Coating apparatus and method

A coating apparatus for coating a component comprising a fluidized bed of coating material, a conveyor to position a component above said fluidized bed, the conveyor including a mast moveable relative to the fluidized bed, a carriage mounted on and moveable vertically relative to said conveyor along the mast to lower said component into said fluidized bed, a hook assembly on said carriage to engage and carry said component, a drive acting on the hook assembly to independently move said hook assembly vertically relative to said carriage and a control to periodically reverse the direction of movement of said hook assembly relative to said carriage to cause cyclic bodily movement of said component in a vertical direction within said fluidized bed as coating is applied, said drive applying periodic pulses to said hook and thereby provide an abrupt change of direction of said hook in a vertical direction relative to said carriage to promote a uniform distribution of coating to an exterior surface of said component.