Hiroki Yamamoto, Kanonji, Japan. Assigned to Unicharm Corporation, Ehime, Japan.
Filed: 7/30/10
Issued: 10/27/15

A method for manufacturing an absorbent article by overlaying a first region and a second region of a successively conveyed web for the absorbent article with reference to a folding line parallel with a machine direction along a flow direction of a manufacturing process for the absorbent article, the first region formed between the folding line and one side edge of the web, the second region formed between the folding line and another side edge of the web, the method comprising the steps of: causing the first region and the second region of the web to face each other with reference to the folding line by a web guide mechanism so that an angle between the first region and second region becomes smaller toward downstream, the web guide mechanism provided downstream of a reference roll in the machine direction, the reference roll coming in contact with the first region and the second region being flush with each other, and pressing at least one of the first region and the second region by a press mechanism provided downstream of the reference roll in the machine direction, wherein the step of pressing at least one of the first region and the second region includes changing a pressing strength on the web by the press mechanism to change at least one of lengths of tracks in which the one side edge and the other side edge are respectively conveyed downstream of the reference roll in the machine direction, the press mechanism includes a variable roll configured to come into contact with at least one of the first region and the second region, and a position changer configured to change a position of the variable roll, the variable roll includes a central axis along a cross direction crossing the machine direction in a plan view of the web, the position changer moves the central axis of the variable roll, the position changer includes a detector and a controller, and the method further comprises: detecting a first predetermined position in the one side edge and a second predetermined position in the other side edge by the detector; and controlling movement of the central axis of the variable roll when the controller determines that the first predetermined position and the second predetermined position are misaligned with each other in the machine direction.