A passive tensioning system is disclosed for composite material that is dispensed by a composite placement machine. A spool is mounted on a spool shaft and material on the spool is pulled from the spool and applied to a surface. The tensioning system has a drag brake on the spool shaft and a drag brake control for the drag brake. A dancer roll is mounted on a linear slide having a spring force and a slide control is provided for the linear slide. A control system continually varies the drag brake control and the slide control to control the tension of the composite material based on the instantaneous operating characteristics of the composite placement machine.

Disclosed are a method and a cord organizer for organizing cords between a tire building creel and an extruder, wherein the method includes the steps of: providing a cord inlay station between the tire building creel and the extruder for preparing the cords for insertion into the extruder; collecting groups of the cords in a plurality of cord collectors at the tire building creel; and transferring said plurality of cords collectors with the groups of cords collected therein from the tire building creel towards the cord inlay station.