Method and apparatus for making adhesive tape
A method of making adhesive tape has the steps of advancing a substrate band longitudinally in a machine direction from a supply to an array of laser units, cutting the band longitudinally with the laser units into a plurality of longitudinal strips, and then cutting each of the longitudinal strips longitudinally into a plurality of tapes. An adhesive is applied to a face of each of the tapes, and the tapes are wound up individually.
1 . A method of making adhesive tape, the method comprising the steps of:
advancing a substrate band longitudinally in a longitudinal machine direction from a supply past a plurality of laser units spaced transversely to the machine direction and each having a respective stationary laser generating a respective beam and a respective movable beam deflector movable to deflect the respective beam from the respective laser both transversely and longitudinally relative to the machine direction;
continuously monitoring and determining a travel speed of the band in the machine direction;
cutting the band longitudinally with the laser units into a plurality of longitudinal strips extending in the machine direction;
cutting each of the longitudinal strips longitudinally into a plurality of tapes by moving the deflectors synchronously relative to the travel speed;
applying an adhesive to a face of each of the tapes; and
winding the tapes up individually.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the longitudinal strips abut one another transversely without spacing and extend over an entire width of the substrate band.
3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein a respective laser unit is assigned to each of the longitudinal strips and cuts same into the tapes.
4 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the tapes of each longitudinal strips are all laser cut to a predetermined width.
5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the longitudinal strips is cut into tapes of a predetermined width.
6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein each beam deflector is deflected to make parallel longitudinal cuts of a predetermined longitudinal length in the respective longitudinal strip.
7 . The method according to claim 6 , wherein a number of the longitudinal cuts determines a number of tapes in the respective longitudinal strip.
8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the longitudinal cuts extend in the machine direction adjacent one another.
9 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein the band is subdivided into longitudinally succeeding zones that extend continuously without transverse offset from each zone to the longitudinally adjacent zones.
10 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein each stationary laser of each laser unit is fixed laterally adjacent to and offset relative to the longitudinal machine direction from the advancing substrate band and the respective beam deflectors are transversely spaced from each other relative to the longitudinal machine direction and juxtaposed transversely of the longitudinal machine direction with the band.
11 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the deflectors are spaced transversely of the machine direction from one another.
12 . The method according to claim 10 wherein the deflectors are also spaced longitudinally in the longitudinal machine direction from one another.
13 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein each deflector has a pair of mirrors deflectable in mutually perpendicular planes in accordance with the detected speed of the advancing band.