Patent ID: 6855223

Claim:
A method of manufacturing an elasticized composite material including one or more elastic strips, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a mandrel; (b) providing a tube; (c) feeding the tube onto the mandrel such that the mandrel extends longitudinally inside the tube; (d) providing at least one elastic strip; (e) moving the tube longitudinally at a first velocity and simultaneously winding the at least one elastic strip around an outer surface of the tube at a second velocity to form a helical path; (f) joining the at least one elastic strip to the outer surface of the tube at least partially along the helical path to form a first composite tube; (g) folding a second substrate around the first composite tube to cover the at least one elastic strip to form a second composite tube; (h) slitting the second composite tube longitudinally to open the second composite tube; (i) unfolding the slit second composite tube to form a planar composite material; and (j) activating the planar composite material to form the elasticized composite material.