Patent ID: 7306184

Claim:
A transport and splicing apparatus under the control of a computer, for supplying successively used rolls of web material to at least one web utilizing device from roll unwinding devices associated therewith, as an uninterrupted, continuously feeding web, by splicing said web from an at least partially depleted dispensing first roll of web material in said unwinding device, to a replacement second roll supplied by said transport and splicing apparatus consisting essentially of: a first roll assembly including coreshaft means rigidly assembled into a central core of said first roll and a second roll assembly including coreshaft means rigidly assembled into a central core of said second roll, a roll transport vehicular means, supporting an operative roll positioning means for rotatably engaging and positioning said second roll assembly into a predefined spatial relation to said dispensing first roll of material, a driving means for operatively controlling the rotation of said second roll assembly, an operative splicing and web-severing means attached to said roll transport vehicular means by a pair of articulated arm means, operative arm means supported by said roll transport vehicular means, to engage and remove said first roll assembly from said unwind device, said operative roll positioning means thereafter moving said second roll assembly into the former position of said first roll assembly in said unwind device, thereby converting said replacement second roll into a dispensing first roll.