ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,685,676, issued on July 21, was assigned to Fameccanica.Data S.p.A. (San Giovanni Teatino Chieti, Italy).
"Method and apparatus for folding absorbent sanitary articles" was invented by Antonio Giansante (San Giovanni Teatino Chieti, Italy).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for folding absorbent sanitary articles, wherein a plurality of absorbent sanitary articles advancing at a first speed are alternately routed towards at least two folding lines, are slowed down to a second speed less than the first speed, are folded while advancing at the second speed, and are fed aligned with each other in a common outlet array."
The patent was ...