Patent ID: 8145338

Claim:
A method for rejecting defective absorbent products from a web converting manufacturing process, the method comprising the steps of: providing a communication network; connecting a sensor with the communication network, the sensor including a sensor clock; connecting a controller with the communication network, the controller including a controller clock; synchronizing the sensor clock with the controller clock such that the reported time of the controller clock and the sensor clock can be correlated; advancing a substrate in a machine direction through a converting process at a first speed; virtually segmenting the substrate into a plurality of virtual products along the machine direction; virtually dividing the virtual products into a plurality of virtual segments along the machine direction; sequentially adding component parts to the substrate; inspecting the substrate and component parts with the sensor; communicating inspection parameters from the sensor to the communication network; assigning a timestamp to each inspection parameter, each timestamp based on the sensor clock; receiving the inspection parameters and corresponding timestamps from the communication network into the controller; correlating each inspection parameter with one virtual segment based on the timestamp of the inspection parameter and the first speed of the substrate; identifying defects in virtual segments based on the inspection parameters; cutting the substrate with component parts added thereto into discrete absorbent articles; rejecting absorbent articles that correspond with virtual products having virtual segments with identified defects; and packaging absorbent articles that correspond with virtual products having virtual segments with no identified defects.