Brian K. Rhodes, Winneconne, WI; Timothy A. Thorson, Neenah, WI; Qingyuan Deng, Jiangning District of Nanjing, China; Gregory J. Rajala, Neenah, WI; and Rae Leonard Kirkwood, Greymouth, New Zealand.
Assigned to Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc., Neenah, WI.

Filed: 4/9/19
Issued: 5/16/23

A method of forming an elasticized portion of an absorbent article, the method comprising: advancing a first web of material in a machine direction; advancing an elastic strand in the machine direction in a stretched state; applying a first amount of adhesive to a first portion of at least one of the first web of material and the elastic strand; applying a second amount of adhesive to a second portion of at least one of the first web of material and the elastic strand; placing the elastic strand on a first surface of the first web of material; covering the elastic strand with either the first surface of the first web of material or a first surface of a second web of material to form an elasticized web, the elasticized web comprising a heavy bond region and a light bond region, the heavy bond region comprising a greater area density of adhesive than the light bond region; and advancing the elasticized web to a nip which applies compressive pressure to the elastic strand to partially weaken the elastic strand at least at one location within the light bond region.