Abstract: A winding apparatus, such as a slitter rewinder, designed to shorten a distance between an unwinding shaft and a winding shaft, thereby downsizing the apparatus and attaining a significant cost reduction. To that end, in unwinding a web from the unwinding shaft, either to wind it onto the winding shaft or to slit it in the elongate direction into plural narrow-width webs and separate them alternately vertically or longitudinally, followed by winding onto respective winding shafts, the unwinding shaft is driven at a preset web speed, the winding shaft is driven at a preset web tension, guide rollers for guiding the web are disposed between the unwinding and winding shafts to thereby leave the guide rollers to rotate freely by contact with the web without their direct driving.

Abstract: In a winding apparatus, such as a slitter rewinder, designed to shorten a distance between an unwinding shaft and a winding shaft thereby downsizing the apparatus and attaining a significant cost reduction. To that end, in unwinding a web from the unwinding shaft, either to wind it onto the winding shaft or to slit it in the elongate direction into plural narrow-width webs and to separate them alternately vertically or longitudinally, followed by winding onto respective winding shafts, the unwinding shaft is driven at a preset web speed, the winding shaft is driven at a preset web tension, guide rollers for guiding the web are disposed between the unwinding and winding shafts thereby to leave the guide rollers in free rotation by contact with the web without their positive driving.