Patent ID: 8276745

Claim:
An apparatus for transferring articles in a machine direction from a first carrier moving at a first speed to a second carrier moving at a second speed that is greater than the first speed, each article having a leading end portion and a trailing end portion, the apparatus comprising: a first transferring surface configured to receive the leading end portion of each article from the first carrier and transport each article to the second carrier, the first transferring surface being mechanically coupled to a first drive motor that advances the first transferring surface in the machine direction; a second transferring surface configured to receive the trailing end of each article from the first carrier and transport the trailing end of each article to the second carrier, the second transferring surface being mechanically coupled to a second drive motor that advances the second transferring surface in the machine direction; wherein the first drive motor is configured to advance the first transferring surface at the first speed when the leading end of each article is transferred from the first carrier to the first transferring surface, then decelerate the first transferring surface to accumulate slack in the article, and then accelerate the first transferring surface back to the second speed such that the leading end of the article is transferred to the second carrier at the second speed; and wherein the second drive motor is configured to advance the second transferring surface at the first speed when the trailing end of each article is transferred from the first carrier to the second transferring surface, and then accelerate the second transferring surface to the second speed such that the trailing end of each article is transferred to the second carrier at the second speed.