SK397A3 - Packaging material, packaging pad and machine for manufacturing packaging material - Google Patents

Abstract

A packaging material comprises a base sheet (4; 148a, 148b) of unexpandable material such as paper and a second sheet (6 or 8; 112a, 112b or 112c) of expandable material such as paper, the second sheet having a number of rows of longitudinally spaced slits with the slits of one row offset from the slits of an adjacent row and being secured, in its expanded condition, to the base sheet. A packaging pad may comprise outer layers of unexpandable material with at least one layer of expanded material therebetween. The invention also provides a machine for use in manufacture of the material.

Description

Packing material, buffering pad and device for producing packing material

Technical field

The invention relates to packaging material used to protect fragile goods during transport.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Packaging material known from US-PS 2 294 478 and US-PS 4 105

724 forms a web of sheet material, in particular paper, provided with a plurality of transverse rows of slits spaced longitudinally apart from each other, the slits of one row being offset from the slits of an adjacent row. If the web is subjected to longitudinal tensile forces, the sheet material will stretch as metal is drawn upon opening of the slits, resulting in uncut fields that are inclined from the plane of the belt and increase the thickness of the sheet material, which can then be used in the packaging as shock absorbing material. This material is commonly referred to as a stretchable material of this kind.

The strips, sheets or cuttings of such material can then be used in a variety of ways, but since, after releasing the tensile stress of the notches, they attempt to close again due to the elasticity of the material, the sheet material returns more or less to its original planar shape. Therefore, it is essential that the cut off of the sheet material to be wrapped around the article to be protected is kept under tension. Difficulties are also associated with the use of sheet material of this kind as packaging means to serve as a filler or to be placed under or around the protected product.

It is also known from US-PS 3,306,513 to spray the expansive sheet material with a suitable liquid, which may advantageously also be a fire-resistant impregnation which keeps the sheet material in the expanded state after drying and can then be used as a shock absorber even when laid flat. This spray, however, creates rigid planar formations, thus reducing the benefits of soft damping material and, moreover, introduces the possibility of undesirable chemicals being present in the packaging technology.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The drawbacks of these known materials are overcome by the packaging material according to the invention, characterized in that the packaging material comprises a base layer of non-extensible material and a second layer of extensible sheet material, the second layer of extensible sheet material is provided with a row of longitudinally spaced notches. the notches of one row offset from the notches of an adjacent row, and is secured in the base layer in its expanded state.

The term non-extensible is used in this specification to denote a material that cannot be expanded in the sense of its use in the present invention, but not in a general sense. In particular, it is meant to be less extensible than the extensible material for the aforementioned purposes.

In its simplest form, the invention can be practiced from a web or sheet of stretchable material of the type, for example, unbleached kraft paper having a suitable weight, for example between 45 to 150 grams per square meter, in which rows of short cuts are formed. adjacent the row, stretching the web in the longitudinal direction to open the notches, and securing the stretched paper in this state by attaching it to another web of unstretched kraft paper having a similar density.

The second layer may be bonded to the base layer in any suitable manner, for example by means of an adhesive, but preferably the two layers are joined together by a physical method that does not employ additional components, for example by compression molding or by pressure welding.

Thus, the bilayer sheet material of the invention may have a thickness of about ten times the thickness of one strip and is maintained in this expanded state permanently. It can therefore be used as packaging material without the need for further special steps to ensure its expanded state, and for example, one or more pieces of such material can be placed on a support and then a brittle object can be deposited thereon.

The packaging sheet according to the invention preferably comprises a plurality of layers of stretch material, for example two layers, more preferably three or more layers, which are also fixed to the base layer in their expanded state. In this way, it is relatively easy to achieve a significant increase in the thickness of the material and thereby increase its impact-absorbing capacity. It is preferred that one of the layers of stretch material has the opposite orientation. In this embodiment, the raised regions on one layer try to wedge into the openings of the adjacent layer and thereby increase the stability of the packaging material.

Otherwise, another layer of non-extensible material may be used, wherein the extensible material is then sandwiched between two layers of non-extensible material.

The outer surface or areas of non-extensible material may be printed, for example, by labeling the contents, the name of the manufacturer or vendor, or warnings, warnings, and the like.

The packaging material according to the invention can be wound into packages from which the necessary cuttings can be unwound and separated, or the material can be supplied in predetermined lengths.

The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing a packaging material, which comprises introducing a first sheet of sheet material, a second sheet of sheet material, and forming a system of short cuts perpendicular to their longitudinal direction, with adjacent cuts in the longitudinal direction. are formed with a displacement in the longitudinal direction relative to the notches of the adjacent row, and then the second layer is bonded to the first layer of sheet material while applying tensile stress.

The invention also relates to an apparatus for carrying out the method, comprising a first supply means for supplying a first non-stretchable layer, a second supply means for supplying a second material provided with longitudinally spaced sets of longitudinally spaced apart portions, are disposed opposite the notches of the adjacent row, a means for feeding one and the other layers into continuous contact as they are withdrawn from the respective supply sources, and a locking device for joining the two layers together with the first layer in an expanded state.

The feed device preferably comprises receiving elements for receiving bales of expandable and non-expandable material. However, if desired, the support elements may be adapted to support bales of non-extensible material. The apparatus is provided with cutting tools to form slits in a web of sheet material drawn from one of the bales to provide a supply of expanding material.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the apparatus comprises a first withdrawal device for unwinding the first material from the first storage device and a second withdrawal device for unwinding the second material from the second storage device, the first withdrawal device operating at a peripheral speed greater than the peripheral speed of the second withdrawal device.

The second draw-off device preferably comprises rollers spaced apart and provided with a surface which is at least to some extent resiliently deformable.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the device comprises a stretching device adapted to apply tensile stress to the second sheet material after leaving the withdrawing device.

The stretching device preferably comprises rollers adapted to receive the second sheet material and to expand it during withdrawal from the withdrawing device. The rollers are provided on the periphery with a plurality of radially extending projections extending into the notches. These protrusions are preferably bristles arranged radially at the periphery of the roll. However, the rollers of the expanding device are preferably toothed and their teeth pass through openings resulting from the expansion of the sheet material and expanding the material from the pulling elements at a speed greater than the working speed of the pulling means for pulling the second material from the second storage device.

The teeth are most preferably triangular in shape and each circumferential row of teeth is spaced apart from the adjacent row, and in particular the two cylinders are offset so that the teeth on one cylinder are located in the axial direction directly opposite the gap between two adjacent circumferential rows of teeth of the other.

The roller spacing is preferably such that there is little or no diametral gap between the rims of the teeth of the two rollers.

One of the rollers is provided with a drive device and the other roller is idle and rotates by engaging the teeth into the slits in the stretch sheet material as it is pulled by a roller-driven stretcher. This minimizes the problem of synchronizing the operation of the two toothed rollers.

The stretching device is adapted to pass the sheet material at a rate substantially similar to the working speed, which is the first draw-off device which is fed non-extensible material from its storage device.

The two sheets of sheet material are brought into continuous contact immediately before entering the gap of the expanding device or immediately after the expansive material has exited the expanding device.

In yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the locking device is located downstream of the gap in the expanding device. The locking device is adapted to hold the sheets of sheet material together along the longitudinal lines, at least two of which are located adjacent the edge regions of the sheets of sheet material.

The locking device is preferably provided with scoring compression elements. The device is also provided with support elements for supporting the sheet material between the stretching device and the locking device.

The device in a further preferred embodiment comprises a device for supplying further extensible sheet material and in particular an additional supply means for supplying further non-extensible material, the structures and arrangements being such that the layers of extensible material are fed to the expanding device together and in contact with at least one non-extensible layer. material. If desired, the expansive web is guided by the expanding means together with the expanding webs clamped between the non-expanding webs as the securing device passes. In another preferred embodiment, the strips of non-stretchable material are passed through the stretcher together with one stretch of stretchable material when passing between the stretch rollers, and another of the strips of stretchable material is brought into continuous contact with a plurality of strips of sheet material after passing through the stretcher and before passing through the securing device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a packaging material in a preferred embodiment, part of which is separated to expose the inner layers; FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an apparatus for producing such packaging material; FIG. Fig. 3 is a view of a pattern of notches formed on the sheet material as it passes between a pair of cutting rollers; Fig. 4 is a front view of a pair of crimping rollers used in the manufacture of a preferred embodiment of the material taken along lines 4-4 of Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a schematic side view of a device representing a preferred embodiment of the device according to the invention; Fig. 6 is a side view of the expansion device and the coupling device of the device on an enlarged scale; 7 is a front view taken in the direction of the arrow B of FIG. 5, to two cylinders of the expander, and FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of strips of material passing through the expander.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The packaging material, representing a preferred embodiment of the invention, comprises three layers 4, 6, 8.

of unbleached kraft paper stored on respective storage units, which in this exemplary embodiment are packs 5, 7, 9 (FIG. 2). The two layers 6, 8 are guided between two pairs of cutting rollers 10, 12, by means of which a set of notches 13 is formed in both layers 6, 8. The cutting rollers 10, 12 simultaneously form a pulling device for pulling the sheet material from the storage device formed balmi 7, 9.

The notches 13 are formed in both layers 6, 8 in an arrangement in the pattern shown in FIG. 3, which comprises a series of notches 13, wherein the notches 13 in each row x extend in one common line and parallel to the notches 13 in the adjacent row y, each notch 13 extending across the length and each notch 13 being displaced in the transverse direction from the adjacent notch 13 in the longitudinal direction. A sheet of this kind occurs, as is known in the art, under the action of a longitudinal tensile stress in the direction of the arrow A in FIG. 3 to open the notches 13 and the material increases in thickness by the individual material sheets between the notches bending towards the plane of the sheet material and thereby allowing its use as a damping material.

After the sheets 6, 8 of the sheet material have been exposed to the cutting rollers 10, 12, the two sheets are pressed together and pass between another pair of rollers 14, 16.

forming an expanding device of the device, which rotate at a higher speed than the cutting rollers 10, 12 to expand both layers 4, 6 and open the notches 13, as already mentioned. Immediately, the two layers 4, 6 are then combined with a kraft paper strip that is not cut and therefore not stretched and passes through a pair of scoring or crimping rollers 18, 20 by which the two layers 4, 6 are compressed along the edge regions 19a. 19b to the third layer 8, wherein the third layer 8 keeps the two first layers 4, 6 in a tensioned state and thus in their stretched state.

The crimping rollers 18, 20 form a pulling device for pulling the sheet material out of the stock 5.

As shown in FIG. 2, the paper is pulled out of the bales 7, in mutually opposite senses, that is to say that the faces of the paper face each other in opposite directions. In this orientation, when the web is stretched, the tabs formed between the slots tilt in opposite directions and while trying to fit together, on the other hand, they do not have the possibility to snap as deeply as if the paper was guided in the same orientation.

If at least two layers are used to form damping sheet materials, the individual strips are oriented with their face side in two mutually opposite directions.

The packaging material thus formed can then be wound onto a roll from which the necessary strip length can be unwound and cut as necessary. If the wrapping material is to be cut into parts, it is advantageous to use work operations combining cutting with a paper cutter with pressure edges, so that the ends are sealed by the edges in the same way as the lateral welding of the cut damping insert. This prevents the damping pad from decreasing the efficiency of the damping insert, which could occur when the inner layers are relaxed in the end regions.

If desired, it would be possible to produce further longitudinally welded welds or welds extending between the end regions of the sheet material, for example, two very closely adjacent welds may be formed which may be positioned midway between the edges, the sheet material being subsequently cut with e.g. which is guided between the two central weld joints to form two strips of sheet material with half width.

While the packaging material with this preferred embodiment of the invention comprises two layers of stretch material and one layer of non-stretch material, it is preferable to use a sheet material with three or more layers of stretch material, and in some cases it is preferred that the stretch material is sandwiched between two layers non-stretchable material. In these circumstances, the crimping rollers 18, 20 form a draw-off device for both layers of non-extensible material.

The non-extensible material may be smooth or may be printed with appropriate information, warnings, logo, trademarks, names and the like.

In a preferred embodiment, the material manufacturing apparatus is provided with a housing 106 which includes, in its base part, an assembly unit 108 comprising assembly elements 108a. 108b. 108c and the axes 109 on which the balls 110a can be mounted. 110b. 110c of paper or the like.

In operation of this device, a preferred embodiment of the invention, the material is deposited on the mounting elements 108a, 108b. 108c pre-cut as described above. The length sections of the sheet material to be fed 112a. 112b. 112c are fed face-to-face into a draw-off device 116 formed in the form of a pair of driven rollers 118a. 118b having a rubber-coated surface and adapted to feed the three-layer material 120 of FIG. 1 towards the expanding device 122.

In FIG. 5 shows a solution in which the sheet material 112a, 112c is withdrawn from the first pack 110a and the third pack 110c in the same orientation of its face side, while from the second pack 119b the sheet material 112b is withdrawn in the opposite orientation.

The device is equipped with a stretching device 122 formed by the upper cylinder 124a and the lower cylinder 124b. each of which is provided with circumferential rows of teeth having a triangular shape in cross section, as is clear from FIG. 6, but which have a rectangular shape in longitudinal section, as is clear from FIG. 7. The tooth circumferential rows 126a - 126z are spaced apart from each other on the upper cylinder 124a, and the lower cylinder 124b peripheral rows 127a - 127z are longitudinally displaced such that each row 127a - 127z is spaced apart from the gap between adjacent pairs of rows 126a, 126b, for example. vice versa.

The pitch distance between the rims of the upper roller 124a and the lower roller 124b is zero or close to zero.

The rollers of the stretching device 122 operate at a peripheral speed greater than the peripheral speed of the pull-off driven rollers 118a. 118b. so that when the three layers of stretch material pass from the driven rollers 118a. 118b between the expanding rollers, the material expands in the longitudinal direction and the notches formed therein open and form sloping uncut surfaces as with known materials of this kind. The teeth 125 of the lower cylinder 124b enter the holes formed in the lower layer of sheet material and extend the material through the expanding device. At the same time, the teeth 126 of the upper cylinder 124a penetrate into the holes formed in the upper sheet of sheet material and cause all three sheets of sheet material to partially penetrate into each other, as shown in FIG. This phenomenon is due to a reversal of the orientation of the intermediate sheet 112b. The engagement of the teeth 126 into the holes in the upper layer of the sheet material 122a is caused by the rotation of the upper roller 124a, thereby eliminating the problem of running synchronization. If desired, however, the upper roller 124a can also be driven synchronously with the lower roller 124b.

In an alternative embodiment to the rollers provided with teeth, the rollers may be provided with bristles distributed around the circumference of the rollers, wherein the expansion material is fed between the bristles. In this case, the bristles easily penetrate the slits and penetrate the openings resulting from the expansion of the slits and the tilting of the uncut surfaces from the plane of the surface of the material, the bristles having a degree of flexibility so that they deform before they can cause the sheet material to tear. Under these conditions, the bristles are preferably arranged on the peripheral surfaces of each roller at a relatively high density so that at each moment a group of bristles pass through the openings in the sheet material so that the spreading force on the sheet material spreads over a larger area and thereby reduces paper tearing. .

In a preferred embodiment, the bristles are arranged on the periphery of the roller or each roller on strips of carrier material of relatively narrow width, which are fixed to the periphery of the roller in a helical shape. By spacing the two rollers a short distance apart so that the bristles of the two systems interfere with each other, adequate penetration of the bristles into the openings in the sheet material is ensured.

By providing suitable bristle flexibility, the bristles, which are not necessary to penetrate the notches of the sheet material, are bent into a dysfunctional position and abut on the surface when the sheet material passes between the two rollers.

The bristles may be natural, such as those used in brushes, but of course they may also be made of synthetic material, for example plastic or rubber.

Around the rollers 124a. 124b and around the support rollers 130a.

130b, support elements in the form of rubber bands 132a are guided. 132b. supporting the expandable sheet material as it is further guided from the expanding device and exerting a certain guiding effect which substantially prevents the sheet material from shrinking back.

The apparatus representing a preferred embodiment of the invention further comprises mounting units 140 equipped with supports 142a. 142b for rollers on which the respective packages 146a, 146b with non-extensible material, for example kraft paper, are deposited. Immediately downstream of the expanding material exit from the stretching device 122, a locking device 150 in the form of a pair of intermeshing notching rollers 152a is disposed in the direction of belt travel. 152b. adapted to compress the lateral edge regions of the sheet material.

The strips 148a are brought into direct contact to the top and bottom of the composite stretch sheet. 148b of the non-stretchable sheet material immediately after leaving the support rolls 130a. 130b and the five sheets of sheet material are guided by a locking device 150 which acts on at least one but in particular both edge regions of the composite sheet material. Such joining of the expanding layers of material into the sheet sheet with the non-expanding bands prevents any longitudinal displacements of the expanding material that could occur if the expanding material had the freedom to shrink back into the unstretched state.

Thus, the existence of two layers of non-extensible sheet material keeps the core of the extensible material taut and thus allows the damping capability to be maintained when used as a damping material.

In some cases, however, it is possible to act to retain backward shrinkage by using only a single layer of non-extensible material, i.e. one of the two bales 142, 144 in FIG. 6 may be omitted.

In particular, under such conditions, the locking device 150 may act simultaneously to connect the layers of the sheet to each other in the midline extending in the longitudinal direction.

Similar to the example of FIG. 2, also in this preferred embodiment, the securing means constitutes a device for withdrawing the sheet material from the bales 146a, 146b. However, it is also possible to provide separate draw-off devices for each sheet of sheet material.

While in a preferred exemplary embodiment, the storage devices are provided by means of respective mounting elements to supply respective strips of expandable material and non-cut material, the device may alternatively be equipped with bales for supplying expandable material, such as five unbleached kraft paper packages, wherein the second feeder comprises, in addition to the mounting elements on three of the packages, cutters for three webs of sheet material, the webs being subjected to suitable cutting operations following removal from the bales and prior to guiding by the expander 122.

While in a preferred exemplary embodiment, both belts 148a. 148b of the non-extensible material contact the extensible web or multiple webs sequentially as the webs pass through the expansive device, in another embodiment, one of the webs may be brought into continuous contact before the expansive material passes through the expander. Under these conditions, the teeth of the adjacent rollers tend to induce undulation of the non-extensible material, since the material deforms when passing between the teeth as the teeth engage the holes formed in the expanded sheet material. In particular, however, no more layers than one are brought into continuous contact before being drawn into the expanding device.

It should be pointed out, however, that although the invention has been elucidated in the foregoing, with the aid of a sheet material provided with slits or slots arranged in a regular pattern consisting of mutually parallel slits that are displaced in adjacent rows in the longitudinal direction. It is also possible for the invention to utilize another notch arrangement, possibly with a plurality of randomly arranged notch assemblies, or such notches that allow the sheet material to expand under the action of tensile forces acting in the longitudinal direction of the web of such material. For example, it is possible to form a system of notches extending at an acute angle to the longitudinal axis of the strip so that the sheet material can be expanded by the tensile force even to the width of the strip.

The solution according to the invention has been described with the assumption that kraft paper is used for both the extensible material and the non-extensible material, but other materials as well as combinations of different types of materials can be used if desired.

The features of the material and the apparatus for producing the material contained in the foregoing description and shown in the accompanying drawings are described by their specific embodiments or by terms defining devices for providing the desired functions, or methods of manufacturing these materials to achieve the desired results and effects, by way of example, the materials and substances disclosed which could be used in the present invention, but all of these data may be varied, alone or in combination, within the range of technical equivalents to practice the invention in another form.

Claims (28)

PATENT CLAIMS Packaging material, characterized in that it comprises a base layer (4, 148a, 148b) of a non-extensible material and a second layer (6 or 8, 112a, 112b or 112c) of a stretchable sheet material, a second layer (6 or 8, 112a), 112b or 112c) of the stretchable sheet material is provided with a row of longitudinally spaced notches (13) in which the notches (13) of one row are offset from the notches (13) of the adjacent row and secured to the base layer in its extended state. Packaging material according to claim 1, characterized in that the base layer (4, 148) is made of paper and the second layer (6 or 8, 112) is made of paper equipped with a set of mutually parallel rows of notches (13), the notches (13). ) of one row (x) are offset from the notches (13) of the adjacent row (s). Packaging material according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the second layer (6 or 8) is fixed to the base layer (4) along the lateral edge regions (19a, 19b) by a physical method not employing additional components, in particular by notching. or by pressure welding. Packaging material according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it comprises a plurality of layers (6, 8, 112a, 112b, 112c) of expanding material fixed to the base layer (4, 148) in the stretched state. Packaging material according to claim 4, characterized in that adjacent layers (4, 6, 112a, 112b, 112c) of the expansive material have opposite directions to each other. Packaging material according to claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it comprises a further layer of non-extensible material (148) and the extensible material (112) is disposed between two layers of non-extensible material. A method for producing packaging material according to claims 1 to 10 6, characterized in that a first sheet (4, 148) of sheet material is supplied, a second layer (6 or 8), 112a, 112b, 112c) of the sheet material, and in this second layer (6 or 8, 112a, 112b, 112c) a set of short notches (13) perpendicular to its longitudinal direction is formed, the adjacent notches (13) in the longitudinal direction being formed with by shifting in the longitudinal direction, and the second layer (6 or 8, 112) is attached to the first sheet (4, 148) of the sheet material while applying a weight stress. Method according to claim 7, characterized in that the first and second sheets of sheet material are of paper A cushioning pad, comprising outer layers (148a, 148b) of non-extensible sheet material and at least one extensible sheet material (112) attached between the outer layers along the longitudinal edge regions in an expanded state, the layer or all the layers of stretch material are kept in a stretched state against longitudinal contraction. An apparatus for producing packaging material, characterized in that it comprises a first storage device (5, 142, 146) for supplying a first non-extensible layer (4); 148), second storage device (7, 9, 10, 12, 108, 109, 110) for feeding a second sheet (6, 8, 112) of sheet material provided with sets of longitudinal slits (13) formed at longitudinal spacing from each other, the slits (13) of one row (x) being offset from the slits (13) of the adjacent row ( y), a feed device (18, 20, 150) for bringing the first and second layers into continuous contact as they are withdrawn from the respective supply sources, and a locking device (18, 20, 150) for joining the two layers (4, 6, 8, 148) 112) together with the first layer in an expanded state. Apparatus according to claim 10, characterized in that it comprises a first withdrawal device (18, 20, 152) for unwinding the first material from the first storage device and a second withdrawal device (10, 12, 116) for unwinding the second material from the second storage device wherein the first withdrawal device (152) operates at a peripheral speed that is greater than the peripheral speed of the second withdrawal device (116). Apparatus according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that the second take-off device (116) comprises spaced rollers (118a, 118b). Apparatus according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that it comprises a stretching device (14, 16,122) adapted to apply tensile stress to the second sheet material after leaving the withdrawal device (10, 12, 116). Apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that the stretching device comprises rollers (124a, 124b) adapted to receive and expand the second sheet material during withdrawal from the pulling device (116). Apparatus according to claim 14, characterized in that the rollers (124a, 124b) of the stretching device are provided circumferentially with teeth (126) extending through holes resulting from the spreading of the sheet material and stretching the material from the pulling elements at a speed greater than the working speed of the pulling means pulling the second material from its spool mounted on the second mounting elements. Device according to claim 15, characterized in that the teeth (126) have a triangular cross-section. Apparatus according to claim 15 or 17, characterized in that each circumferential row of teeth is spaced and in particular the two rollers (124a, 124b) are offset relative to each other such that the teeth (126) on one roll (124a) are located in the axial direction directly opposite the gap between two adjacent circumferential rows of teeth (127) of the second cylinder (124b). Apparatus according to claim 15, 16 and 17, characterized in that the roller distance is such that there is little or no diametral gap between the tooth rims (125, 126) of the two rollers. Apparatus according to claims 15 to 18, characterized in that one of the rollers (124a) is equipped with a drive device and the other roller (124b) is idle. Device according to claim 13, characterized in that at least one of the rollers is provided with bristles extending radially from its periphery, the bristles pass through the apertures formed in the sheet material as it expands and pull the material away from the pulling device at a speed greater than the pulling speed. a device for withdrawing the second sheet material from their bales on the second assembly. Apparatus according to claims 14 to 20, characterized in that the expanding device (122) is adapted to pass the sheet material at a speed substantially similar to the operating speed by which the non-extensible material is fed from its package by the first pulling device (150). Apparatus according to claims 10 to 21, characterized in that the locking device (150) is located in the direction of movement of the material behind the gap in the expanding device. An apparatus according to claims 10 to 22, characterized in that the securing device is adapted to keep the sheets of sheet material together along the longitudinal lines, at least two of which are located adjacent the edge regions of the sheets of sheet material. Apparatus according to claims 10 to 23, characterized in that the locking device is provided with scoring compression elements. Apparatus according to claims 10 to 24, characterized in that it is provided with support elements (132a, 132b) for supporting the sheet material between the stretching device (122) and the locking device (150). Apparatus according to claims 10 to 25, characterized in that it comprises further mounting elements (108a, 108b) for receiving at least one further expandable sheet material (110a, 110b) and in particular further mounting units (144) for receiving the further a package (146) of non-extensible sheet material. Apparatus according to claim 25, characterized in that the strip of extensible material is guided by the expanding device (122) together with the strips of extensible material gripped when passing the securing device (150) between the strips of non-extensible material. Apparatus according to claim 26, characterized in that the strips of non-stretchable material are guided by the stretcher together with one of the strips of non-stretchable material when passing between the stretch rollers, and the other of the strips of stretchable material is fused to a continuous type with and before passing through the securing device.