Method of producing pant-type articles

A method of producing disposable pant-type articles, the method comprising the steps of:

• advancing a continuous elastic front panel web in a machine direction, the front panel web being tensioned in the machine direction and having a front panel waist edge and an opposing front panel crotch edge;
• advancing a continuous elastic rear panel web in a machine direction, the rear panel web being tensioned in the machine direction and having a rear panel waist edge and an opposing rear panel crotch edge, the rear panel web being spaced apart from the front panel web in a cross machine direction, perpendicular to the machine direction, with a gap in the cross machine direction between the front panel crotch edge and the rear panel crotch edge;
• advancing a non-elastic continuous crotch web in the machine direction;
• attaching the crotch web to the tensioned front panel web and to the tensioned rear panel web, thereby bridging the gap between the front panel crotch edge and the rear panel crotch edge and forming a coherent chassis web of interconnected precursor articles;
• providing a pair of crotch elastic members, the pair of crotch elastic members consisting of a first crotch elastic member and a second crotch elastic member;
• stretching each crotch elastic member in a longitudinal direction of the crotch elastic member and aligning the longitudinal direction of the crotch elastic member with the cross machine direction;
• attaching each stretched crotch elastic member to the crotch web while keeping the crotch elastic member stretched and aligned with the cross machine direction, the first crotch elastic member being spaced apart from the second crotch elastic member with a crotch spacing in the machine direction, a pair of crotch elastic members of a leading precursor article being spaced apart from a pair of crotch elastic members of a trailing precursor article with an article spacing in the machine direction, the article spacing being dependent on a pitch-length of the precursor articles in the chassis web of interconnected precursor articles;
• forming leg cuts in the chassis web, each leg cut having a closed loop configuration and forming a first leg edge of a leading precursor article and a second leg edge of a trailing precursor article;
• folding the chassis web along a fold-line extending in the machine direction and bringing the front panel waist edge into alignment with the rear panel waist edge;
• forming first and second side seams in each precursor article, the side seams being formed in the cross machine direction along dividing lines between the precursor articles, from the aligned waist edges of the front and rear panel webs, to the leg cuts;
• and
• severing individual pant-type articles from the chassis web,
• wherein a continuous reinforcing leg elastic member is stretched in the machine direction and is attached in a stretched state in a curved configuration along the rear panel crotch edge before forming the leg cuts in the chassis web, wherein the method comprises overlapping a first end portion of each of the first and the second crotch elastic members of the pair of crotch elastic members with the tensioned front panel web and attaching the overlapping first end portion of each of the first and the second crotch elastic member to the tensioned front panel web and/or overlapping a second end portion of each of the first and the second crotch elastic members of the pair of crotch elastic members with the tensioned rear panel web and attaching the overlapping second end portion of each of the first and the second crotch elastic member to the tensioned rear panel web.