System for introducing a substrate into a nip

A system for transferring a substance pattern to a substrate, the system comprising a web carrying the substance pattern, a web drive mechanism for driving the web through a nip between a roller and an opposing surface, and a transport mechanism for advancing in an X-direction a substrate having parallel side edges towards the nip, for the substrate to be gripped in the nip and frictionally driven through the nip at the same time as, and with the same speed as, the web, the web being pressed against a surface of the substrate during passage through the nip to cause the substance pattern to transfer from the web to the substrate;

• wherein the transport mechanism comprises;
• a) lateral abutments located on opposite sides of the transport mechanism and movable relative to one another in a Y-direction traverse to the X-direction and resiliently biased towards one another to grip opposite side edges of the substrate, the lateral abutments serving to align the substrate with the web and to apply a force to advance the substrate towards the nip;
• and
• b) a release mechanism disposed and configured to disengage the lateral abutments from the opposite side edges of the substrate upon detected or predicted engagement of a leading edge of the substrate into the nip.