Slip cutting system

A slip cutting system comprising:

• a. a slip cutting station comprising:
• i. a generally cylindrical cutting die that rotates at a continuous speed and has a peripheral surface, at least one knife blade on the peripheral surface, and at least one packing with a leading edge and a trailing edge on the peripheral surface, a selected one of the leading edge or the trailing edge of said at least one packing being adjacent said at least one knife blade, and the other of the selected leading edge or trailing edge of said at least one packing being spaced from said at least knife blade to cooperate therewith to define at least one circumferential space on the peripheral surface;
• and
• ii. an anvil roller that cooperates with the cutting die to form a nip that defines a nip plane, and that cooperates with the cutting die to intermittently draw an infeed web in a downstream direction against a predetermined drag force, the anvil roller further cooperating with said at least one cutting die knife blade to sheet the infeed web into consecutive discrete articles;
• and
• b. an insert station that cooperates with the slip cutting station to merge the discrete articles to a carrier web.

A method of manufacturing individual products made from flexible materials comprising the steps of:

• a. drawing a flexible infeed web intermittently in a downstream direction;
• b. consecutively sheeting the infeed web into discrete articles;
• c. longitudinally spacing the articles in the downstream direction;
• d. merging the articles to a carrier web and making a composite web of the carrier web and the longitudinally spaced articles;
• and
• e. propelling the composite web in the downstream direction.

Apparatus for producing discrete articles from a flexible web comprising:

• a. a rotatable anvil roller;
• b. a cutting die continuously rotating in unison with the anvil roller and cooperating therewith to form a nip that defines a nip plane, the cutting die comprising:
• i. a peripheral surface;
• ii. at least one knife blade on the peripheral surface;
• and
• iii. at least one packing on the cutting die peripheral surface and having a leading edge and a trailing edge, a selected one of the leading edge or the trailing edge of said at least one packing being adjacent said at least one knife blade and the other of said at least one leading edge or trailing edge of said at least one packing being spaced from said at least one knife blade and cooperating therewith to define at least one circumferential space;
• c. means for guiding a flexible web having a leading end in a downstream direction to the nip;
• and
• d. means for imparting a predetermined drag force on the web at a location in an upstream direction from the nip, the anvil roller and the cutting die cooperating to draw the web in the downstream direction through the nip against the drag force when said at least one packing is at the nip, the web halting downstream motion when said at least one circumferential space is at the nip, and said at least one knife blade sheeting the web to make a discrete article when said at least one knife blade is at the nip.