1. A process for unwinding a parent roll into multiple product rolls comprising:
unwinding a tissue web from a parent roll and conveying the tissue web downstream on a web transport apparatus at a tension, the web transport apparatus having a first side and a second opposite side, wherein a plurality of winding modules are positioned adjacent to the web transport apparatus, each winding module containing a mandrel extending across the web transport apparatus from the first side to the second side, the mandrels being consecutively positioned and fixed along the web transport apparatus and in operative association with a driving device, wherein each of the plurality of winding modules may independently engage and disengage the tissue web moving downstream without having to stop or slow the tissue web as it is conveyed downstream;
positioning a rotating mandrel adjacent to the transport apparatus for forming a nip between the web transport apparatus and the mandrel, the driving device driving the mandrel at a speed and the mandrel being positioned towards the transport apparatus at a nip pressure;
conveying the tissue web into the nip formed between the mandrel and the web transport apparatus so as to initiate winding of the web onto the mandrel; and
controlling at least one of the nip pressure, the incoming tension and the torque of the mandrel in order to control a roll bulk of a roll being wound.
2. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the roll bulk is controlled by controlling at least two of the nip pressure, the incoming tension and the torque of the mandrel.
3. A process as defined in claim 2, wherein the plurality of winding modules includes at least three winding modules that are positioned adjacent to the web transport apparatus and wherein during the process at substantially the same time, a core is located on a first mandrel of a first winding module, a roll of material is formed on a second mandrel of a second winding module and a wound roll is stripped from a third mandrel of a third winding module.
4. A process as defined in claim 3, wherein rolls are produced on the first mandrel having a first roll bulk and rolls are produced on the second mandrel having a second roll bulk and wherein the first roll bulk is different than the second roll bulk.
5. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the roll bulk of a roll being wound is controlled by controlling the nip pressure, the incoming tension and the torque of the mandrel.
6. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the process is capable and configured to produce wound rolls having a roll bulk of anywhere between about 3 ccg to about 13 ccg solely by controlling at least one of the nip pressure, the incoming tension and the torque of the mandrel.
7. A process as defined in claim 6, further comprising the step of cutting the tissue web after a rolled product is formed on the mandrel and wherein the tissue web is cut at a web tension of less than about 220 grams of force.
8. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the process is capable and configured to produce wound rolls having a roll bulk of anywhere between about 2 ccg to about 14 ccg solely by controlling at least one of the nip pressure, the incoming tension and the torque of the mandrel.
9. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the roll bulk is increased by decreasing nip pressure, decreasing incoming tension, or decreasing the torque of the mandrel.
10. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the roll bulk is decreased by increasing web tension, by increasing nip pressure, or by increasing the torque of the mandrel.
11. A process as defined in claim 1, further comprising the step of cutting the tissue web as a rolled product is finishing being formed on the mandrel and wherein the tissue web is cut at a web tension of less than about 220 grams of force based on a sheet width of 10.6 cm.
12. A process as defined in claim 11, further comprising the steps of:
cutting the tissue web after a rolled product is formed on the mandrel;
continuing to unwind the tissue web from the parent roll and conveying a leading edge of the tissue web downstream on the web transport apparatus; and
conveying the tissue web into a nip formed between the web transport apparatus and a second mandrel so as to initiate winding of the web on the second mandrel in a continuous manner such that a speed of the web transport apparatus remains substantially constant.
13. A process as defined in claim 1, further comprising the step of cutting the tissue web after a rolled product is formed on the mandrel and wherein the tissue web is cut at a web tension of less than about 190 grams of force based on a sheet width of 10.6 cm.
14. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the tissue web is conveyed on the web transport apparatus while being wound onto the mandrel at an average speed of from about 1500 feet per minute to about 3000 feet per minute.
15. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the roll bulk is controlled solely by varying nip pressure.
16. A process as defined in claim 1, further comprising the step of accelerating the mandrel to a rotation speed that substantially matches the speed of the web transport apparatus prior to forming the nip between the web transport apparatus and the mandrel.
17. A process as defined in claim 1, further comprising the step of placing a core onto the mandrel prior to positioning the mandrel adjacent to the transport apparatus, the tissue web being wound upon the core.
18. A process as defined in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
loading a core on the mandrel;
accelerating the mandrel to a desired rotation speed;
positioning the winding module to initiate contact between the rotating core and the tissue web; and
stripping the rolled product from the winding module.
19. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein winding on the mandrel is carried out by using a combination of center winding and surface winding, center winding occurring by driving the mandrel and surface winding occurring by positioning the mandrel towards the web transport apparatus at a controllable magnitude to create the nip pressure.
20. A process as defined in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
cutting the tissue web after a rolled product is formed on the mandrel;
continuing to unwind the tissue web from the parent roll and conveying a leading edge of the tissue web downstream on the web transport apparatus; and
conveying the tissue web into a nip formed between the web transport apparatus and a second mandrel so as to initiate winding of the web on the second mandrel in a continuous manner such that a speed of the web transport apparatus remains substantially constant.
21. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the transport apparatus comprises a conveyor belt, the conveyor belt comprising a vacuum conveyor belt for holding the tissue web against the surface of the conveyor belt as the web is conveyed downstream.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An optical recordingreproducing apparatus for recording, reproducing or erasing an information signal by converging a light flux ontofrom a recording layer through a transparent disc substrate, comprising:
(a) N optical heads, N being greater than or equal to 2, each comprising:
light emitting means,
objective lenses, whose aberrations have respectively been corrected for said N disc substrates having different thicknesses, each for converging the light flux which is emitted from the light emitting means onto the optical disc, and
a plurality of photo detecting means each for detecting the reflected light from the optical disc;
(b) N optical head moving means which are arranged below the optical disc and move the N optical heads in the radial direction of the optical disc;
(c) disc discriminating means for discriminating the thickness of the disc substrate of the loaded optical disc and for generating a discrimination signal in accordance with the result of the discrimination; and
(d) control means for selecting the optical head having the objective lens in which the occurrence of the aberration due to the disc substrate is smallest in accordance with the discrimination signal,
wherein the selected optical head records, reproduces or erases the information signal ontofrom the optical disc.
2. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising backward moving means for moving the non-selected optical heads to the outside of the optical disc for a period of time when the optical head which has been selected by the control means is recording, reproducing, or erasing the information signal.
3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said disc discriminating means comprises:
a cartridge for enclosing the optical disc;
a discrimination hole which is formed on the cartridge and whose openingclosing state differs in correspondence to the thickness of the disc substrate of the optical disc; and
detecting means for detecting the openingclosing state of the discrimination hole and for generating a discrimination signal.
4. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said disc discriminating means comprises:
a cartridge for enclosing the optical disc;
a discrimination hole which is formed on the cartridge and whose openingclosing state differs in correspondence to the thickness of the disc substrate of the optical disc; and
detecting means for detecting the openingclosing state of the discrimination hole and for generating a discrimination signal.
5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein numerical apertures of at least two or more of said N objective lenses differ.
6. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein numerical apertures of at least two or more of said N objective lenses differ.
7. An optical recordingreproducing apparatus for recording, reproducing or erasing an information signal by converging a light flux ontofrom a recording layer through a transparent disc substrate, comprising:
(a) an optical head having N, N being greater than or equal to 2, converging optical systems each comprising:
light emitting means,
objective lenses, whose aberrations have respectively been corrected for said N disc substrates having different thicknesses, each for converging the light flux which is emitted from the light emitting means onto the optical disc, and
a plurality of photo detecting means each for detecting the reflected light from the optical disc;
(b) optical head moving means which is arranged below the optical disc and moves the optical head in the radial direction of the optical disc;
(c) disc discriminating means for discriminating the thickness of the disc substrate of the loaded optical disc and for generating a discrimination signal in accordance with the result of the discrimination; and
(d) control means for allowing the light emitting means, which belongs to the converging optical system in which the occurrence of the aberration due to the disc substrate is smallest in accordance with the discrimination signal, to emit light,
wherein the selected converging optical system records, reproduces or erases the information signal ontofrom the optical disc.
8. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said disc discriminating means comprises:
a cartridge for enclosing the optical disc;
a discrimination hole which is formed on the cartridge and whose openingclosing state differs in correspondence to the thickness of the disc substrate of the optical disc; and
detecting means for detecting the openingclosing state of the discrimination hole and for generating a discrimination signal.
9. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein numerical apertures of at least two or more of said N objective lenses differ.
10. An optical recordingreproducing apparatus for recording, reproducing or erasing an information signal by converging a light flux ontofrom a recording layer through a transparent disc substrate, comprising:
(a) an optical head including:
light emitting means,
light flux dividing means which are arranged in the light flux from the emitting means and divide the emitted light flux into N, N being greater than or equal to 2, light fluxes and deflect in different directions,
N objective lenses, whose aberrations have respectively been corrected for said N disc substrates having different thicknesses, for respectively converging said N light fluxes onto the optical disc,
light flux selecting means for selecting one of the N light fluxes divided by the light flux dividing means and for allowing said light flux to pass, and
photo detecting means for detecting the light fluxes reflected by the optical disc;
(b) optical head moving means which is arranged below the optical disc and moves the optical head in the radial direction of the optical disc;
(c) disc discriminating means for discriminating the thickness of the disc substrate of the loaded optical disc and for generating a discrimination signal in accordance with the result of the discrimination; and
(d) control means for generating a control signal to the light flux selecting means in accordance with the discrimination signal and for selecting the light flux which passes through the objective lens in which the occurrence of the aberration due to the disc substrate is smallest,
wherein the optical head records, reproduces or erases the information signal ontofrom the optical disc by the selected light flux.
11. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said disc discriminating means comprises:
a cartridge for enclosing the optical disc;
a discrimination hole which is formed on the cartridge and whose openingclosing state differs in correspondence to the thickness of the disc substrate of the optical disc; and
detecting means for detecting the openingclosing state of the discrimination hole and for generating a discrimination signal.
12. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein numerical apertures of at least two or more of said N objective lenses differ.
13. An optical recordingreproducing apparatus for recording, reproducing or erasing an information signal by converging a light flux ontofrom a recording layer through a transparent disc substrate, comprising:
(a) an optical head including:
an optical waveguide formed on a substrate,
N light emitting means each for emitting a waveguide light into said optical waveguide, N being greater than or equal to 2,
N converging grating couplers, whose aberrations have respectively been corrected for said N disc substrates having different thicknesses, each for emitting the waveguide light supplied from said N light emitting means to the outside of the optical waveguide and for allowing the reflected light from the optical disc to enter, and
N photo detecting means each for detecting reflected light and for generating an information signal;
(b) optical head moving means which is arranged below the optical disc and moves the optical head in the radial direction of the optical disc;
(c) selecting means for selecting the light emitting means to be allowed to emit the light from among the N emitting means;
(d) disc discriminating means for discriminating the thickness of the disc substrate of the loaded optical disc and for generating a discrimination signal according to the result of the discrimination; and
(e) control means for generating a control signal in accordance with the discrimination signal, for providing said control signal to said selecting means and for allowing the light emitting means for emitting the waveguide light into the converging grating coupler in which the occurrence of the aberration due to the disc substrate is smallest,
wherein the optical head records, reproduces or erases the information signal ontofrom the optical disc by the light flux from the selected light emitting means.
14. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said disc discriminating means comprises:
a cartridge for enclosing the optical disc;
a discrimination hole which is formed on the cartridge and whose openingclosing state differs in correspondence to the thickness of the disc substrate of the optical disc; and
detecting means for detecting the openingclosing state of the discrimination hole and for generating a discrimination signal.
15. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein numerical apertures of at least two or more of the N converging grating couplers differ.
16. An optical recordingreproducing apparatus for recording, reproducing or erasing an information signal by converging a light flux ontofrom a recording layer through a transparent disc substrate, comprising:
(a) an optical head including:
an optical waveguide formed on a substrate,
light emitting means for emitting a waveguide light into said optical waveguide,
light flux dividing means for dividing the waveguide light emitted from the light emitting means into N divided waveguide lights, N being greater than or equal to 2,
said N converging grating couplers, whose aberrations have respectively been corrected for said N disc substrates having different thicknesses, each for emitting each of said N divided waveguide lights to the outside of the optical waveguide and for allowing the reflected light from the optical disc to enter, and
N photo detecting means for respectively detecting said reflected lights from the N converging grating couplers and for generating information signals;
(b) optical head moving means which is arranged below the optical disc and moves the optical head in the radial direction of the optical disc;
(c) output switching means for selecting and outputting one of the output signals of said N photo detecting means;
(d) disc discriminating means for discriminating the thickness of the disc substrate of the loaded optical disc and for generating a discrimination signal in accordance with the result of the discrimination; and
(e) control means for generating a control signal to the output switching means in accordance with the discrimination signal and for selecting the photo detecting means into which the waveguide light enters from the converging grating coupler in which the occurrence of the aberration due to the disc substrate is smallest.
17. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said disc discriminating means comprises:
a cartridge for enclosing the optical disc;
a discrimination hole which is formed on the cartridge and whose openingclosing state differs in correspondence to the thickness of the disc substrate of the optical disc; and
detecting means for detecting the openingclosing state of the discrimination hole and for generating a discrimination signal.
18. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein numerical apertures of at least two or more of the N converging grating couplers differ.
19. An optical recordingreproducing apparatus for recording, reproducing or erasing an information signal by converging a light flux ontofrom a recording layer through a transparent disc substrate, comprising:
(a) an optical head including:
an optical waveguide formed on a substrate,
light emitting means for emitting a waveguide light into said optical waveguide,
optical path switching means which is arranged on an optical path of said waveguide light and switches the propagating direction of the waveguide light in N directions in accordance with a control signal, N being greater than or equal to 2,
N converging grating couplers, whose aberrations having respectively been corrected for said N disc substrates having different thicknesses and which are respectively arranged in said N propagating directions which are switched by said optical path switching means and emit the waveguide light to the outside of the optical waveguide and allow the reflected light from the optical disc to enter, and
photo detecting means for detecting the reflected light and generating an information signal;
(b) waveguide head moving means which is arranged below the optical disc and moves the optical head in the radial direction of the optical disc;
(c) disc discriminating means for discriminating the thickness of the disc substrate of the loaded optical disc and for generating the discrimination; and
(d) control means for generating a control signal to the optical path switching means in accordance with the discrimination signal and for switching the propagating direction of the waveguide light from the light emitting means to the direction of the converging grating coupler in which the occurrence of the aberration due to the disc substrate is smallest,
wherein the optical head records, reproduces or erases the information signal ontofrom the optical disc by the light flux emitted from the selected converging grating coupler.
20. An apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said optical path switching means combines deflecting means for changing the propagating direction of the waveguide light by a deflection angle according to a input signal,
and wherein said apparatus comprises:
tracking error detecting means for detecting a tracking error amount of a converged spot which has been converged onto the optical disc and for generating a tracking error signal; and
tracking control means for changing the input signal to the deflecting means in accordance with said tracking error signal and for eliminating the tracking error of the converged spot.
21. An apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said disc discriminating means comprises:
a cartridge for enclosing the optical disc;
a discrimination hole which is formed on the cartridge and whose openingclosing state differs in correspondence to the thickness of the disc substrate of the optical disc; and
detecting means for detecting the openingclosing state of the discrimination hole and for generating a discrimination signal.
22. An apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said disc discrimination means comprises:
a cartridge for enclosing the optical disc;
a discrimination hole which is formed on the cartridge and whose openingclosing state differs in correspondence to the thickness of the disc substrate of the optical disc; and
detecting means for detecting the openingclosing state of the discrimination hole and for generating a discrimination signal.
23. An apparatus according to claim 19, wherein numerical apertures of at least two or more of the N converging grating couplers differ.
24. An apparatus according to claim 20, wherein numerical apertures of at least two or more of the N converging grating couplers differ.
25. An optical recordingreproducing apparatus for recording, reproducing or erasing an information signal ontofrom any one of N types (where N\u22672) of optical discs having first layers of different thicknesses, each type of said optical discs having at least said first layer being transparent and a second layer for storing information, by converging a light flux onto said second layer through said first layer of one of said N types of optical discs loaded in said apparatus said apparatus comprising:
a composite converging optical device comprising:
(i) a light emitting means for emitting said light flux;
(ii) a converging means for converging said light flux on said second layer of said one of said N optical discs loaded in said apparatus; and
(iii) an optical wave front transforming means disposed in an optical path connecting said light emitting means and said converging means for correcting an optical wave front of the light flux,
wherein said composite converging optical device (a) performs aberration correction in correspondence with said first layer of said loaded one of said N optical discs, and (b) converges said light flux as a smaller spot diameter D with respect to one of said optical discs having a thinner one of said substrates onto said second layer of said loaded optical disc,
wherein said composite converging optical device differently corrects the optical wave front of the light flux in correspondence with said different thickness of said N optical discs to provide said aberration correction and said converging of said light flux, and
wherein a thickness of each of said first layers of said N types of optical discs is about 1.2 mm or less.
26. An optical recordingreproducing system comprising:
(a) an optical recordingreproducing apparatus for recording, reproducing or erasing an information signal ontofrom any selected one of N types (where N\u22672) of optical discs having first layers of different thicknesses, each type of said optical discs having at least said light layer being transparent and a second layer for storing information, by converging a light flux on said second layer through said first layer of one of said N types of optical discs loaded in said apparatus, said apparatus comprising:
a composite converging optical device, which comprises:
(i) a light emitting means for emitting said light flux;
(ii) a converging means for converging said light flux on said second layer of said loaded one of said N optical discs; and
(iii) an optical wave front transforming means disposed in an optical path connecting said light emitting means and said converging means for correcting an optical wave front of the light flux;
a photo detecting means for detecting reflective light from said one of said N optical discs,
wherein said composite conversing optical device (a) performs aberration correction in correspondence with said first layer of said loaded one of said N optical discs and (b) converges said light flux as a spot with a smaller diameter D with respect to one of said optical discs having a thinner one of said substrates onto said second layer of said loaded optical disc,
wherein said composite converging optical device differently corrects the optical wave front of the light flux in correspondence with said different thickness of said N optical discs to provide said aberration correction and said converging of said light flux, and
wherein a thickness of each of said transparent substrates of said N types of optical discs is about 1.2 mm or less;
(b) a signal processing means, responsive to one of (i) a reproduction signal, corresponding to said information signal, from said photo detecting means and (ii) receipt of recording data, corresponding to said information signal, for recording on said disk, for generating an output signal corresponding to said information signal for performing one of a reproducing operation and a recording operation on said disks; and
(c) a system controlling means coupled to said signal processing means for controlling generation of the output signal of said signal processing means.
27. An apparatus according to claim 25 wherein said composite converging optical device has different numerical apertures, and the light flux is converged as a spot with a smaller diameter D by employing a larger one of said numerical apertures.
28. An optical recordingreproducing apparatus as in claim 25, wherein each of said first layers comprises a transparent substrate.
29. An optical recordingreproducing system as in claim 26, wherein each of said first layers comprises a transparent substrate.
30. An optical recordingreproducing system according to claim 26 wherein said composite converging optical device has different numerical apertures, and the light flux is converged as a spot with a smaller diameter D by employing a larger one of said numerical apertures.
31. A system comprising:
(a) an optical recordingreproducing apparatus for recording, reproducing or erasing an information signal ontofrom any selected one of N types (where N\u22672) of optical discs having first layers of different thicknesses, each type of said optical discs having at least said light layer being transparent and a second layer for storing information, by converging a light flux on said second layer through said first layer of one of said N types of optical discs loaded in said apparatus, said apparatus comprising:
a composite converging optical device, which comprises:
(i) a light emitting means for emitting said light flux;
(ii) a converging means for converging said light flux on said second layer of said loaded one of said N optical discs; and
(iii) an optical wave front transforming means disposed in an optical path connecting said light emitting means and said converging means for correcting an optical wave front of the light flux;
a photo detecting means for detecting reflective light from said one of said N optical discs,
wherein said composite conversing optical device (a) performs aberration correction in correspondence with said first layer of said loaded one of said N optical discs and (b) converges said light flux as a spot with a smaller diameter D with respect to one of said optical discs having a thinner one of said substrates onto said second layer of said loaded optical disc,
wherein said composite converging optical disc differently corrects the optical wave front of the light flux in correspondence with said different thickness of said N optical discs to provide said aberration correction and said converging of said light flux, and
wherein a thickness of each of said transparent substrates of said N types of optical discs is about 1.2 mm or less;
(b) a signal processing apparatus including:
signal processing means, responsive to one of (i) a reproduction signal, corresponding to said information signal, from said photo detecting means and (ii) receipt of recording data, corresponding to said information signal, for recording on said disk, for generating an output signal corresponding to said information signal for performing one of a reproducing operation and a recording operation on said disks; and
system controlling means coupled to said signal processing means for controlling generation of the output signal of said signal processing means.
32. An apparatus according to claim 25, further comprising a disc discrimination means for discriminating the thickness of the first layer of the disc and for generating a discrimination signal in accordance with a result of the discrimination; and a controlling means for causing the composite converging optical device to converge the light flux as a spot with a particular diameter to minimize aberration due to the first layer in accordance with said disc discrimination signal.
33. A system according to claim 26, wherein said optical recordingreproducing apparatus further comprises a disc discrimination means for discriminating the thickness of the first layer of the disc and for generating a discrimination signal in accordance with a result of the discrimination; and a controlling means for causing the composite converging optical device to converge the light flux as a spot with a particular diameter to minimize aberration due to the first layer in accordance with said disc discrimination signal.
34. An apparatus according to claim 31, further comprising a disc discrimination means for discriminating the thickness of the first layer of the disc and for generating a discrimination signal in accordance with a result of the discrimination; and a controlling means for causing the composite converging optical device to converge the light flux as a spot with a particular diameter to minimize aberration due to the first layer in accordance with said disc discrimination signal.
35. A system as in claim 31, wherein each of said first layers comprises a transparent substrate.