Patent ID: 7204287

Claim:
A transfer device comprising: a housing; a supply roll rotatably mounted to the housing, the supply roll having a wound supply of liner wound thereon, the liner having an adhesive carrying surface with an adhesive provided thereon; a take-up roll rotatably mounted to the housing, the take-up roll having at least an end portion of the liner connected thereto such that rotation of the take-up roll in a take-up direction winds portions of the liner unwound from the supply roll onto the take-up roll; and an application head comprising: a plurality of rollers rotatable about substantially parallel axes spaced apart from one another; and a closed-loop belt trained about the plurality of rollers to provide a transfer surface facing outwardly of the device, the rotation of the rollers enabling the belt to travel around the rollers, a portion of the liner between the supply roll and the take-up roll being trained over the application head with the adhesive carrying surface facing outwardly of the device and the transfer surface of the belt engaging a backside surface of the liner opposite the adhesive carrying surface, the head being provided on the device to enable the adhesive to be transferred to a target substrate by engaging the adhesive carrying surface on the portion of the liner trained over the belt with the target substrate and applying pressure to bond the adhesive to the target substrate, and wherein the transfer device is a definite length transfer device and further comprises an advancer operatively connected to at least the take-up roll and configured to rotate the take-up roll in an indexing manner to affect the advancement of the liner so that after each advancement, a new portion of the liner is trained over the application head, the rotation of the take-up roll, the supply roll, and the plurality of rollers of the application head enabling advancement of the liner from the supply roll to the take-up roll with the belt traveling around the rollers of the application head to facilitate movement of the liner over the application head.