Absorbent article with attached tabs and method and apparatus for making same

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for forming and attaching tabs to an absorbent article worn in the perineal portion of the body, such as sanitary napkins. A strip of tab material is cut into two tab strips by making an approximately sinusoidal shaped longitudinal cut using a rotary die. The tab strips are then inverted so the tabs face outward and aligned so that the tabs are in-line. The tab strips are then cut into tab pairs and attached to a strip of absorbent article using an adhesive. In an alternate embodiment, the tab pairs are first attached to a layer of material which is then attached to a second layer of material on which an absorbent core is disposed, thereby enclosing the absorbent core. An absorbent article made by the aforementioned method and apparatus is also provided. The article has a central portion and tabs attached to the portions of the longitudinally extending sides of the central portion which are adjacent the body facing said of the article, thereby preferentially creating tension in the pervious cover forming the body facing side and inducing compressive forces acting on the absorbent core which aid it in resisting lateral deformation. The central portion has an article release strip covering pressure sensitive adhesive strips on its garment facing side and the tabs have tab release strips covering pressure sensitive adhesive strips on their garment facing sides. The tabs are disposed over the garment facing side of the central portion and adhesive is applied between the article release strip and tab release strips, attaching each to the other so that both the article release strip and the tab release strips can be removed by a single pull on the article release strip.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.