Patent ID: 6843038

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a first supply roll for paying out a first elongated continuous structure made of flexible material; a second supply roll for paying out a second elongated continuous structure made of flexible material; a joining station comprising means for joining a respective portion of said first elongated continuous structure to a respective portion of said second elongated continuous structure; a dancer assembly comprising a weighted dancer roller that is supported on a shaft which is freely vertically displaceable along a slotted support column, said second elongated continuous structure being wrapped under and around a portion of said dancer roller, said dancer assembly being located between said second supply roll and said joining station; means for intermittently advancing said first elongated continuous structure along a first process pathway that passes through said joining station, each advance of said first elongated continuous structure being substantially the same distance and being separated in time by a dwell time, said joining means being operative during each dwell time; first and second rollers forming a nip located downstream of said dancer assembly and upstream of said joining station; means for guiding said second elongated continuous structure along a second process pathway, said second process pathway passing through said nip and said joining station, said first and second process pathways being mutually parallel downstream of said joining station; and a torque control device for applying an output torque to said first roller in a direction opposite to the direction of a load torque exerted on said first roller when said second elongated continuous structure is being pulled by said advancing first elongated continuous structure, the output torque having a magnitude sufficient to produce a desired tension in that portion of said second elongated continuous structure disposed between said nip and said joining station.