Patent ID: 8545654

Claim:
A method for producing pant-type absorbent articles each article including a chassis structure having at least one elastic panel and an integrated absorbent core component, the method including a continuous pant-forming process comprising forming the chassis structure and incorporating the absorbent core component into the chassis structure, wherein the at least one elastic panel is produced by a) separately producing a two-layer laminate comprising a first non-elastic fibrous nonwoven web and an elastic film, b) activating the two-layer laminate by incremental stretching in at least one activation direction to render the two-layer laminate elastically stretchable, c) stretching the activated two-layer laminate by 35-200% in the activation direction, d) introducing the two-layer laminate in the pant-forming process, and e) laminating the elastic film of the stretched two-layer laminate to a nonwoven chassis component, wherein the pant-forming process comprises: a) joining a first web of the activated, stretched two-layer laminate to a first edge of a continuous central nonwoven chassis web, b) joining a second web of the activated stretched two-layer elastic laminate to a second edge of the continuous central nonwoven chassis web to form a compound chassis web, c) laminating a first nonwoven web to the elastic film of the first web of the activated stretched two-layer laminate, and d) laminating a second nonwoven web to the elastic film of the second web of the activated stretched two-layer laminate.