Method of manufacturing bridged absorbent structures
AssigneeKimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
InventorsGreg Joseph DeGrave, Michael Barth Venturino, Michael John Niemeyer
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Abstract
A method of manufacturing an absorbent web includes moving a foraminous member in a machine direction. The foraminous member has at least one masking plate with a partitioned area including at least one partition defining a plurality of segments. The method further includes drawing air through the foraminous member and depositing fibrous material onto the foraminous member to form an absorbent web. The absorbent web has a bridged area with a reduced basis weight corresponding to the partitioned area of the masking plate. The bridged area has vertical interfaces separating web segments and fibrous material at least partly bridging the vertical interfaces.
Claims17
A method of manufacturing an absorbent web, the method comprising:
- moving a foraminous member in a machine direction, the foraminous member defining a forming surface thereon and having at least one masking plate disposed thereon, the at least one masking plate having a partitioned area including at least two partitions defining a plurality of segments;
- drawing air through the foraminous member;
- and
- depositing fibrous material onto the foraminous member to form an absorbent web having a continuous area and a bridged area, the bridged area having a reduced basis weight compared to the continuous area and corresponding to the partitioned area of the masking plate, the bridged area including a plurality of vertical interfaces having a vertical depth and extending longitudinally and laterally within the bridged area and separating web segments, and the fibrous material at least partly bridging the vertical interfaces.
The method set forth in claim wherein the at least two partitions of the masking plate occludes the flow of air through selected regions of the forming surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.