Indirect registration of elements of web-derived product

Details Indirect registration of elements of web-derived product Indirect registration of elements of web-derived product

1999-10-05

2002-03-12

Kim, Eugene (Department: 3721)

Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi

Control means energized in response to activator stimulated...

Responsive to work material, the product or means engaging...

C493S022000, C493S344000, C493S374000, C493S379000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06354984

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND
The manufacture of absorbent articles such as diapers, training pants, incontinence underwear articles, and the like, typically includes compiling and processing a web substrate as a continuous band of end-to-end or side-to-side work pieces from which respective absorbent articles are eventually derived, typically one absorbent article from each work piece. The compiling and processing includes assembling various elements to the web substrate, and shaping and configuring the thus assembled composite web substrate.
Upon completion of the various manufacturing steps, the web is severed across a transverse dimension of the web, typically across the full width of the web, to thereby separate from the web respective ones of the work pieces as separate and distinct units of absorbent article product.
During the fabrication process, the work pieces are typically only partially defined in the web until such time as the work pieces are severed from the web as units of product. In the web, the work pieces are generally associated with respective repeat elements on the web and the number and positioning of the respective elements in the finished units of product.
Thus, one familiar with the definition of the products to be derived from the web can, by observing the locations and repeat frequencies of respective elements on or in the web, typically perceive the number and locations of respective ones of the work pieces on the web, and can correspondingly perceive the number and locations of the respective units of product which will be derived from the web.
In manufacturing certain absorbent articles, trim material pieces are defined in trim areas; and the trim material pieces are severed and removed from the web. Exemplary of such trim areas, and trim pieces cut therefrom, are cut-outs associated with leg openings such as in, for example, diapers, training pants, incontinence underwear articles, and the like.
Various elements are positioned on the web at specific locations for each unit of product, consistent with the relationships desired between the respective elements in the finished unit of product. So long as an element to be placed on the web has sufficient acuity and measurable intensity of image, and suitable outline, to be readily discerned by a registration sensor, the element can be properly placed and its placement checked by a relatively inexpensive e.g. optical sensor, or other sensing device.
Where the properties of the element do not have sufficient acuity and measurable intensity of image, and suitable outline, to be readily discerned by a registration sensor, controlling placement of the element, and confirming proper placement, is more difficult and thus requires more costly sensing apparatus. Controlling placement becomes even more difficult where two different elements are to be registered with respect to each other and neither of the elements has sufficient acuity and measurable intensity of image, and suitable outline, to be readily discerned by a registration sensor.
In most cases of registering two elements to each other, it will suffice for one of the elements to have sufficient acuity and measurable intensity of image, and suitable outline, to be readily discerned by a registration sensor. The sufficient element then becomes the reference to which the second element is registered.
But where neither element satisfies the sufficiency of definition requirement, achieving registration requires a different solution. In such case it is common to print registration images periodically along the length of the web, for the sole purpose of providing reference marks against which other elements can be registered. Such reference marks may be printed on the web in an area where they will be inconspicuous in the finished product. In some cases, the web is intentionally made sufficiently wide to provide for an edge trim extending unbroken along the full length of the web, wherein the purpose of the edge trim is to provide a printing locus for printing the registration marks and then removing the registration marks by cutting away a constant-width edge trim, including the registration marks.
But such procedures are expensive in terms of wasted raw material. In addition, such procedures are create excessive manufacturing waste which must be either recycled, or sent to landfill, both of which options add cost to the product.
SUMMARY
It is an object of the invention to provide a process of fabricating units of product from a web, including defining and developing first and second features of a web by a novel set of steps.
It is a specific object of the invention to use optionally temporary registration images as intermediaries, registering cut-outs and other web features to each other while neither of the elements being registered has sufficient acuity and measurable intensity of image to serve as a registration mark.
It is another object to register, along a first length of the web, a first set of other web features and boundaries of a first set of trim areas, wherein neither the trim areas nor the other web features can be reliably used as a registration reference.
It is a further object to register along a second length of the web, a second set of trim areas and a second set of other web features, different from the first set of other web features and wherein neither the trim areas or the second set of other web features can be reliably used as a registration reference, the trim areas and other web features being registered using intermediary registration reference marks.
It is another object of the invention to provide such intermediary registration reference marks as temporary marks, removed from the work pieces along with routine removal of trim areas from the web.
It is yet another object to force registration of printed indicia with the registration reference marks by applying the printed indicia using the same application device which prints or otherwise applies the registration image.
It is a more specific object to provide such registration of first and second elements neither of which is reliable for use as a registration reference mark while producing units of product devoid of such reliable registration marks.
A first family of embodiments of the invention comprehends, in the process of fabricating units of personal care absorbent article product by assembling a composite product web and then severing units of absorbent article product from the web, a method of registering a periodic repeat element of the web to a periodic master reference element of the web, wherein the periodic repeat element is insufficiently distinctive for reliable registration to another element of the web by detection. The method comprises assembling together a plurality of web elements, thereby progressively defining the composite product web, and units of product in the web including, (i) using an application device, applying marking material defining a set of registration images periodically along a length of web, on trim areas defining trim material pieces removed from the web in defining the units of product, and (ii) applying the periodic repeat elements periodically along the length of the web, using the application device to force registration of the periodic repeat elements to respective ones of the registration images during such application. A sensor is used to sense ones of the registration images and, based on such sensing, the method registers ones of the periodic repeat elements to corresponding ones of the master reference elements, respective ones of the registration images thus being used as registration intermediaries to establish relative locations of the periodic repeat elements to the respective periodic master reference elements. After registering a respective periodic repeat element to a respective master reference element, the method further contemplates removing from the web the trim material piece corresponding to the respective registration element, thereby also removing the respective registration image from the web.
The method can include confining th

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