Apparatus for stabilizing a moving low-strength sheet

An apparatus for stabilizing a moving low-strength sheet having a width and a top surface, which moving sheet is moving in a first direction at a rate sufficient to impart to a layer of air adjacent to a surface of the sheet a momentum which is in the direction of motion of the moving sheet and proportional to the rate of motion thereof, giving rise to an entrained boundary layer of air, which apparatus comprises:

• an airfoil extending along the top surface of the moving sheet, the airfoil comprising:
• a bottom surface extending along a portion of the top surface of the moving sheet;
• a first surface extending a first distance from the bottom surface at a first juncture;
• a second surface extending a second distance from the bottom surface at a second juncture;
• a top surface extending from the first surface at a third juncture to the second surface at a fourth juncture;
• and
• a deflector positioned near the first surface, which deflector directs the substantial portion of the entrained boundary layer of air in a desired direction;
• in which:
• the first distance is less than the second distance;
• the apparatus is oriented in a manner such that the portion of the apparatus which first encounters the entrained boundary layer of air is the first surface of the airfoil;
• and
• the first and bottom surfaces of the airfoil form an acute angle such that the first surface directs a substantial portion of the entrained boundary layer of air away from the moving sheet.