The tape dispenser head

After some research and despite my lack of German, I was able to find an illustration (upper right - I think this is the one) of the proposed tape head on the Berning Maschinenfabrik web site.

From what I could understand the machine is designed to make a short upward motion, a transverse motion across the top of box and a short downward motion before cutting the tape and returning to the home position. It does all this with careful monitoring of tape tension and postion of the surface. It appears to have a roller to smooth the tape down.

However, it looks a bit "light weight" to survive the conditions at Norske Skog, the head does not appear to be very flexible when it comes to following a non-linear path; programming is in German and "start up of the machine would be desirable in Frankenburg."

This does not auger well when it comes to trouble shooting in Tasmania.

Further seraching found the US based Tapeler company whose equipment (low right) appears more robust, with a more flexible tape head, and with a proprietory programming system which is reasonably user friendly.

Both these units have a major drawback from our point of view: they are controlled pneumatically.

Getting air to a carriage which circles the pallet is not impossible but would add unnecessary complications. Nor do I believe that we need the precision available from either of these machines.

The proposed machine design attemptes to treat the roll of tape much as a person would do when wrapping an odd-shaped parcel: drag the tape out without touching the surface and then lower the roll while maintaining tension so the tape adheres to the package.