Process for the continuous manufacture hour glass-shaped pads

A method for continuous manufacture of hourglass-shaped absorbent pads from an absorbent material in the form of a initial continuous strip of uniform thickness and uniform width, having two parallel straight longitudinal edges, comprising continuously feeding said initial strip in a longitudinal path and, while feeding said initial strip in said longitudinal path, continuously dividing said strip in the longitudinal direction along a continuous wavy cutting line extending symmetrically relative to the longitudinal median line of said strip and periodically intersecting said longitudinal median line, the period of said wavy cutting line corresponding to the length of an absorbent pad to be manufacturing, into two partial strips of periodically variable width each having one straight longitudinal side edge defined by one of said side edges of the said initial strip and one opposite wavy longitudinal side edge defined by the said wavy cutting line, continuously offsetting the partial strips relative to each other in the transverse direction of the initial strip by a distance at least as great as the minimum width of each said partial strip so as to superpose the said partial strips one on the other, and in the longitudinal direction of the initial strip by a distance equal to 1/2, 11/2, 21/2, etc. periods of the said wavy cutting line, to obtain a composite strip the two longitudinal side edges of which corresponding to the said wavy longtudinal side edges of said partial strips are wavy in a symmetrical fashion, the said composite strip having a continuous central part defined between the said straight side edges of said two superposed partial strips, and two lateral parts defined between the said wavy side edges of said two superimposed partial strips, the said continuous central part having a thickness twice that of said lateral parts, and successively cutting the said composite strip at intervals corresponding to one period of said wavy cutting line, in the transverse direction in the zones of maximum width of said composite strip, into discrete hourglass-shaped absorbent pads.