METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR APPLYING FLEXIBLE EXTENSION PIECE FOR ROLL FILM CUT PIECE FOR PHOTOGRAPH

PURPOSE: To make a cut piece temporarily longer by heat sealing both ends in such a manner that the one end of the cut piece of the strip shape of a flexible material coated with a hot melt overlaps on one end of the cut piece of the film at a distance nearly coinciding with the predetermined width of a frame line. CONSTITUTION: A heating element 6a elongates across the direction crossing the route of the flexible material 9 and heats the relative part of the hot melt layer at the required temp., thereby making it possible to join the one end of the freshly formed extension piece 109 to the end partially superposed or overlapped on the cut piece 2 of the film. The surface coated with the hot melt of the extension piece 109 overlaps on the proximate end of the cut piece 2 of the film within a guiding means and on the other hand, the cut piece of the film engages with a detector. The max. width of the heating element 6a is narrower than the width of the frame line 202 between the adjacent frames 302 of the photographic roll film or nearly coincides therewith. As a result, the overall length of the part (inclusive of the one cut piece of the film and the two extension pieces) transported through a printing machine is increased.