Belt-like material-feeding apparatus and method of operating the same

Abstract

A belt-like material-feeding apparatus for continuously feeding a belt-like material to a treating unit, comprises a splicing unit which splices a second belt-like material to a first belt-like material being fed to the treating unit to thereby switch the belt-like material being fed to the treating unit from the first belt-like material into the second belt-like material, an accumulating unit which is arranged between the splicing unit and the treating unit and is capable of temporarily accumulating the belt-like material, and a control unit which, prior to the splicing operation of the splicing unit, increases the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material to be larger than the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material during the steady operation and, during the splicing operation, releases the belt-like material from the accumulating unit to decrease the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material.

1 . A belt-like material-feeding apparatus for continuously feeding a belt-like material to a treating unit, comprising:
 a splicing unit which splices a second belt-like material to a first belt-like material being fed to the treating unit to thereby switch the belt-like material being fed to the treating unit from the first belt-like material into the second belt-like material;   an accumulating unit which is arranged between the splicing unit and the treating unit and is capable of temporarily accumulating the belt-like material; and   a control unit which, prior to the splicing operation of the splicing unit, increases the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material to be larger than the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material during the steady operation and, during the splicing operation, releases the belt-like material from the accumulating unit to decrease the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material.   
     
     
         2 . The belt-like material-feeding apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material during the steady operation is a minimum amount of accumulation of the accumulating unit. 
     
     
         3 . The belt-like material-feeding apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the control unit increases the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material up to a maximum amount of accumulation of the accumulating unit. 
     
     
         4 . The belt-like material-feeding apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the accumulating unit comprises winding rolls and dancer rolls round which the belt-like material is wrapped, and the control unit increases the distance between the winding rolls and the dancer rolls to increase the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material and decreases the distance between the winding rolls and the dancer rolls to decrease the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material. 
     
     
         5 . The belt-like material-feeding apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein when the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material has decreased down to the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material during the steady state, the second belt-like material is delivered to the accumulating unit. 
     
     
         6 . A method of operating a belt-like material-feeding apparatus for continuously feeding a belt-like material to a treating unit, the apparatus comprising:
 a splicing unit which splices a second belt-like material to a first belt-like material being fed to the treating unit to thereby switch the belt-like material being fed to the treating unit from the first belt-like material into the second belt-like material; and   an accumulating unit which is arranged between the splicing unit and the treating unit and is capable of temporarily accumulating the belt-like material, wherein, prior to the splicing operation of the splicing unit, the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material is increased to be larger than the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material during the steady operation and, during the splicing operation, the belt-like material is released from the accumulating unit to decrease the amount of accumulation of the belt-like material.