Abstract: Apparatus for gluing the final tail of rolls or logs of wound sheet material includes a glue distributor device located below an opening in a roll down table. The tail of the roll is separated from the roll by a tail separating unit upstream of the opening. The gluing distributor device includes a tank containing glue, a rotatable pick up roll located inside of the tank and partially immersed in the glue, and a glue distributor roll positioned externally above the tank and provided with at least one paddle. The pick up roll picks up glue as it rotates, and the rotating paddle contacts the pick up roll and picks up glue as the glue distributor roll rotates. The paddle rotates into the opening in the roll down table, and glue is transferred from the paddle to a roll as the roll rolls over the opening. A cull roll can be culled without applying glue to the roll by mounting a cull roll support projection on the glue distributor roll which is not long enough to contact the pick up roll.

Abstract: A surface winder includes first and second winding rolls for winding a web on a center member, a stationary surface spaced from the first winding roll for rolling a center member on the stationary surface, and a pinch pad for pinching the web against a pinch surface upstream of the center member and thereby severing the web. The first winding roll is provided with a high friction surface, and only a short length of web needs to be stretched between the pinch surface and the first roll to tension and sever the web. The severed web is wound on the center member as the center member rolls on the stationary surface.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for producing a roll or log of bathroom tissue or kitchen toweling with a pattern being repeated between each pair of transverse perforations wherein an extensible web having a pattern thereon repeated at equally longitudinally spaced position is advanced along a path toward a rewinder having a knife-equipped perforator and a cutoff mechanism. A detector senses the position of each pattern and also sensed is the position of the perforation knife with the positions being reported to a controller. The perforation knife is adjusted to insure that each perforation is between pattern positions and the cutoff mechanism is adjusted to stay in time with the transverse lines of perforations to provide a selected count of patterns in each winding cycle.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for sealing the tail of a convolutely wound log which include a longitudinally extending path, an infeed station and a sealing station in the path, equipping the infeed station with a pair of spaced-apart, rotatable rollers, providing one of the rollers with vacuum ports in the periphery thereof, feeding logs sequentially into the nip space between the pair of rollers, rotating the rollers, orienting the log tail to a position over the ports in the one roller, rotating the rollers to unwind the tail, and rolling each log in the path into the sealing station; the unwinding being either (a) triggered by a mark on the tail such as a UV ink stripe or (b) using an air blast.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for handling logs of convolutely wound webs which includes providing a rewinder-tail sealer wherein a glue stripe is applied to a predetermined circumferential location on a partially unwound log and the log rewound by rolling on itself toward and into a pair of spaced-apart rollers, providing a path from the roller pair to log receiver wherein logs sequentially roll in the path, the path having fixed dimensions, operating the rewinder-tail sealer to develop logs of a first nominal diameter to enable the roller pair to controllably rotate each log for positioning the glue stripe at a first angular orientation, which in combination with the fixed dimensioned path enables each log to be received in the receiver with its glue stripe in a second angular orientation, changing the operation of the rewinder to develop logs of a second nominal diameter, and by correlating the second nominal diameter with the fixed dimensioned path to enable each second nominal diameter log to be received in sai

Abstract: A method and apparatus for winding an elongate web into a convolutely wound roll either on a core ensleeved on a mandrel or on the mandrel itself and which include providing a center wind rewinder defining an upstream to downstream path having in sequence a web direction changer and a turret indexably rotatable about a first axis and equipped with a plurality of orbiting circumferentially spaced rotatable mandrels. The rewinder has an articulatable arm member indexably rotatable about a second axis outside the orbit of the mandrels.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transferring a web to a mandrel to form a coreless, convolutely wound roll which includes an enveloping roller, first and second mandrels, a transfer roller and a cutoff mechanism in the path of travel of a web to be wound, advancing a web in partial enveloping relation with the enveloping roller and toward the first mandrel, moving the second mandrel to a position adjacent the web, orienting the enveloping roller and transfer roller to positions defining a pocket with the second mandrel in the pocket to define a nip between the second mandrel and enveloping roller, rotating the transfer roller in a direction opposite to the direction of advance of the web, and severing the web to provide a leading edge portion.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for sealing the tail of a convolutely wound log which includes the steps of providing a turret rotatably mounted in a frame and having a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart three-roll clusters, feeding a log into a first cluster while positioning an immediately previously fed log with a draped tail in another cluster adjacent glue apparatus and while ejecting an even earlier fed log now rewound from still another cluster, and providing a log infeed mechanism adjacent the turret and including a pair of relatively movable rollers, feeding logs sequentially into the pair of said rollers, rotating the infeed rollers to orient the log tail in a predetermined position, by providing a mark on said log prior to the feeding step, and detecting said mark to orient the tail in a predetermined position.

Abstract: A coreless surface winder and method wherein two of the winding drums are slightly spaced apart by a distance less than two web thicknesses which then operate to cause a folded leading edge on a transversely severed web to roll upon itself and develop an incipient log which thereafter is completed in a conventional three drum cradle to provide a coreless retail sized roll.

Abstract: A surface rewinder and method for cyclically and convolutely winding web logs wherein a three drum cradle includes spaced apart first and second winding drums and a rider drum and wherein the speed and/or space relationship of the drums is between the drums and a web being wound on a core as by moving one of the drums through a closed loop each cycle of winding.

Abstract: A coreless surface winder and method wherein one of the winding rollers is accompanied by a slightly spaced apart arcuate dead plate which operates to cause a folded leading edge on a transversely severed web to roll upon itself and develop an incipient log which thereafter is completed in a conventional three roll cradle to provide a coreless retail sized roll.

Abstract: A surface rewinder and method wherein a three drum cradle includes spaced apart first and second winding drums and wherein the speed profile of the second winding drum is controlled to substantially eliminate slippage between the second winding drum and a web being wound on a core by increasing the speed of the second drum after passage between the space as a function of the increasing diameter of the roll being wound.