Factory for manufacturing absorbent article

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10822826-B2
Application number	US-201616465821-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2016
Priority date	Dec 16, 2016
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

A factory for manufacturing an absorbent article includes a building that includes an upper story and a lower story located below the upper story. The upper story and lower story include a floor, a wall provided along an entire periphery of the floor, an illumination device provided on a ceiling, and an air conditioner having an air outlet for discharging air, respectively. An opening is formed in the floor of the upper story. The upper story includes a paying-out device to which a material coil on which a nonwoven fabric is wound is attached and that pays out the nonwoven fabric. The nonwoven fabric serves as at least one type among a plurality of types of materials. The lower story includes a processing section that processes the plurality of types including the nonwoven fabric that is transported from the upper story through the opening.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A factory for manufacturing an absorbent article by using a plurality of types of materials, comprising:
a building including:
an upper story; and
a lower story located below the upper story, wherein
the upper story comprises: a floor; a wall provided along an entire periphery of the floor; an illumination device provided on a ceiling; and an air conditioner having an air outlet for discharging air,
the lower story comprises: a floor; a wall provided along an entire periphery of the floor; an illumination device provided on a ceiling; and an air conditioner having an air outlet for discharging air; and
an opening through which the upper story and the lower story communicate is formed in the floor of the upper story, wherein
the upper story further comprises a paying-out device to which a material coil on which a nonwoven fabric is wound is attached and that pays out the nonwoven fabric, the nonwoven fabric serves as at least one type among the plurality of types of materials,
the lower story further comprises a processing section that processes the plurality of types of materials including the nonwoven fabric that is transported from the upper story through the opening, and
an air pressure at a boundary position between a space on the lower story and the opening is higher than an air pressure at a boundary position between a space on the upper story and the opening.

2. The factory for manufacturing an absorbent article according to claim 1 , wherein
all types of nonwoven fabrics that the plurality of types of materials include besides the nonwoven fabric are respectively brought into the building in forms of material coils in which the nonwoven fabrics are wound,
paying-out devices respectively corresponding to all of the types of nonwoven fabrics are provided on the upper story, and
the paying-out devices pays out the corresponding nonwoven fabrics from the material coils.

3. The factory for manufacturing an absorbent article according to claim 1 , wherein
the lower story further includes a paying-out device to which a material coil on which a non-nonwoven-fabric material is wound is attached and that pays out the non-nonwoven-fabric material, and
the non-nonwoven-fabric material is a material that is not a nonwoven fabric and serves as at least one type among the plurality of types of materials.

4. The factory for manufacturing an absorbent article according to claim 1 , wherein
the plurality of types of materials are respectively brought into the building in forms of material coils in which the materials are wound,
the material coils are attached to paying-out devices that respectively correspond to the plurality of types of materials,
the materials are paid out from the material coils, and
among the material coils of the plurality of types of materials, a material coil to be paid out by the paying-out device on the upper story is stored in a storage area on the upper story, and
among the material coils of the plurality of types of materials, a material coil to be paid out by the paying-out device on the lower story is stored in a storage area on the lower story.

5. The factory for manufacturing an absorbent article according to claim 4 , wherein
a wall is provided between a paying-out area in which the paying-out device is provided on the upper story and the storage area on the upper story, and
a wall is provided between a paying-out area in which the paying-out device is provided on the lower story and the storage area on the lower story.

6. The factory for manufacturing an absorbent article according to claim 1 , wherein
a transport roller that the nonwoven fabric paid out from the material coil by the paying-out device on the upper story first comes into contact with is located on the upper story, and
a contact surface of the nonwoven fabric that comes into contact with the transport roller is a non-abutting surface that does not abut a support surface of a support member when constituent fibers of the nonwoven fabric are sucked onto and deposited on the support surface to produce the nonwoven fabric.

7. The factory for manufacturing an absorbent article according to claim 1 , wherein
an amount (g/m 3 ) of fibers included in a unit volume at a boundary position between a space on the lower story and the opening is smaller than an amount (g/m 3 ) of fibers included in a unit volume at a boundary position between a space on the upper story and the opening.

8. The factory for manufacturing an absorbent article according to claim 1 , wherein
when the building is viewed in cutaway from above, the opening is disposed in such a way that at least a part of the opening overlaps the processing section.

9. The factory for manufacturing an absorbent article according to claim 1 , wherein
when the building is viewed in cutaway from above, the paying-out device that pays out the nonwoven fabric is disposed in such a way that at least a part of the paying-out device overlaps the processing section.

10. The factory for manufacturing an absorbent article according to claim 1 , wherein when the nonwoven fabric is defined as a first nonwoven fabric, the material coil on which the nonwoven fabric is wound is defined as a first material coil, and the paying-out device for the nonwoven fabric is defined as a first paying-out device:
the plurality of types of materials include a second nonwoven fabric that is different from the first nonwoven fabric,
the upper story further includes a second paying-out device to which a second material coil on which the second nonwoven fabric is wound is attached and that pays out the second nonwoven fabric,
the first paying-out device includes:
a paying-out rotation shaft to which the first material coil that is a preceding first material coil is attached; and
a paying-out rotation shaft to which the first material coil that is a succeeding first material coil is attached,

the first paying-out device has a material splicing function of splicing the first nonwoven fabric of the succeeding first material coil with the first nonwoven fabric of the preceding first material coil in a state in which rotation of the paying-out rotation shaft to which the preceding first material coil is attached and rotation of the paying-out rotation shaft to which the succeeding first material coil is attached are both stopped,
the first nonwoven fabric is accumulated in a form of a plurality of loops using a plurality of rollers that are disposed on the upper story between the first paying-out device and the processing section,
while rotation of the paying-out rotation shafts is stopped, the first nonwoven fabric is supplied to the processing section by reducing sizes of the plurality of loops of the first nonwoven fabric,
the second paying-out device includes:
a paying-out rotation shaft to which the second material coil that is a preceding second material coil is attached; and
a paying-out rotation shaft to which the second material coil that is a succeeding second material coil is attached, and

the second paying-out device has a material splicing function of splicing the second nonwoven fabric of the succeeding second material coil with the second nonwoven fabric of the preceding second material coil in a state in which the paying-out rotation shaft to which the preceding second material coil is attached and the paying-out rotation shaft to which the succeeding second material coil is attached both rotate.

Assignees

• Unicharm Corp

Inventors

• Shinohara Tetsushi
• Matsumoto Yoshihiko

Classifications

• B65H2801/57

  Diaper manufacture · CPC title

• B65H2701/1924

  Napkins or tissues, e.g. dressings, toweling, serviettes, kitchen paper and compresses · CPC title

• B65H2601/511

  Waste of handled material · CPC title

• B65H2301/41704

  involving layout of production or storage facility · CPC title

• B65H2301/41702

  management and organisation of stock and production · CPC title