Hans Adolf Jackels, Euskircken, Germany; and Carsten Heinrich Kreuzer, Schwalbach, Germany.
Assigned to The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH.

Filed: 6/8/12
Issued: 6/6/17

A method of making an absorbent structure having an absorbent layer and therein longitudinally extending strips that are free of absorbent material, the absorbent layer being supported on a supporting sheet, the method comprising the steps of: providing a moving endless surface moving in a machine direction (MD) having an outer shell with a forming receptacle, having an average width and transverse direction and dimension, and having an average length and longitudinal dimension, the average length being more than the average width; the receptacle comprising a multitude of substantially longitudinally extending rods, spaced apart from one another in a transverse direction, each rod having a maximum transverse width dimension of at least 0.3 mm and each of the rods having a top portion and an opposing bottom portion, the bottom portion being adjacent an inner grid, and the minimum distance transversely between neighboring rods being at least 1 mm, and the rods each having an average height dimension perpendicular to the transverse and longitudinal dimensions of at least 1 mm; the moving endless surface being connected to one or more vacuum systems applying a vacuum suction to the receptacle; receiving absorbent material on a second moving endless surface comprising longitudinally extending rows of cavities, wherein the rows of cavities are separated from each other by raised strips; retaining the absorbent material in the cavities; applying adhesive to the supporting sheet in substantially longitudinal stripes; transporting the supporting sheet to the outer shell, onto the top portions of the rods; pulling the supporting sheet having the longitudinal stripes of adhesive partially in between neighboring rods by the vacuum suction, to form undulations in the supporting sheet between the rods and to form crests on the upper portion of the rods; depositing absorbent material onto the supporting sheet present on the forming receptacle; mating the raised strips and the rods during transfer of the absorbent material to the supporting sheet; pulling the absorbent material with the vacuum suction into the undulations of the supporting sheet and onto the longitudinal stripes of adhesive between neighboring rods to form absorbent strips; removing absorbent material remaining on the crests of the supporting sheet; applying adhesive to the absorbent strips and the supporting sheet between the absorbent strips to form a first absorbent structure; and removing the first absorbent structure from the moving endless surface; repeating the previous steps to form a second absorbent structure; and combining the first absorbent structure and the second absorbent structure with a pressure roll having a raised pressure pattern by applying pressure with the raised pressure pattern to the first absorbent structure and the second absorbent structure where no absorbent material is present, such that the absorbent layers of both structures are sandwiched between the supporting sheet of the first structure and the supporting sheet of the second structure.