Abrasive article maker with differential tooling speed

A coated abrasive article maker apparatus comprising:

• a production tooling in the form of an endless belt having a dispensing surface with a plurality of cavities, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of cavities is missing in a splice zone of the production tooling;
• at least one roller that guides the production tooling through the coated abrasive article maker apparatus, the at least one roller including at least one drive roller for pulling the endless belt in a direction of travel;
• an abrasive particle feeder positioned adjacent the production tooling so as to dispense shaped abrasive particles onto the dispensing surface and into the plurality of cavities of the production tooling;
• a resin coated backing guide that guides a resin coated backing through the coated abrasive article maker apparatus in the direction of travel, the resin coated backing positioned to receive shaped abrasive particles from the plurality of cavities of the production tooling at a deposit point;
• means for detecting the splice zone as the production tooling moves in the direction of travel and for providing splice zone detection data;
• and
• at least one controller that receives the splice zone detection data and controls at least one of a speed of rotation of the drive roller and a speed of the resin coated backing guide in accordance with the splice zone detection data, whereby at least one of the production tooling is sped up and the resin coated backing is slowed down for a duration of a detected splice zone as the detected splice zone passes the deposit point.

A method of making coated abrasive articles comprising:

• providing a production tooling in the form of an endless belt having a dispensing surface with a plurality of cavities, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of cavities is missing in a pattern transition zone of the production tooling;
• guiding the production tooling in a direction of travel past an abrasive particle feeder;
• dispensing shaped abrasive particles onto the dispensing surface and into the plurality of cavities of the production tooling;
• guiding a resin coated backing adjacent the production tooling in the direction of travel;
• providing shaped abrasive particles from the plurality of cavities of the production tooling onto the resin coated backing at a deposit point;
• detecting a pattern transition zone as the production tooling moves in the direction of travel and providing pattern transition zone detection data;
• and
• controlling at least one of a speed of the production tooling and a speed of the resin coated backing in the direction of travel in response to the pattern transition zone detection data, whereby a speed of at least one of the production tooling and the resin coated backing is adjusted as the detected pattern transition zone passes the deposit point so as to change a pattern density of the shaped abrasive particles in a portion of the resin coated backing corresponding to the pattern transition zone of the production tooling.