Joseph Zhongqi Sun

44604300, Jul 17, 1984

Sep 2, 1982

6/414228

John J. Kissell - Dunwoody GA
Joseph C. Sun - Lawrenceville GA

AT&T Technologies, Inc. - New York NY

B31F 506
B65H 6906

156504

In an accumulating and a splicing apparatus (30), a nearly exhausted tape (31) is advanced at a line speed along a path which extends between two groups (49, 51) of rollers. One of the groups of rollers is moved upwardly to a position above the other group of rollers and a length of the nearly exhausted tape is accumulated in a sinusoidal path just prior to splicing. The nearly exhausted tape is clamped at an input side of the accumulator after which a severing device (104) is moved transversely across that tape to form a trailing end portion. The severing device is allowed to be spring-returned to a position above the nearly exhausted tape and to one side thereof which permits joining facilities to carry a leading end of a tape (35) of a new supply downwardly to be spliced to the trailing end portion of the nearly exhausted tape. While in a raised position, the severing device is moved back across the path of the nearly exhausted tape and caused to be moved downwardly to engage a supporting surface in preparation for another cycle. Meanwhile, the elevated group of rollers is moved downwardly at a speed which is controlled to decrease and to be less than the line speed to cause the new tape to be accelerated substantially linearly to the line speed.