Patent ID: 8007622

Claim:
A method of manufacturing personal care absorbent articles from a stream of workpiece precursors connected to each other along a web sausage having an indefinite length, a respective one of the personal care articles having a front portion including a front edge, a rear portion, and a crotch portion, the crotch portion disposed between the front portion and the rear portion, the method comprising: (a) defining one of the workpiece precursors in the web sausage, the respective workpiece precursor having a respective one of the front portions, a respective one of the rear portions, and a respective one of the crotch portions; (b) defining a fastening area in the front portion for connecting a fastener material thereon; (c) forming first and second fault lines in the workpiece precursor on the fastening area, the first and second fault lines extending in a direction between the front portion and the rear portion when a blank of the workpiece precursor is laid out flat; (d) applying the fastener material over the first and second fault lines, the applied fastener material extending across the first and second fault lines and being releasably secured to the fastening area, and non-releasably secured to the front portion outwardly of the first and second fault lines on the same workpiece precursor; and (e) separating the workpiece precursor with the applied fastener material thereon from the web sausage to create a personal care article, wherein individual workpiece precursors are severed from the web sausage to define individual separate and discrete finished personal care products having the first and second fault lines.