Apparatus and method for manufacturing absorbent article
AssigneeZuiko Corporation
InventorsDaisuke INOUE, Takashi ARIMA
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present apparatus for manufacturing an article includes a velocity-changing device that changes velocity so that circumferential velocity of a holding pad is continuously decelerated or continuously accelerated during a period from a first start time, at which hand-over of a workpiece of a first size at an upstream position as a hand-over position on a circling path is started, to a second start time, at which hand-over of a workpiece of a second size at a downstream position as the hand-over position downstream of the upstream position on the circling path is started.
Claims19
An apparatus for manufacturing an absorbent article, the apparatus comprising:
- a holding pad 20 that rotates along a circling path while velocity of the holding pad 20 is changed to pick up a workpiece W at a pick-up position P and hand over the workpiece W onto a continuous sheet N at a hand-over position;
- a conveying device 5 that conveys the continuous sheet N at conveying velocity that depends on a size of a product to receive and convey the workpiece W on the continuous sheet N at the hand-over position;
- and
- a velocity-changing device 2 that changes circumferential velocity V of the holding pad 20 during a period from a first start time S1 to a second start time S2,
- when the size of the product is a first size, hand-over of the workpiece W starts at the first start time at an upstream position P1, which is the hand-over position on the circling path,
- when the size of the product is a second size, hand-over of the workpiece W starts at the second start time at a downstream position P2, which is the hand-over position downstream of the upstream position P1 on the circling path, and
- the velocity-changing device 2 changing the circumferential velocity V of the holding pad 20 so that the circumferential velocity V is continuously decelerated or continuously accelerated during the period from the first start time S1 to the second start time S2.
A method for manufacturing an absorbent article, the method comprising:
- a first conveying step of using a holding pad 20 that rotates along a circling path while velocity of the holding pad 20 is changed to pick up a workpiece W at a pick-up position P and hand over the workpiece W onto a continuous sheet N at a hand-over position;
- a second conveying step of using a conveying device 5 to convey the continuous sheet N at conveying velocity VN that depends on a size of a product to receive and convey the workpiece W on the continuous sheet N at the hand-over position;
- a step of setting in advance the hand-over position to be one position, depending on the size of the product,
- the one position being selected between an upstream position P1 and a downstream position P2 on the circling path, the downstream position P2 being downstream of the upstream position P1;
- and
- a velocity-changing step in which a velocity-changing device 2 changes circumferential velocity V of the holding pad 20 during a period from a first start time S1 to a second start time S2,
- when the size of the product is a first size, hand-over of the workpiece W starts at the first start time at the upstream position P1,
- when the size of the product is a second size, hand-over of the workpiece W starts at the second start time at the downstream position P2, and
- in the velocity-changing step, the velocity-changing device 2 changing the circumferential velocity V of the holding pad 20 so that the circumferential velocity V is continuously decelerated or continuously accelerated during the period from the first start time S1 to the second start time S2.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.