Abstract: An improved continuous web handling apparatus and method for printing, handling, collating and final processing of multiple-page printed items such as business forms or the like is provided which employs separate, shiftable, track-mounted web supports having individual, pivotal, spring-biased web keepers to facilitate accurate, continuous draping of printed webs onto the supports for subsequent handling and processing thereof. In preferred forms, the apparatus includes a web fed printing press which continuously feeds printed web to a draping station adjacent the conveyor track; the draping station includes a novel, vacuum air pickup bar intermittently rotated by a five-lobe internal geneva gear mechanism, along with actuating apparatus which pivots the respective web keepers open during initial stages of web drapage and thereafter allows the keepers to close against and hold the web in place.

Abstract: In an installation comprising a chain of rods from which woven material in strip form is suspended in folds, the discharge of hot air or steam through a blowing nozzle is subjected to the cyclic action of a regulating device for progressively reducing the nozzle discharge from a predetermined maximum value during commencement of formation of a fold to a zero value after only a fraction of the time required for complete formation has elapsed. The installation is primarily intended for use in steaming machines.

Abstract: A loading device for supplying cord strips, intended for the belt or body of a tire, to a tire assembly drum. The loading device is comprised of a plurality of guide units displaceably mounted for longitudinal movement relative to the tire assembly drum. Each guide unit includes devices for storing a cord strip and a backing strip, for deflecting, for initially separating the cord strip from the backing strip, for final separation and removal of the cord strip from the backing strip, for winding up the backing strip, for guiding the cord strip in a short compensating loop and for delivering the cord strip to the tire assembly drum. The guide units also contain driving mechanisms for each of the above devices. The compensating loop device is rigidly mounted between the separating device and the delivering device.