The Procter Gamble Company

Wayne Grant Leslie

Robert Lawrence Prosise

Dale Francis Bittner

Tim Jensen

Andrew Lloyd Bouthilet

Lynne Cheryl Hannen

Robert Clark Avery

Larry V Dalton

A process and apparatus for producing stabilized compressed tampons are disclosed. The process includes the steps of providing a compressed tampon pledget and forcing gas through the compressed tampon. In some embodiments, the process may occur in the presence of moisture. The moisture can come from either the fibers of the material that comprises the tampon pledget and/or from the humidified gas or steam that is introduced. The process may include the steps of heating and/or humidifying the gas introduced during the process. The gas may be forced through the compressed tampon pledget intermittently during the process.

Process for producing stabilized tampons

A method and apparatus for stacking and conveying product units. The product units are conveyed on a conveyor from a loading station to an unloading station. The conveyor has a number of paddles extending therefrom where adjacent paddles define receptacles between them for holding the product units. The invention allows the products to be reoriented while being conveyed from the loading station to the unloading station so that the products arrive at the unloading station with the desired orientation. This eliminates separate steps and apparatuses for conveying and reorienting. The present invention does this by first loading at least one product unit into the product receptacles and conveying the product units along the longitudinal axis of the conveyor. The paddles are then reoriented along a generally helical line while the products are being conveyed from the loading station to the unloading station. The paddles are reoriented to a desired angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the conveyor. The product units are unloaded at the unloading station as a stack by removing the product units from a plurality of product receptacles. The paddles are then reoriented and returned to their original position as when they were loaded.

Stacking apparatus and method that reorients product units along a

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Logan Township, IN, United States of America

Wayne Grant Leslie