Patent ID: 7311792

Claim:
A process for splicing a first portion of absorbent material to a second portion of absorbent material to form a longer, continuous length of absorbent material suitable for uninterrupted sequential infeed to a processing machine, each of the first and second portions of absorbent material having a fluid permeability, the process comprising the steps of: placing a trailing end of said first portion adjacent a leading end of said second portion; aligning said trailing end of said first portion with said leading end of said second portion; and attaching a piece of splicing material to said trailing end of the first portion to define a first spliced region and to said leading end of the second portion to define a second spliced region, said piece of splicing material having a fluid permeability at least about as great as the fluid permeability of said first portion of absorbent material and at least about as great as the fluid permeability of said second portion of absorbent material, the fluid permeability of said first splicing region being at least about as great as the fluid permeability of said first portion of absorbent material and the fluid permeability of said second splicing region being at least about as great as the fluid permeability of said second portion of absorbent material.