Method for making disposable diaper

A method of making disposable diapers, comprising the steps of:

• forming front and rear sheet members by
• continuously feeding a web for forming a front sheet member and a web for forming a rear sheet member;
• continuously feeding elastic members for the front and rear sheet members under tension in a first machine direction extending in a straight line;
• bonding said elastic members to the corresponding webs of said front and rear sheet members, over an approximately half width of each of said webs as viewed in a first cross direction orthogonal to the first machine direction;
• and
• folding each of said webs to sandwich said elastic members to obtain said front sheet member and said rear sheet member, said front sheet member having a constant width dimension as measured in the first cross direction and said rear sheet member having a constant width dimension so that said front and rear sheet members continuously run in the first machine direction while being spaced from each other in the first cross direction;
• continuously feeding, at regular intervals and to said front and rear sheet members running in the first machine direction, absorbent panels in a second machine direction opposite to the first machine direction, each of the absorbent panels including
• (i) a pair of crotch region elastic members for a crotch region along opposite long sides of the absorbent panel and bonded under tension thereto, and
• (ii) an absorbent core bonded thereto and symmetric about an imaginary center line bisecting a distance between said pair of crotch region elastic members;
• after said folding, placing and bonding said absorbent panel directly on and to top surfaces of said front and rear sheet members so that said pair of crotch region elastic members extends orthogonally to said elastic members for the front sheet member and said elastic members for the rear sheet member;
• and
• cutting said front and rear sheet members having said absorbent panels bonded thereto substantially along the middle between each pair of said adjacent absorbent panels in the first machine direction to obtain individual diapers,
• wherein the step of continuously feeding the absorbent panels further comprises feeding said crotch region elastic members continuously extending from one absorbent panel to another absorbent panel in the second machine direction.