ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,376,998, issued on Aug. 5, was assigned to The Procter & Gamble Co. (Cincinnati).
"Method and apparatus for making tampons" was invented by Kevin Charles Strong (Loveland, Ohio), Evan Joseph Durling (West Chester, Ohio), Hinrich Knuth (Mason, Ohio) and Khalid Qureshi (Mason, Ohio).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure relates to apparatuses and methods for making tampons including primary and secondary absorbent members. During assembly, primary absorbent members, a continuous length of secondary absorbent members, and a continuous cord are advanced in a machine direction. Leading edges of the primary absorbent members are ...