Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reissue Patent
1996-04-08
2001-05-01
Aftergut, Jeff H. (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S161000, C156S204000, C156S229000, C156S267000, C156S269000, C156S291000, C156S494000
Reissue Patent
active
RE037154
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to disposable underpants and, more particularly, to a method for manufacturing such diapers in the form of underpants and infant training shorts.
Various approaches to such underpants or shorts have already been well known from, for example, Japanese Patent Application Disclosure Gazettes Nos. 1982-77304 and 1982-117602. These Gazettes disclose the methods for attachment of the elastic members to the waist-hole and the leg-holes of the underpants, particularly along the curves of the respective leg-holes so as to improve a fitness around the wearer's legs.
In order to ensure that a continuous elastic member can be continuously attached to web at locations to be formed into the waist-hole and the leg-holes, respectively, during continuous manufacturing basic bodies of underpants from said web, it is generally required that such continuous elastic member must be kept stretched at a predetermined ratio when it is attached to said web at said locations with use of suitable adhesive. Turning to the above-referred prior art, they disclose the procedure in which the continuous elastic member carrying said adhesive previously applied thereon is attached to the continous web.
Generally, when the elastic member is attached to the web while the elastic member is curved according to the curve, for example, of the leg-hole, the elastic member tends to restore its initial rectilinearity, due to its contractility, and sometimes to be attached to the web at a location deviating from the proper location at which the elastic member should be attached to the web.
Such undesirable deviation or shift of the elastic member may occur also in the above-referred prior art because, according to such prior art, the elastic member carrying adhesive previously applied thereon must be attached to fibrous nonwoven fabric having its surface usually less smooth than that of plastic film and an adhesive effect is correspondingly low. This necessarily makes any high speed handling difficult. When the elastic member is continuously attached to the web while the elastic member is curved so as to follow the curve of the leg-hole under control of traverse means, a certain quantity of adhesive is inevitably transferred onto the traverse means as the elastic member carrying adhesive previously applied thereon passes by the traverse means. Thus, the elastic member is peeled off or displaced to deteriorate the adhesive effect and inconveniently requires frequent cleaning of the traverse means particularly at the portion thereof where the elastic member passes by.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the invention to provide a method for manufacturing disposable diapers allowing the above-mentioned problem conventionally encountered by the prior art to be solved by attaching the elastic member to the web along an annular adhesive zone in each location to be formed into a leg-hole wherein said annular adhesive zone is defined by a strip of adhesive having a width larger than that of the elastic member.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object set forth above is achieved, in accordance with the invention, by a method comprising steps of: providing annular adhesive zones centrally on one side of a first continuous web intermittently along the length thereof; introducing first and second continuous elastic members having a width narrower than that of a strip of adhesive defining said annular adhesive zones toward the central area on said one side of said first continuous web so that said first continuous elastic member is laid to bond along substantially a half of said annular adhesive zone while said second continuous elastic member is laid to bond along substantially the remainder half of said annular adhesive zone; providing ribbon-like adhesive zones extending along lateral edges on one side of at least one of said first continuous web and a second continuous web; introducing a third group of continuous elastic members between the mutually opposed sides of said first continuous web and said second continuous web along the respective lateral edges so as to be bonded between these webs along said ribbon-like adhesive zones; bonding said first and second continuous webs together along said respective one sides to form a continuous combined web; folding said continuous combines web into two along a longitudinally central line; cutting off portions of said continuous combined web encircled within respective annular zones each comprising said annular adhesive zone, said first and second elastic members bonded to the web along said annular adhesive zone, after forming or folding double said combined web to form cutouts for leg-holes; providing linear seal zones extending transversely of said twofold continuous combined web centrally through said respective cutouts for the leg-holes to one lateral edge of said combined web corresponding to the waist line so as to form continuous series of underpants; and cutting said continuous series of underpants along each of said linear seal zones transversely of said continuous series of underpants so that each of said linear seal zones is divided in two longitudinally of said continuous combined web and thereby obtaining individual underpants.
In a preferred embodiment, there are provided on the one side of the second continuous web additional annular adhesive zones repectively identical to and associated with said first-mentioned annular adhesive zones so that said first and second continuous elastic members are sandwiched between these mutually adjacent annular adhesive zones.
To manufacture underpants containing therein an absorbent core, an absorbent core is interposed between each pair of said adjacent annular adhesive zones prior to bonding said first and second continuous webs to each other.
According to the present invention, as has been described hereinabove, there are provided the annular adhesive zones defined by strips of adhesive having a width larger than that of the continuous elastic members intermittently along the length of said web and the continuous elastic members for the leg-holes are attached to the web along these annular adhesive zones. With a consequence, the continuous elastic members can be safely and reliably held on the continuous web without significant displacement or shift of the continuous elastic members from the associated annular adhesive zones even if the continuous web is of fibrous nonwoven fabric. Such effect is enhanced when another continuous web is provided with the annular adhesive zones in alignment with the previously mentioned annular adhesive zones, respectively, so that the continuous elastic members may be sandwiched between the respective sets of mutually facing annular adhesive zones.
Finally, said annular adhesive zones are provided on the continuous web, instead of applying adhesive directly on said continuous elastic member, so that the problem encoutered by the above-referred prior art adopting said application of adhesive directly on the continuous elastic members may be solved.
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Matsura Sadanori
Nomura Hironori
Ohnishi Hirofumi
Shimakawa Taiji
Yamamoto Hiroki
Aftergut Jeff H.
Lowe Hauptman & Gilman & Berner LLP
Uni-Charm Corporation
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