Alignment hole forming device for film laminating apparatus

Claim 1

In combination with a laminator for laminating a film onto a substrate and having substrate feed means for providing a substrate along a substrate transfer path, the substrate having positioning holes to assist in aligning the film thereon, film feeding means for providing the film from a continuously web along a film transfer path, bonding means to bond the film onto the substrate, cutting means positioned along the film transfer path for cutting the film to a length corresponding to the length of the substrate, and means to remove the laminated substrate from the bonding means, a punching apparatus for forming alignment holes in the film to correspond with the positioning holes in the substrate when the film is bonded onto the substrate, the punching apparatus comprising: a punching device provided adjacent to and controllably movable from a base position along the film transfer path to form said alignment holes in said film; a substrate dimension sensor means positioned along the substrate transfer path to determine the length of each substrate and to determine the location of the positioning holes from said length and the speed that the substrate is moved along the substrate transfer path; a control apparatus for setting the hole-forming positions of the film according to information provided by said substrate dimension sensor means; a displacing mechanism for moving the punching device to the hole-forming positions in response to output control signals from said control apparatus; and a punch starting sensor means provided adjacent to said substrate transfer path for controlling operation of said punching device upon detection of the leading edge of the substrate.