Patent ID: 6408917
Filing Date: 2002-06-25
Classification: A61F,B29C,B29L,B65H,Y02P,Y10T

Abstract:
Fabrication apparatus for fabricating composite personal care articles and sensing assembly quality characteristics of the personal care articles so fabricated, at least one of the components of precursors of the personal care articles so fabricated comprising a continuous web of material, said fabrication apparatus comprising:(a) fabrication machinery arranged to transport the web along a fabrication line, past a plurality of work stations where work is performed on the web, for fabricating the personal care article precursors according to a predetermined arrangement, thereby to form an array of precursors of such personal care articles on the web; (b) separation apparatus separating the web, and the array of personal care article precursors thereon, from the web, and into individual personal care articles, including severing the web across a transverse dimension thereof; and (c) infrared sensing and signal processing apparatus disposed in cooperating relationship with the web, and sensing infrared signatures of product fabricated on the web, thereby determining assembly quality characteristics of respective ones of the composite personal care articles or composite personal care article precursors, and outputting a signal representative of the sensed characteristics.