Patent ID: 8092630

Claim:
A method of manufacturing an absorbent article for an animal, the absorbent article including a fixing device for fixing a belly facing section applied to a belly of the animal and a back facing section applied to a back of the animal when the absorbent article is attached to the animal, the method comprising: mounting an elongated fastening material to an elongated tape base material; cutting the tape base material into separate and distinct fixing parts, each said fixing part including a pair of fixing protrusions each having thereon a fastening member defined by a piece of the fastening material, wherein the cutting defines a cut-out portion which has a bottom between the pair of fixing protrusions; mounting at least one said fixing part to each side edge of the belly facing section, or each side edge of a sheet base material serving as a material of the belly facing section or the back facing section, wherein said fixing protrusions project outwardly beyond an associated side edge of the belly facing section or the sheet base material and said bottom of the cut-out portion lies inward of the associated side edge of the belly facing section or the sheet base material; and cutting away, together with the fixing part, a portion of the belly facing section or the sheet base material that have the fixing part mounted thereto, thereby said fixing protrusions of the fixing part are entirely separated from each other, wherein the tape base material has a first side edge extending in a length direction of the tape base material and a second side edge opposite to the first side edge in a width direction of the tape base material; wherein the cutting of the tape base material comprises a first cutting process of cutting the tape base material along a first meandering cutting line continuously extending in the length direction with peaks and valleys, said peaks being adjacent to the first side edge of the tape base material and said valleys being adjacent to the second side edge of the tape base material; and a second cutting process of cutting the tape base material along second cutting lines each extending from the first side edge of the tape base material to one of the valleys or from the second side edge of the tape base material to one of the peaks so as to obtain said separate and distinct fixing parts serving as fastening tapes, wherein the second cutting lines define opposite ends, in the length direction of the tape base material, of the fixing parts, and dimensions of the ends of the fixing parts in the width direction of the tape base material are the maximal distances between the first cutting line and the side edges of the tape base material.