Abstract: A laminator for applying pre-printed labels to a single face corrugated web to form double face corrugated sheets utilizes a control system including accurate leading and trailing edge detection of the labels to custom cut the corrugated web to match the label length in a manner which assures complete and uniform coverage of the glued flute tips of the corrugated web by the labels. The labels are fed non-stop as a series of spaced sheets into a laminating nip to join the leading edge of the traveling single face corrugated web. A positioning nip upstream of the laminating nip varies the speed of the incoming sheets to accurately match sheet leading edge to web leading edge. Detection of the sheet trailing edge triggers operation of the web cut-off knife to accurately match the corresponding cut trailing edge.

Abstract: A system for coordinating the splices in each of the component webs used in making a composite corrugated paperboard web independently measures on a dynamic real time basis the length of each component web between the splicer where it is supplied and a downstream cutoff apparatus where the synchronized splices are cut out in a short length of web in which they are contained. The real time measurement of each component web includes continuous monitoring of web lengths subject to change while running through variable length storage areas, and an initialization procedure whereby an initially unknown length of component web in its respective storage is determined. The system also includes a calibration procedure by which the various devices used to measure running web lengths throughout the system are all calibrated to a master device which controls the total web length for each order.