An absorbent article includes a top sheet, a liquid impermeable back sheet, and an absorbent body interposed between the top sheet and the back sheet. Welded portions are formed on at least a part of the top sheet. The welded portions constitute a plurality of units, and each of the units includes rod portions that are arranged radially in planar view. The distance between adjacent units is greater than the diameter of a smallest virtual circle inscribed in the rod portions included in each of the units.

An absorbent article comprising a topsheet, a backsheet, and a layer of absorbent material interposed between the topsheet and the backsheet, wherein the layer of absorbent material (28) comprises superabsorbent polymer. The absorbent article further comprises a lower acquisition and distribution system with at least one nonwoven or woven layer, the lower acquisition and distribution system being interposed between the layer of absorbent material and the backsheet. The absorbent article has a first zone corresponding to 800 μm starting from and including the topsheet and extending towards the backsheet, and a second zone corresponding to 800 μm starting from and including the backsheet and extending towards the topsheet. The amount of liquid in the first and second zone is very small as measured by the NMR test method set out herein.

A manufacturing device is provided, within a range in the rotation direction of the upper half of an anvil roll, in the order from the upstream side in the rotation direction of the anvil roll, with a first sheet feeding unit, a recess forming unit, a particulate material feeding device, and a second sheet feeding unit and further a welding unit provided on the downstream side of the second sheet feeding unit in the rotation direction. The anvil roll has a large number of concaves, projections provided in a portion among the concaves, so as to surround each of the concaves, and a unit to suck air in the concaves. For each concave, the projections are minute dot-shaped projections arranged only in one row at intervals in the direction surrounding the concave.

Methods for forming absorbent articles and side seam bonds of absorbent articles are described. In one embodiment, a method of forming absorbent articles may comprise advancing webs, coupling absorbent cores to the webs intermittently to form open absorbent article chassis, folding the absorbent article chassis, forming a first side seam bond first bond pair between a first region of the webs and a second region of the webs with a first ultrasonic horn, forming a second side seam bond of the bond pair between the first region and the second region with a second ultrasonic horn, the first bond being associated with a first absorbent article chassis and the second side seam bond being associated with a second absorbent article chassis, and cutting the folded absorbent article chassis between the first bond and the second bond to separate the first absorbent article chassis from the second absorbent article chassis.

A washable multilayer nursing pad, including an edge and successive layers: a knitted mesh layer at least 1.5 mm thick and perforated, including a top face in direct contact with the skin and a bottom face; a layer of non-woven fibres, in contact with the top face, capable of absorbing at least 2.5 L/m2 of water; a microporous layer including an impermeable and breathable structure; and a protective layer covering the entire microporous layer.

A method and an apparatus are disclosed for manufacturing layered tapes and a layered tape arrangement including a pair of layered tapes wound together. Each of the layered tapes is individually unbalanced as far as a number of layers in a cross direction, but the resulting tape arrangement is nevertheless balanced, allowing for a balanced rolling of the layered tapes in a coil, or balanced folding of the layered tape arrangement into a ply stack.

An apparatus for fabricating an elastic nonwoven material generally includes a first bonding module and a second bonding module. The second bonding module is positionable in close proximity to the first bonding module. At least one of the first bonding module and the second bonding module has a face with a width dimension and a circumferential axis and is rotatable about a rotation axis. The face has a plurality of ridges. The ridges are positioned such that at least two adjacent ridges overlap along the circumferential axis.

An absorbent article in the form of a feminine hygiene pad is disclosed. The article includes a topsheet formed of a section of formed nonwoven web material having an ordered arrangement of zones, each zone comprising one or more attenuated regions adjacent to one or more built-up regions, wherein the attenuated regions have a first average basis weight and the built-up regions have a second average basis weight. Through configuration of the regions and the ordered arrangement, inclusion of melt additive to the resin(s) from which the filaments are spun and/or application of a surfactant to a surface of the topsheet, the topsheet may be imparted with a Rewet of no greater than 0.50 g and an Acquisition Time of no greater than 25 seconds, balancing competing topsheet performance characteristics in a manner acceptable or preferable for consumers/users.

The present invention provides a stretch sheet (1) for an absorbent article in which a plurality of elastic filaments (4) that are arranged so as to extend in one direction without intersecting one another are joined to extensible sheet materials (2 and 3) over their entire length in a substantially non-stretched state. Some or all of the plurality of elastic filaments (4) are constricted filaments (40) having at least one narrow portion (40k) in a cross section that is orthogonal to a longitudinal direction (Y). It is preferable that the cross section of each constricted filament (40) that is orthogonal to the longitudinal direction (Y) has a shape in which a plurality of circles are connected together in a partially overlapping state, and it is preferable that the center-to-center distance between adjacent circles is shorter than the sum of the radius of a first one of the circles and the radius of a second one of the circles, and longer than the shorter radius of the radius of the first circle and the radius of the second circle.

The present disclosure relates to methods and apparatuses for stretching, transferring, and bonding elastic parts under tension to an advancing carrier substrate during the assembly of absorbent articles. A continuous carrier substrate may be advanced in a machine direction at a first speed, and a discrete elastic part may be cut from a continuous elastic substrate having a direction of stretch in a cross direction. The speed of the discrete elastic part is changed from a second speed to the first speed, and the central region of the discrete elastic part is stretched in the cross direction. The discrete elastic part is bonded with the continuous carrier substrate such that the stretched central region extends in the cross direction between the first and second longitudinal edges of the continuous carrier substrate. The discrete elastic part may also be bonded with the carrier substrate with adhesive and/or mechanical bonds.