APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR ALIGNING MATERIALS DURING A SPLICE

摘要

A splicing device (10) is disclosed for splicing a first material (16) to a second material (18) in order to continuously feed the materials into a processing line. The apparatus includes a first roll letoff for unwinding a material into a processing line and a second roll letoff for holding a new material that is to replace the first material. The apparatus includes at least one sensor (44, 46) that indicates the position of one of the materials in the cross machine direction. A controller is used to compare the position of one material (16, 18) to the position of another material. If the materials are out of alignment in the cross machine direction, a shifting device (36) shifts one of the materials (16, 18) until the materials are in alignment. The shifting device (36), for instance, may shift the splicing assembly itself while one of the materials is anchored to the splicing assembly.