Apparatus and method for bonding sheet material and its application to manufacture of flexible flat cable

Abstract

There is disclosed an apparatus and method for bonding a sheet material to an elongated base material, in which the sheet material is transferred by a transferring device towards the base material, and the sheet material is bonded by a bonding device to the base material. A static electricity generating device is attached to the bonding device for generating static electricity on the sheet material to cause the sheet material to adhere to the bonding device, so that the sheet material is prevented from falling from the bonding device prior to the bonding step. Furthermore, an apparatus and method for manufacturing a flexible flat cable, applying the above bonding apparatus and method is also disclosed. In this apparatus and method, a pair of insulating tape sheets are transferred towards electric conductors. Prior to the bonding step at a pair of hot rolls, the insulating tape sheets adhered to the hot rolls are cut into discrete tapes, and the discrete tapes are prevented from falling from the hot rolls by the static electricity generated thereon. With this apparatus and method, not only a substantial reduction in the cost of materials but also an enhanced productivity of the flexible flat cables can be ensured, and the problem of noise generated by press machines can be avoided.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.