Abstract: A reinforcing strip is applied to sheets by longitudinally advancing a leading sheet while the strip is adhered to it along a travel path to a downstream stop station and thereby drawing the strip from a supply and extending it longitudinally through an upstream stop station while simultaneously adhering the strip to the full length of the leading sheet. Then the leading sheet is arrested in the downstream stop station while a trailing sheet upstream of the arrested leading sheet is advanced downstream until a leading edge of the trailing sheet engages an upstream stop in the upstream station immediately upstream of a trailing edge of the leading sheet. The trailing sheet is then arrested with its leading edge engaging the upstream stop which it pushes downstream against the upstream edge of the leading sheet. Generally simultaneously the strip is adhered upstream of the upstream stop to the trailing sheet and the strip is severed at the upstream stop between the leading and trailing sheets.

Abstract: A manual feed machine for the application of tabs to sheet stock has a strip feeder for feeding a foil strip into the path of a sheet which is manually insertable beneath the cutter for the file strip to entrain a previously cut segment into the heating jaws. A die cutter downstream of the foil application can cut the tab after the jaw opens and the sheet is transported to the cutter. Only after the perimeter of the sheet has cleared the blade, is the previously advanced foil strip cut to form the next segment.

Abstract: Means are provided for feeding a succession of sheets of a sheet material along a path in a transport direction, with means along the path for applying a reinforcing strip to a sheet advancing in the transport direction beginning substantially in alignment with a leading edge of the sheet, and a cutting device along the path for severing the strip while the strip is advancing in the transport direction so that a trailing edge of the strip will not project beyond the trailing edge of the sheet, the cutting device having a lower cutting blade fitting between the strip and the sheet over a portion of the strip before the strip meets the sheet, an upper cutting blade juxtaposed with the lower blade above the strip and arranged so that the blade cuts the strip progressively inwardly from at least one edge, with solenoid means responsive to the trailing edge of the sheet for impulsively driving the upper blade toward the lower blade, and an electric circuit including a capacitor for discharging through the solenoid