Roll coating of glass fibers

An improved apparatus for forming a fiberglass mat, the apparatus including a glass-containing furnace that reciprocates along a reciprocation path above a drawing drum mounted to rotate around a drawing drum axis that is aligned substantially parallel to the path of furnace reciprocation, for drawing a plurality of glass fibers along a fiber path extending downwardly from furnace orifices to the drawing drum, thereby winding the glass fibers around the drawing drum to form a mat, wherein the improvement comprises:

• a roll center drivingly linked to the furnace, the roll center comprising:
• (a) a coating drum having an axis about which the coating drum is rotatably mounted, said coating drum being mounted below the furnace orifices and above the drawing drum with a circumferential, side surface of the coating drum in the fiber path and in contact with substantially all of the fibers extending downwardly from the furnace orifices to the drawing drum;
• (b) a prime mover drivingly linked to the coating drum for driving the coating drum about its axis;
• and
• (c) a bath mounted below the furnace orifices, below the coating drum and above the drawing drum, said bath containing a pool of liquid binder/wetting agent in which at least a portion of the circumferential surface of the coating drum is submerged for picking up binder/wetting agent and applying it to substantially all of the fibers.