a frame 12 so as to provide unimpeded travel of the strands 14 to the feed unit 20 without tangling or chafing each ribbon strand 14 from the ribbon supply station 10 is threaded through the feed unit or curling apparatus 20 as shown in fig1 4 the feed unit 20 has a pair of drive or feed rollers 22 for each of the strands 14 the drive rollers have a nip engaging the flat ribbon to withdraw the strand 14 from the supply station 10 and feed it to a curl tube 30 the feed rollers 22 are mounted on a rack 18 having guide posts 16 for directing the ribbon strands into the nip of the feed rollers the guide posts 16 serve to separate the ribbon strands 14 and direct them to the feed rollers 22 without chafing or tangling the feed rollers 22 are elastomeric so as to provide a firm grip of the ribbon as it passes into the nip therebetween the number of feed roller sets 22 corresponds to the number of ribbon strands 14 so that each ribbon strand is positively fed from the ribbon supply to a curl tube the feed rollers 22 are individually controlled by control circuits 24 under the control of the tension regulator 42 as described more fully hereinafter in connection with fig3 and 4 from the feed rollers 22 the ribbon strands are fed to.