Method Of Making Prefastened Refastenable Disposable Absorbent Articles

A process for assembling disposable pre-fastened pant diapers, each pant diaper comprising a chassis having a first waist region longitudinally opposed to a second waist region, and having a longitudinal axis and a lateral axis, the chassis comprising:

• a topsheet, a backsheet, and an absorbent core disposed between the topsheet and the backsheet, each pant diaper further comprising laterally opposed first side panels refastenably connected with the first waist region;
• and laterally opposed second side panels permanently connected with the second waist region and permanently connected with corresponding first side panels to form a waist opening, the process comprising the steps of:
• advancing a first continuous substrate having a first surface and an opposing second surface in a machine direction wherein fastener components are connected with the first surface;
• cutting the first continuous substrate into first discrete patches, each first patch having a leading end region, a trailing end region, and a central region disposed between the leading and trailing end regions, wherein a first fastener is located in the leading end region and a second fastener is located in the trailing end region;
• advancing a second continuous substrate in the machine direction;
• cutting the second continuous substrate into second discrete patches, each second patch having a leading end region, a trailing end region, and a central region disposed between the leading and trailing end regions,
• advancing a plurality of chassis wherein each chassis advances such that the longitudinal axis is parallel with the machine direction;
• turning each chassis such that the lateral axis is parallel with the machine direction;
• refastenably connecting the first waist region of each chassis with a trailing end region of an advancing first patch and with a leading end region of a subsequently advancing first patch;
• permanently connecting the second waist region of each chassis with a trailing end region of an advancing second patch and with a leading end region of a subsequently advancing second patch;
• folding each chassis along the lateral axis to position the central region of each first patch into a facing relationship with the central region of each second patch;
• bonding a portion of the central region of each first patch with a portion of each second patch to create discrete bond regions;
• and
• cutting the first and second patches along the bond regions to create discrete pre-fastened refastenable pant diapers.