The application of hot melt material to substrates to form laminates in not new. One such patent is U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,660, (Forkert). In this patent, the pinch rollers advance the lamina toward two sensors. The substrate is sensed by a third sensor. When the sensors for the lamina, either 88 or 90 sense the lamina, the feed for the lamina stops and a scissors is actuated. The substrate is driven along a path toward the laminating rollers. After the scissors are actuated, rollers are actuated to advance the substrate. To make sure the substrate is not fed along the path too soon, the substrate is sensed by a third sensor. When the substrate is sensed, the lamina is conveyed and both the lamina and substrate are fed between the laminating rollers. Conventional control mechanisms, i.e., a microprocessor, are used to respond to sensor signals, actuate the scissors, and engage and disengage the clutch-controlled elements of the drive-train. The stopping and starting of the lamina and substrate render such a mechanism to be uneconomical for a hot melt feeder and carton laminator, which operate typically at 600 to 1000 feet per minute (182 meters to 305 meters per minute).
Another relevant patent is U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,510, (Wittrock, et al.), which discloses applying patches of reinforcement material to a web. The patch material is coated with a hot melt adhesive and is advanced to a phasing means, such as vacuum anvil roll 54 (column 5, lines 7 and 8) which provides a selected spatial segregation between the individual patches, and assembling means, such as a stomper roll, which adhesively secures the segregated patches onto selected spaced regions of the moving web layer. Indexing means such as a pull-back roll, selectively displaces the coated substrate material from the knife roll when an assembly feed roll is disengaged from the substrate material. The knife roll, which cuts the patch material after it is on the anvil vacuum roll, acts in response to an indexing means, such as pull-back roll, which selectively displaces the coated patch material from the knife roll when an assembly feed roll is disengaged from the patch material.