Looks like I may figured it out
I'd played around with  the spline modeler and noticed that it did what you said with the uv mapping.
Part of the problem is the path is very complex and, web of paper moving through dozens of convoluted twist and turns.

So I needed to be able to use an image of the roller layout to match the paper path., Vertex modeler does it, spline don’t.

**The fix: Use Abode Illustrator to   layout the path on a image layer and import the AI file into the spline modeler.  **