Patent ID: 7214287

Claim:
A process for continuously making disposable wearing articles, said article having a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction to define a waist-circumferential direction of said article, said article comprising: an inner surface facing a wearer's body, an outer surface facing a wearer's garment, and a pair of tape strips each having a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction and attached to said outer surface of said article at side edge portions thereof opposed to each other, respectively, so that said longitudinal direction of said tape strip is in conformity with said transverse direction of said article, one of said tape strips being folded in a generally Z-shape while the other of said tape strips being folded in a generally inverted Z-shape, said pair of said tape strips comprising a top tape section, a bottom tape section and an intermediate tape section connecting said top tape section to said bottom tape section, so as to define said Z- or inverted Z-shape, said bottom tape section being configured to be unreleasably attached to said outer surface of said article and provided on a lower surface of said bottom tape section with an adhesive zone, said top tape section being configured to be releasably attached to said outer surface of said article and provided on a lower surface of said top section with a releasably attaching zone and each of the tape strips being attached to said outer surface of said article at said adhesive zone, said process for continuously making the said articles comprising: continuously feeding a first web in a first machine direction; continuously feeding, in a second machine direction orthogonal to the first machine direction, a second continuous web of a tape so as to have a vertically depressed Ω-shape; introducing said second continuous web between an upper tool roll rotating about an axis essentially parallel to the first machine direction and a lower parallel tool roll so that an upper surface of said second continuous web is kept in contact with a peripheral surface of said lower tool roll; cutting said second web periodically to obtain tape strips that are intermittently spaced in a circumferential direction of said lower tool roll; compressively squeezing lower surfaces of each of the tape strips between said lower tool roll and a pressure application arrangement configured to periodically move toward said lower tool roll and bring the lower surfaces of said tape strips into adhesive connective contact with an outer surface the first web; and cutting said first web together with said tape strips in a first cross direction orthogonal to said first machine direction so that each tape strip is generally bisected, and to obtain individual sheet members provided with said pair of tape strips one of which is folded in said Z-shape and the other is folded in said inverted Z-shape.