Air knife

A fluid discharge apparatus for producing a curtain of air comprising a body member having an air inlet chamber and an air outlet chamber, the air outlet chamber being in fluid communication with the air inlet chamber, the body member defining a discharge orifice through which fluid is discharged from the body member, the discharge orifice being in fluid communication with the air outlet chamber, said air outlet chamber having a pair of opposing sidewalls, each of the sidewalls having an angled sidewall portion, said angled sidewall portions being arranged to converge towards each other as the angled sidewall portions extend in a downstream direction towards the discharge orifice so as to define a generally V-shaped lead-in section that guides and directs fluid towards the discharge orifice, said discharge orifice being defined by first and second edges, said first edge being defined by an extended wall portion that extends downstream past the second edge so as to define a deflection surface for the discharging fluid that extends along one side of the discharge orifice, said body member including a base portion and a blade portion that are secured together, and said air inlet chamber being arranged in said base portion and said air outlet chamber being defined by a first channel in the base portion and a second channel in the blade portion.