Method and apparatus for making absorbent structures with absorbent material

An apparatus for making an absorbent structure for an absorbent article, the absorbent structure comprising a supporting sheet and thereon an absorbent layer with a longitudinal dimensional and transverse dimension and a height dimension, the absorbent layer comprising an absorbent material with therein one or more channels that are substantially free of absorbent material, the apparatus comprising:

• a first moving endless surface having an absorbent layer-forming reservoir with a longitudinal dimension and averaged length, a perpendicular transverse dimension and average width, and, perpendicular to both, a depth dimension and average depth, and a void volume for receiving absorbent material therein, the reservoir comprising a substantially longitudinally extending raised strip having an average width W of at least 5% of the average width of the reservoir, and an average length L of at least 5% and at the most 80% of the average longitudinal dimension of the reservoir;
• a feeder for feeding absorbent material to the first moving endless surface;
• a second moving endless surface having an outer shell including an air permeable receptacle for receiving a supporting sheet the receptacle having a substantially longitudinally extending mating strip having an average width W′ being from 0.5×W to 1.2×W, and having an average length L′being from 0.8×L to 1.2×L;
• a vacuum system connected to the outer shell, the vacuum system adapted to facilitate retention of the supporting sheet and the absorbent material on the outer shell;
• and
• wherein, in a meeting point, the first moving endless surface and the second moving endless surface are adjacent and in close proximity of one another during transfer of absorbent material from the first moving endless surface to the second moving endless surface;
• and
• wherein the mating strip is arranged to mate with the raised strip during transfer of the absorbent material.