A method for manufacturing an around-torso portion of a worn article, including the steps of; intermittently conveying a plurality of first sheets by a first drum; conveying a preceding second sheet, of a plurality of second sheets, toward a junction with the first drum by a first pad of a second drum, and conveying the preceding second sheet so that the male touch fastener at the rear end of the preceding second sheet overlaps with the female touch fastener at the front end of one first sheet, of the plurality of first sheets; and conveying a subsequent second sheet, of the plurality of second sheets, toward the junction with the first drum by a second pad of the second drum, and conveying the subsequent second sheet so that the male touch fastener at the front end of the subsequent second sheet overlaps with the female touch fastener at the rear end of the one first sheet.

A process and an apparatus for producing hygienic absorbent articles provided with at least one refastenable side seam from a chain of articles being formed having a first elastic sheet and a second elastic sheet, wherein the process and the apparatus are configured to perform operations on one or both of the elastic sheets in a cross direction, that is, with the elastic sheets parallel to the machine direction.

A folding apparatus for folding absorbent sanitary articles having an absorbent central body and two wings projecting from opposite side edges of said absorbent central body, comprising: a vacuum conveyor comprising a conveyor belt which holds the absorbent central bodies of said absorbent sanitary articles and moves said absorbent sanitary articles in a longitudinal direction, and a pair of stationary folding elements that engage respective wings of said absorbent sanitary articles while these are moved in said longitudinal direction by said vacuum conveyor, wherein said conveyor belt comprises a plurality of recessed seats which receive the absorbent central bodies of said absorbent sanitary articles, with said wings extending laterally outwards from said recessed seats on an outer surface of said conveyor belt.

According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method and apparatus for folding a stack of superposed sheets. The method comprises transferring the stack to a folding station, gripping a first part of the stack with a first grip and forming a crease on the stack to facilitate the folding. Then the at least a part of the stack is folded over the first part of the stack that has been gripped by utilizing the crease, the folded stack is gripped with a second grip and the folded stack is transferred from the folding station to a next handling stage and releasing the first grip.

A method for manufacturing a wearable article includes: a conveying step of winding a continuous material including a first part and a second part superposed on each other with interposing a absorptive body therebetween around a rotary drum and conveying the continuous material with the absorptive body put into a space between two support faces on an outer peripheral surface of the rotary drum; and a joining step of moving a movable part of a sealer unit outward and homeward in a cross direction crossing a conveyance direction of the continuous material, while the continuous material with the absorptive body put into the space is conveyed by the rotary drum, to form liner sealing areas and thereby joining the first part and the second part to each other through the formed liner sealing areas.

A method in which, while an article is carried with a main portion in contact with a carrying surface and a to-be-folded portion in contact with a folder plate, includes: a first guiding step, wherein a first guide surface guides the to-be-folded portion of the unfolded article, on a side of the carrying surface, in parallel to the carrying surface; a second guiding step, following the first guiding step, wherein a second guide surface, while being in contact with the to-be-folded portion, gradually raises the to-be-folded portion while moving downstream; and a third guiding step, following the second guiding step, wherein a third guide surface guides the to-be-folded portion so that the to-be-folded portion is folded onto the main portion.

A system for manufacturing elastic strand nonwoven panels including an unwind module, a lamination module and a folding module. Elastic strand material is fed from cores disposed on the unwind module through rollers towards the lamination module, where the elastic strand material is attached to a nonwoven web to form an elastic strand nonwoven web. At the folding module, the elastic strand nonwoven web is folded over itself by operation of plates underneath which the elastic strand nonwoven web is fed under tension.

A gripper, an apparatus, and a method for assembling kits of sanitary products in an automated fashion are disclosed. The sanitary products are pre-loaded into containers including a plurality of independent housings for the sanitary products, each of the housings being configured to allow loading of a sanitary product therein and withdrawal of the sanitary product therefrom independently of the other housings, and the kit is assembled in batches on the gripper, and released by the latter into a package.

A machine and a method for manufacturing sanitary product with an hourglass shaped absorbent core, such as a panty liner or a light-inco diaper. The machine and the method allow shaping of the core into an hourglass shape with minimized scrap.

A process for making individually wrapped personal hygiene absorbent articles is provided. It comprises: (i) providing a single image with indicia wherein at least one of the indicia is repeated more than once within said single image; (ii) printing a plurality of said single images over a continuous film to form a continuous repetition of the same single image in a side-by-side arrangement; (iii) cutting the printed film and/or web material along a transverse axis such to form a plurality of individual segments of film forming individual wrapping sheets comprising a portion of said single image and sized such to each accommodate one of said personal hygiene absorbent articles therein; (iv) wrapping individual personal hygiene absorbent articles each with one of said wrapping sheets such that a printed portion of the wrapping sheet is viewable; (v) stacking a plurality of the individually wrapped personal hygiene absorbent articles into a container.