Patent ID: 11857399
Assignee: ESSITY HYGIENE AND HEALTH AKTIEBOLAG
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  B | IPC A  B

Claim 0:
1. A method for transferring one or more cut-out nonwoven material members, the nonwoven material member(s) being a Carded Air Through Bonded, a Carded Spunlace and/or a Carded Needle punched nonwoven material member(s), for use in an absorbent article, from a cutting station, the method comprising:
a) feeding a continuous web of a nonwoven material, the nonwoven material being a Carded Air Through Bonded, a Carded Spunlace and/or a Carded Needle punched nonwoven material, in a machine direction (MD) towards a cutting station including a rotating cutter roll having an outer circumferential surface and an anvil roll;
b) passing the continuous web of nonwoven material in a nip formed between the rotating cutter roll and the anvil roll, the rotating cutter roll having one or more knives protruding from the outer circumferential surface of the cutter roll, the one or more knives each having a cutting edge with a first outline shape, as seen in a circumferential direction (C) of the rotating cutter roll;
c) cutting out one or more cut-out nonwoven material members from the continuous web of nonwoven material by passing the continuous web of nonwoven material between the rotating cutter roll and the anvil roll, the one or more cut-out nonwoven material members each having a second outline shape (S2) corresponding to the first outline shape (S1) of the respective cutting edge of the one or more knives; and
d) transferring the one or more cut-out nonwoven material members from the cutting station to a vacuum transfer roll having an outer circumferential surface, the outer circumferential surface of the vacuum transfer roll including a plurality of vacuum ports arranged in one or more vacuum port pattern units each having a third outline shape, the one or more vacuum port pattern units fitting within the second outline shape of the one or more cut-out nonwoven material members;
wherein the plurality of vacuum ports are non-uniformly spaced between a leading half section and a trailing half section of each of the third outline shape of the respective vacuum port pattern units, as seen in the machine direction (MD).