Patent ID: 8712573

Claim:
A method for registering 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 are correlated; advancing a substrate in a machine direction through a converting process at a first speed; sequentially adding component parts to the substrate at a second speed; providing a machine axis that generates counts that correspond with locations along machine direction; assigning a timestamp to each count, wherein each timestamp is based on the controller clock; detecting positions of the component parts with the sensor; communicating component part position detections from the sensor to the communication network; assigning a timestamp to each component part position detection, wherein each timestamp is based on the sensor clock; receiving the component part position detections and corresponding timestamps from the communication network into the controller; comparing the timestamps of the component part position detections with the timestamps of the count data; adjusting the second speed based on the comparison of the timestamps associated with the component part position detections with the timestamps associated with the count data; cutting the substrate with component parts added thereto into discrete absorbent articles; and packaging the discrete absorbent articles.