An absorbent article includes bond seams that are positioned forwardly towards the article central longitudinal direction from the lateral-most side edges of the article, and which are aligned with the highest point of high rise leg openings on the article. The absorbent article is conformable on both front and back panels, with the front panel being narrower in dimension than the back panel. The bond seams and leg openings can be seen on the front surface of the relaxed and flattened absorbent article. Such absorbent article may be manufactured along the article transverse direction by use of differential tension during manufacture, or differential retractive properties of elastic base materials.

A rotary device for welding a continuous web comprises a rotary unit rotating about a respective axis and welding units for welding the web mounted, angularly spaced, on the rotary unit. A movement device varies a radial position of the welding units. First and second supporting elements supporting the web are disposed, respectively, upstream and downstream of respective ones of the welding units, to keep the web tensioned when the respective welding unit is at an operating position. The first and second supporting elements are supported by a load-bearing structure connected to the welding units in such a way that a radial movement of the welding units corresponds to a movement of the first and second supporting elements towards and away from the axis.

An apparatus for manufacturing an elastic composite structure for an absorbent sanitary product includes an anvil with weld pattern comprising at least one anchoring region and at least one deactivating region. The anchoring region includes anchoring welds that form anchoring bonds that fuse facing web layers and anchor elastic thread(s) in position relative to the facing web layers. The deactivating region includes a break bar constructed to sever the thread(s). A method of manufacturing the elastic composite structure includes positioning a tensioned elastic thread between web layers, fusing the web layers to form an anchored zone that includes anchoring bonds that fuse the web layers and anchor the tensioned elastic thread therebetween, and cutting the thread to form a deactivated zone between adjacent portions of the anchored zone that is free of tensioned threads. The method further includes fusing the web layers within the deactivated zone.

The method of the present invention includes the steps of: arranging a plurality of non-continuous sheets of a predetermined length intermittently and successively in the conveyance direction on the continuous sheet so that the continuous elastic members are sandwiched between the non-continuous sheets and the continuous sheet; in an overlapping area where the non-continuous sheets overlap with the continuous sheet, attaching the continuous sheet and the non-continuous sheets to each other by welding the sheets to each other in a predetermined pattern, thus producing a continuous laminate; and in a non-overlapping area where the non-continuous sheets do not overlap with the continuous sheet, heating the continuous sheet in the same pattern as said pattern.

Absorbent articles comprising a low cold flow construction adhesive suitable for joining at least two absorbent article components together, wherein the adhesive comprises an ethylene-based polyolefin resin and a crystallization enhancer, wherein at least one of the absorbent article components comprises a nonwoven material, and wherein the absorbent articles have an in-bag compression opening force of less than about 0.75N. Also, a method for assembling such articles.

A machine for making absorbent sanitary articles, where each article includes components progressively positioned relative to each other and assembled along a production line. The machine includes a programmable electronic controller device having a shift register, at least one optical inspection system connected to the programmable electronic controller device, and an operator interface connected to the electronic controller. The programmable electronic controller device generates a machine sync signal, a trigger signal for activating the optical inspection system in phase with the sync signal and a shift register shift command. The optical inspection system receives the trigger signal and has a defined maximum response time which produces at least one band of uncertainty. The operator sets with the operator interface the instant of activating the shift register shift command outside the band of uncertainty and between two consecutive sync signals defining a machine step.

A method and apparatus for mechanically deforming a substrate assembly. The substrate assembly may be advanced in a machine direction at a first velocity toward a bonder apparatus. The bonder apparatus may rotate about an axis of rotation and include a support surface between each of a first and a second member. The first member and the second member may be separated by a repitch angle. The second member may be repositioned such that the first member and the second member are separated by a product angle. The first member may receive a leading portion and second member may receive a trailing portion of the substrate assembly and each member may rotate at the first velocity. The leading portion and the trailing portion are separated by a product arc length, which may be equal to a process product pitch. The substrate assembly may then undergo one or more processes such as bonding, cutting, and/or scoring.

The present invention is a method for selectively machine directionally stretching a predetermined section of a pre-combined web material of varying material width by running the web over stretching rolls operated at a speed differential

The invention relates to a method for producing a laminar product suitable for manufacturing external covers of sanitary towels and nappies, formed by a polymeric coating deposited over the surface of a non-woven fabric substrate, as well as to the laminar product obtained using said method. The method comprises the following steps: obtaining adhesive polymeric mixtures, feeding the mixtures, in a melted state, to a curtain-type applicator, coating the substrate with the adhesive polymeric mixtures, and winding the laminar product obtained. The product obtained comprises a polymeric coating bonded to the non-woven fabric substrate, wherein the polymeric coating consists of an adhesive polymeric layer that has a reduced thickness, ranging between 1 and 10 micra, said product being suitable for medical and personal hygiene applications.

Provided is an absorbent article which includes a top sheet having extruded protrusions and a second sheet bonded to the top sheet and has adequate softness, satisfactory appearance, and yet prevents wrinkles in the top sheet along the MD. The problem is solved by a method of producing an absorbent article including forming the extruded protrusions through embossing of non-woven fabric to be a top sheet transferred by being drawn from downstream of a production line; and then bonding the non-woven fabric and a material of a second sheet in a bonding pattern formed by aligning the material of the second sheet 40 with the back face of the non-woven fabric having extruded protrusions, forming rows of plurality of top-second bonded portions at intervals in the CD in regions between the extruded protrusions adjacent each other in the MD so as to be provided across the center positions of the regions in the CD, and compressing the non-woven fabric in areas between the top-second bonded portions in the rows in the CD without welding of the non-woven fabric and the material of the second sheet.