The Procter Gamble Company

John Frederick Droste

Joseph Allen Eckstein

Charles Phillip Miller

Russell P Bridges

Nathan Alan Gill

Ron Herbert Helton

Maite Iraolagoitia

A transfer apparatus is provided for transferring a workpiece from a moving anvil to a moving carrier. The apparatus comprises: a support structure comprising a support member rotatable about a first axis, and a workpiece gripping structure mounted to the support structure comprising at least one workpiece gripping member having a workpiece-receiving surface. The gripping member is rotatable about a second axis substantially parallel to the first axis such that the gripping member is capable of being rotated about the second axis during transfer of a workpiece from the moving anvil to the workpiece-receiving surface. The workpiece gripping member is also rotatable about a third axis substantially transverse to the first and second axes so as to be capable of rotating the workpiece from a first angular position at the anvil to a second angular position.

Transfer apparatus for transferring a workpiece from a moving anvil to a moving carrier

A web speed metering device to which a moving web is fed at a constant web infeed speed and from which the web periodically exits at a different speed that is correlated with the timing of a downstream operation performed on the moving web. The metering device is a rotatable member that is non-axisymmetric and that has a cross-sectional shape having a centroid that is offset from the axis of rotation of the rotatable member to change the web output speed as the web exits from the metering device. The metering device allows a web to be fed to a downstream cutting device and enables the web output speed to be regulated so that the web as it leaves the metering device can be cut transversely by a non-instantaneous cut that takes place over a predetermined machine-direction distance, such as a chevron-shaped cut.

Web speed metering apparatus and method

Apparatus and a method for providing cut pieces from a first moving web and associating the cut pieces with a second, faster-moving carrier web. A vacuum roll is provided and cooperates with an adjacent cutter roll to enable transverse cuts to be made in the first web material. A vacuum manifold is provided and contacts the end wall surface of the vacuum roll to provide vacuum to apertures provided in the outer periphery of the vacuum roll. The vacuum roll and the vacuum manifold have spiral-like ports and slots to provide communication between a source of vacuum and the periphery of the vacuum roll at predetermined points in the path of rotation of the vacuum roll. The point of application of the vacuum to the leading edge of the first web is shifted rearwardly over the peripheral surface of the vacuum roll to correspond substantially with the slower rectilinear speed of the first web material, and thereby avoid the imposition of excessive tension to the first web material so that it is not permanently elongated before it is applied to the carrier web.

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Blue Ash, OH, United States of America

John Frederick Droste