said upstream side, a corresponding guide and sealing face, which bears against said retaining face, said shaped element deforming with planar displacement of said flat face and sliding of said guide face along said retaining face of said first jaw.