ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,421,069, issued on Sept. 23, was assigned to 3M Innovative Properties Co. (St. Paul, Minn.).
"Web splicer" was invented by Bradley H. Schulzetenberg (Eagan, Minn.) and Cory J. Cauwels (Woodbury, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An apparatus (100) for splicing a patterned web (108) is provided. The apparatus includes first and second unwind spindles (110, 114) engaging a new roll (112) of patterned web (108) and expiring roll (116) of patterned web, respectively, a first web indexing mechanism (104) capable of linearly translating the patterned web from the new roll (112) along its travel direction; a first clamp surface (129) that e...