George A Corcoran Deceased24 Bloomfield St, Quincy, MA 02171

4069959, Jan 24, 1978

Oct 27, 1976

5/736215

Ronald A. Bartell - Sudbury MA
George F. Corcoran - Wellesley MA
Donald H. Fuller - Foxboro MA

Butler Automatic, Inc. - Canton MA

B65H 2526

226 21

A web steering frame having parallel entering and exiting rollers is supported for pivotal movement on a stationary support frame in a web guide apparatus by a system of pivoted, linear bearings. Each bearing includes a bushing which is movable along a linear guide rod. The bushings are fixed near the rollers where any loads are transmitted to the support frame thereby minimizing steering frame racking. The guide rods are pivotally connected to the support frame. The bearings are oriented so that the direction of linear freedom of each is orthogonal to a line passing through the bearing pivot and the desired steering frame pivot. The linear bearings effectively constrain the steering frame to pivotal motion about the steering frame pivot. Their use gives rise to significant reductions in cost and complexity over conventional web guide apparatus using precision arcuate guides, links or flexures.

4100012, Jul 11, 1978

Nov 8, 1976

5/739794

Edward F. Meihofer - Norfolk MA
George F. Corcoran - Wellesley MA
John W. Clifford - Ashland MA

Butler Automatic, Inc. - Canton MA

B65H 1914
B65H 2500

156351

Web splicing apparatus employs a pair of driven nip rolls which controllably feed web from a running roll into a festoon as web is drawn out of the festoon at a constant rate by a downstream web consuming machine. The nip rolls are driven by a DC motor connected in a closed loop servo system which compares the speed of the web entering the festoon with the web line speed to develop a command signal for the motor. During normal operation, the command signal includes a web velocity trim signal developed by monitoring the position of the festoon dancer relative to a selected reference position so as to minimize tension upsets and to maintain the dancer within its control range. During a splice sequence, the command signal comprises a deceleration ramp having a selected slope to provide controlled deceleration of the web to minimize tension upsets and to permit actuation of the splicing nips prior to actual web stop. After the splice is made, the command signal comprises an acceleration ramp whose slope is automatically adjusted to apply the least necessary tension to the ready web for new roll acceleration consistent with a given splicing speed. Further with this arrangement, the gain of the system is independent of the changing size of the expiring roll.