An apparatus for supplying one or more strands of a relatively wide tape to a high-speed graphite tape laminating machine may include a tape supply reel and a backing paper take-up reel rotatably mounted on the machine, a dancer roller mounted on the machine for lateral movement thereon, and a mechanism for actively controlling the rotation of the tape supply and backing paper take-up reels and the lateral movement of the dancer roller relative to the support frame such that the respective tensions in the tapes are maintained substantially constant during both an on-the-fly tape add operation and an on-the-fly tape cut operation of the laminating machine.