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 storage apparatus includes an apparatus body, a sheet storage portion attachable/detachable to/from the apparatus body, a regulating portion to regulate a position of an end portion of the sheet stored in the storage portion, a cam member slidably movable by interlocking with a movement of the regulating portion, and a slide member supported on the apparatus body and slidably movable by engaging with the cam member in a case where the storage portion is attached to the apparatus body. A sensor includes a moving portion supported on the apparatus body and movable by engaging with the slide member, and a variable resistor, supported on the apparatus body, whose resistance value varies in response to a position of the moving portion in the second direction. The sensor outputs a detection value that varies in response to the resistance value of the variable resistor.

A sheet discharge apparatus includes a pivot member pivoting in an up-down direction by being pressed by a sheet discharged from a sheet discharging portion, with the pivot member retained by being in contact with an uppermost sheet supported on the sheet supporting portion. A control unit changes a sheet interval between a preceding sheet and a succeeding sheet and executes a first discharge operation in which at least one sheet is discharged, and a second discharge operation in which sheets are discharged by the sheet discharging portion at a first sheet interval such that the pivot member does not contact with an uppermost sheet supported on the sheet supporting portion during the second discharge operation, and the control unit acquires a number of sheets to be discharged in the second discharge operation based on a detected position of the pivot member detected during the first discharge operation.

The rewinding machine (1) comprises: a winding station (3) with winding members (5, 7) operated by winding motors In (8.1, 8.2); an unwinder (31.1, 31.2) with an unwinding member (35.1, 35.2) operated by at least one unwinding motor (38.1, 38.2); guide roller (43.1, 43.2) along a feed path (P) of the web material (N, N2). There is associated with the guide roller (43.1, 43.2) at least one load sensor (42.1, 42.2), adapted to detect a parameter proportional to the tension of the web material (N; N2) guided around the guide roller (43.1, 43.2). There is also provided a control unit (71) adapted to modulate a difference in speed between the winding members (5, 7) and the unwinding member (35.1, 35.2) as a function of a signal coming from the load sensor (42.1, 42.2).

A stretch film wrapping system for wrapping film about loads includes a wrap location for receiving loads to be wrapped; a film dispensing system including a film roll support mandrel assembly supported on a load cell that provides an output indicative of weight of the film roll support mandrel assembly and any film roll mounted thereon; and a control system for receiving the output of the load cell and configured to utilize load cell output to determine amount of film used for wrap operations.

A tension transducer (also known as a tension load cell) contains a strain gauge signal conditioner and a data interface to transfer calibrated tension data over a data connection. Integration of signal conditioning allows for reduced system infrastructure within the tension control system, as no external amplifier is required for the tension transducer load cell. This also provides remote calibration and monitoring of the load cell for error conditions, directly through the data interface, with no reliance on external amplifier hardware. Additional integrated sensor information is sampled, and made available over the data connection, which may be pertinent to the web process. This includes load cell force direction orientation, internal temperature, excitation voltage, and raw load cell small-signal output voltage. The signal conditioning and diagnostic capabilities of the apparatus and method can be applied to any load cell device, and is not limited to web tension transducer load cells.

A document stacker (1) for receiving documents from a document processing device (3), wherein the document stacker comprises: a document support (4), and a frame (5), wherein the document support is attached to the frame by a linear guide means configured such that the document support is linearly movable with respect to the frame along a predetermined path of movement (7) inclined to a horizontal plane, and wherein the document stacker further comprises a load cell (14) configured to resist relative movement between the frame and the document support along said predetermined path and to emit an output signal representative of the load applied to the load cell by the document support.

An apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a transducer to transform a load in the housing to an electric current, upon receipt of a load exceeding a load threshold. The apparatus further comprises a light source coupled to the transducer to emit light upon receiving the electric current.

The present invention provides an adaptive control system to control a plant using direct output feedback in which a function of the full plant state, as opposed to estimates thereof, is used for feedback control of the plant. The adaptive control system of this invention is therefore highly useful in the control of plants, particularly plants for controlling the physical properties of rolls of web material and more particularly a calendering apparatus. Accordingly, in a particularly preferred embodiment the adaptive control system of this invention controls loading of a calender apparatus, such as a pair of opposed rolls forming a calendering stack, based upon the physical properties of a previously processed web.

A control system is provided for a converting line. The converting line has an unwinder for unwinding web material from a roll of web material and at least one independently driven roll for directing the web material unwound from the unwinder to the converting line. The control system has a controller and a tension sensor configured to be arranged downstream of the at least one driven roll. The tension sensor is configured to sense a tension in the web as the web is passed downstream of the driven roll, generate a signal indicative of sensed web tension, and transmit the signal of sensed web tension to the controller. The controller is configured to a generate and transmit to the unwinder a signal to change the speed of the unwinder based upon the tension sensed by the tension sensor.