Appeal No. 1999-0695 Page 5
Application No. 08/427,018
adhesive nozzle 33, a feeder 27 holding a roll of leader, a dump nip 34, a leader cutter 29 and
a waste web cutter 30. The thermoplastic film is produced in a formation section including an
extrusion unit 10, forward draw unit 11 and a sideways draw heat setting unit (stenter) 12 and,
during normal operation, is drawn through the wind-up section, which winds the film onto
reels. Occasional faults, such as tearing, may occur in the production of the film web such that
it has to be removed from the wind-up section. In order to correct the fault by re-establishing
an untorn web, it is desirable to run the formation section at normal line speed (e.g., 300
m/min or even up to 600 m/min). It is therefore desirable to thread film moving at these speeds
through the wind-up section (page 1, lines 28-40). In order to address this problem,
immediately after a fault occurs, Benson diverts the film web formed in the formation section,
which continues to run at normal line speed, to the dump nip 34 as waste to be removed from
the work area while a leader from the feeder 27 is threaded through the wind-up section. After
the leader has been threaded through the wind-up section and the wind-up section is brought
back up to line speed, the nip roll 32 moves over toward the nip roll 31 so that the leader and
film web are pressed together. Next, the nozzle 33 deposits a line of adhesive onto the nip
between the rolls 31, 32. The waste web cutter 30 severs the waste web from the dump nip so
that the end of the film web is secured to the leader and drawn through the wind-up section.
When the film web reaches the reeler 26, the leader cutter 29 severs the leader from the feeder
27, which is braked to a standstill.
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Last modified: November 3, 2007