Processing, including de-curling, paper webs

Waste paper reels are sorted and selectively conveyed to either a transverse web cutting station or a longitudinal web cutting station. At the transverse web cutting station shown, web is led from a rotatably supported reel 10 to a de-curling device 16 including a number of relatively adjustable web guides 18,19,20 around which the web is bent to remove the curvature resulting from the web being wound on the reel . Downstream of the de-curling device 16, the flattened web is led to a cutting station 40 for cutting the web transversely into sheets 45 of a desired length. The sheets are collected and stacked by a stacker 52. At the longitudinal web cutting station (not shown), a waste paper web is led from a reel and cut longitudinally into separate webs which are reeled up on separate cores. Immediately after cutting, the webs are moved apart by a tapered separating roller to prevent entanglement of the cut webs. A chain saw may be used to cut through a wound reel.