Patent ID: 7303641

Claim:
A method of making a compressible cellular laminate that is biased to expand when compressed, said cellular laminate having opposed sheet materials separated by resilient, compressible cellular structures such that said cellular laminate can be compressed by moving one of said opposed sheet materials perpendicularly toward the other sheet material with no translative movement of the sheet materials, comprising the steps of: providing a laminate station, providing a plurality of strips of flexible material positioned in side-by-side parallel relationship for downstream movement along a path of travel toward said laminating station; providing two supplies of sheet materials adjacent to said path of travel, advancing said plurality of strips of material in a downstream direction, providing a folding system for engagement with said strips into a cellular material, said folding system progressively folding each of said strips into a cellular structure having an open side and a closed side, said cellular structures being resilient, compressible, and biased to expand when compressed, confining each of said cellular structures in at least a partially compressed condition until they reach said laminating station, feeding said sheet materials into engagement with the open and closed sides of said side-by-side expandable at least partially compressed cellular structures at said laminating station and securing said sheet materials to said structures at said laminating station to form a laminate having elongated side-by-side cellular structures secured to said sheet materials.