The present invention relates to a method of guiding a web with a shifting path of the web to a substantially constant centration point. It comprises the steps of providing a web with a shifting path of the web from a source of the web, measuring upstream of said centration point, the position and/or orientation of said web by a sensor arrangement, and guiding said web to said centration point in accordance to the measurement results. The present invention advantageously relates to operations in the manufacturing of absorbent articles such as unwinding web rolls that are wound in a shifted manner, in particular spirally wound web rolls, and removing web from containers of loose web material. The invention also relates to a device for the execution of the method.

A device for automatic touch-free dispensing of disposable material onto a hand of an individual is provided. The device comprises a first spool configured to hold backing members having disposable material disposed thereon. The first spool engages with a first gear connected to a motor responsible for rotating the first spool to deliver the disposable material into the middle of an access window of the device. Preferably, the device is enclosed within a housing assembly.

A sheet conveying device and a sheet conveying method whereby it is possible to convey a sheet more accurately. This sheet conveying device includes a holder capable of holding a sheet, bringing the sheet into a stretched state while holding the sheet, and conveying the held sheet. This sheet conveying device also includes a sheet state recognizer that recognizes the state of the sheet when the sheet is held in a stretched state by the holder.

A post-processing apparatus includes a conveyance unit, a discharge port, a tray, an elevation unit, a detection unit, and a control unit. The conveyance unit conveys a print medium supplied from an image forming apparatus. The discharge port discharges the print medium conveyed by the conveyance unit. The tray is stacked with the print medium discharged from the discharge port and can be raised and lowered in a vertical direction. The elevation unit raises and lower the tray in the vertical direction. The detection unit detects a top surface of an uppermost print medium of one or more sheets of print media stacked on the tray. The control unit controls the conveyance unit and the elevation unit and hold a relative position of the top surface with respect to the discharge port if the print medium is discharged from the discharge port at a first position. The control unit causes the conveyance unit to convey the print medium at a first speed if a discharge time from a first timing indicating the timing relating to discharge of the print medium from the discharge port to a second timing indicating the timing when the print medium is detected by the detection unit is a first time and causes the conveyance unit to convey the print medium at a second speed different from the first speed if the discharge time is a second time.

A foil dispensing device for on demand dispensing of sections of foil of a selectable length includes a housing comprising a lid that is hingedly engaged to a box so that the lid is positioned to selectively close an open top of the box. A motor is engaged to and positioned the box. A spindle is positionable in box to operationally engage the spindle to the motor. A roll of foil is positioned around spindle so that a free end of the roll of extends into a slot positioned in the housing. A motion sensor engaged to the housing and operationally engaged to the motor is actuated by motion of a hand of a user to signal the motor to rotate the spindle to dispense a section of the foil through the slot. A cutter positioned by the slot cuts the foil to separate the section from the roll.

A feed and cutting unit for selectively cutting and dispensing individual weight material segments from a common strip of backing material is disclosed. The feed and cutting unit comprises a feed assembly, a sensor and a cutter member. The feed assembly includes a drive roller and a follower roller that frictionally engages first and second surfaces of a strip of weight material to selectively move the strip of weight material to a cutter member. The sensor is connected to a controller and measures an amount of segmented weight material on the backing material as the strip of weight material moves past the sensor. The cutter member is actuated to separate weight material segments from the backing material by cutting at least a portion of the backing material in a gap disposed between adjacent segments. Weight apply devices that receive the segments for application to an imbalanced member, are also disclosed.

A device for introducing patterns by radiating a wound continuous substrate. The device provides patterning during continuous roll-to-roll movement without material slippage and with minimal distortion by providing a dancer roll between a processing drum and an unwinder roll on one side, and a winder roll on the other side, for tautly guiding the continuous substrate along a contact surface of at least half of the circumference of the processing drum in order to drive the continuous substrate without slippage. The dancer rolls are adapted to tautly guide the advancing substrate web and returning substrate web with a constant force, and an equilibrium is adjustable between a defined counterforce and the constant action of force on the dancer roll by a stabilization device, and is maintained constant by a controller based on measured deflections of the dancer roll by controlling the rotational speed of the unwinder and winder rolls.

A sheet feeding apparatus includes a first feeder, a second feeder, and processing circuitry. The first feeder includes a sheet stacker, an air blower, a suction feeder, and a remaining amount detection sensor. The air blower blows air to float an uppermost sheet. The suction feeder sucks and feeds the sheet. The remaining amount detection sensor detects a remaining amount of sheets stacked. The processing circuitry determines whether the remaining amount of sheets in the first feeder is smaller than a threshold, causes the first feeder to perform a feeding operation of feeding the sheet floated by the air blower to the suction feeder in response to a determination that the remaining amount is equal to or greater than the threshold, and causes the second feeder to feed a sheet instead of the first feeder in response to a determination that the remaining amount is smaller than the threshold.

An example method comprises operating a drive unit to advance a substrate in a substrate advance direction toward a printing station. At the printing station, a first line is printed onto the substrate. A drive unit is instructed to advance the substrate in the substrate advance direction by a target amount, and a second line is printed onto the substrate. The distance between the first and second lines in a direction perpendicular to the substrate advance direction is calculated and, based on the calculated difference, a tension of the substrate is modified.

A method, apparatus and program product may utilize packaging material quality compensation to sense changes in certain characteristics of a packaging material that can be associated with increased risks of film breaks, and automatically make certain changes in machine settings to mitigate the impact of those enhanced risks.