Abstract:
A laminating device for laminating a continuous web of paper material to a continuous web of film material for forming a continuous web of laminated composite material at a laminating nip. Apparatus for dividing the paper web into at least two segregated tension zones upstream of the laminating nip and for dividing the composite web into at least two segregated tension zones downstream of the laminating nip are described. Control systems for monitoring and maintaining the tension in each tension zone at different, preset values, are also described.
Abstract:
A continuous processing system for performing production operations on a plurality of unit products using at least two discrete processing machines including: an upstream processing machine (12); a downstream processing machine (22); an accumulator (32) for transferring unit products (11) between the upstream machine and downstream machine and for accumulating unit products in tightly packed continuously touching relationship (62) in a variable length area starting at a position (36) adjacent the downstream machine and extending toward (34) the upstream machine, the number of unit products in the tightly packed continuously touching relationship defining a continuous-fill-accumulation; account-in center (52) for sensing each unit product entering the accumulator; account-out center (54) for sensing each unit product exiting from the accumulator; a computer software accumulator model (200) for operating on data derived from the sensor signal and from physical characteristics of the accumulator for continuously predicting the continuous-fill-accumulation; and machine speed control apparatus (40) for continuously bearably controlling the speed of the upstream machine and/or the downstream machine based on the predicted continuous-fill-accumulation.