Method for profiling the surface topography of an absorbent structure of an absorbent article

摘要

The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for generating a profile representing the surface topography of an absorbent structure during manufacture of the absorbent article by sensing distortion of the pattern of reflected light. The inspection system may have sensors arranged adjacent to the advancing absorbent structure on the processing line. The controller can then monitor and influence the various operations on the processing line. The inspection system herein may further comprise a radiation source for illuminating the surface of the absorbent structure with light of a predetermined pattern extending in the transverse direction CD. The sensor detects the distortion of the pattern of light reflected from the illuminated surface of the absorbent structure and measures the change in height of the illuminated surface of the absorbent structure with respect to the sensor by a trigonometric method. Based on the change in height measured by trigonometry, the sensor generates a profile representing the surface topography of the illuminated surface of the absorbent structure.