Surgery – Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material – Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-08
2004-01-27
Lo, Weilun (Department: 3761)
Surgery
Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material
Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
C604S367000, C604S385101, C604S378000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06683229
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to absorbent articles such as diapers, training pants, adult incontinence articles, bed mats, and the like. In particular, the present invention relates to those absorbent articles which store urine by means of either capillary or osmotic pressure.
BACKGROUND
Absorbent articles such as diapers, training pants, adult incontinence articles, bed mats, and the like are well known in the art and are frequently used for example for babies, toddlers, incontinent persons, and bed-ridden persons.
It has been recognized in the prior art that storing acquired urine close to the respective body exit may bear inherent disadvantages. The human urethra is located almost in between the legs of the human being. Hence, storage in particular of larger gushes of urine close to the urethra would lead to increased bulk in between the legs of the wearer. Increased bulk, of course, limits the mobility of the wearer and thus is uncomfortable. It is therefore desirable to store the acquired urine away from the point of acquisition.
To minimize the caliper over the entire storage area and to optimize material usage within that storage region, it is further desired to distribute the liquid as easily as possible over the storage area.
PCT patent publication WO 98/22067 (Matthews et al.) provides a personal care product in which the ratio of the amount of liquid stored in the center region to the amount of liquid storage in at least one of the end regions 30 minutes after an insult is less than 5:1. Whilst a small part of the acquired liquid is transported outside of the acquisition region, it has been failed to recognize how the acquired liquid should be distributed with in the storage region.
PCT patent application WO 98/43578 (LaVon et al.) provides an absorbent article comprising absorbent core with a crotch region and at least one waist region whereby said crotch region has a lower ultimate liquid storage capability than the waist region. The article further has an improved liquid handling performance such as an acquisition rate of at least 0.6 ml/s in the fourth gush.
Hence, it is an object of the present invention to overcome the problems of the prior art absorbent articles.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the absorbent article which transports acquired liquid out of the acquisition region and distribute the acquired liquid within the storage region.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article which stores the acquired liquid in a constant fill pattern outside the acquisition region.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides absorbent article comprising an acquisition region, a first storage region being separate from said acquisition region, and a second storage region being separate from said acquisition region, said second storage region being symmetrically different from said first storage region. The article has a total design capacity, said first storage region having a capacity of at least 10% of said total design capacity, said second storage region having a capacity of at least 10% of said total design capacity. The absorbent article according to the present invention is characterized in that said article has a fill pattern difference of less than 30% according to the fill ratio test disclosed herein.
The present invention further provides a process for storing urine in an absorbent article. The article has an acquisition region, a first storage region being separate from said acquisition region, and a second storage region being separate from said acquisition region and being symmetrically different from said first storage region. The process for storing body fluids comprises the steps of:
acquiring liquid into said article at said acquisition region, the amount of liquid acquired into said acquisition region being a fraction A of the total design capacity of said article for managing urine,
storing liquid in a first liquid storage region, the amount of liquid being stored in said first liquid storage region being a fraction B1 of said acquired liquid, said fraction B1 being at least 10%,
storing liquid in a second liquid storage region, the amount of liquid being stored in said second liquid storage region being a fraction B2 of said acquired liquid, said fraction B2 being at least 10%.
The process of the present invention is characterized in that for any value of said fraction A between 20% and 80% the ratio of B1/B2 differs by less than 30% from the ratio of B1/B2 for a fraction A of 20%.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is described in the following by means of a variety of different embodiments and by means of a variety of different features. Further embodiments of the present invention may be obtained by combining features of one embodiment with features of another embodiment disclosed herein and/or with other features disclosed herein. These further embodiments are considered to be implicitly disclosed herein and hence form part of the present invention. It will be apparent to the skilled person that combinations of certain features may lead to non-functional articles not forming part of this present invention.
It is one aspect of the present invention to provide a process for storing urine in a article for managing urine in a constant storage pattern. It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a article for managing urine.
The absorbent article of the present invention is capable of storing urine in a constant pattern. In other words, the absorbent article of the present invention is capable of filling different storage regions with a constant filling ratio. For the purposes of the present invention, this capability is quantified by the Fill Ratio Test defined hereinafter. The absorbent article according to the present invention has a fill pattern difference of less than 30% according to the fill ratio test disclosed herein, preferably a fill ratio difference of less than 20%, more preferably a fill ratio difference of less than 10%, most preferably a fill ratio difference of less than 5%.
Preferably, the absorbent article of the present invention further rapidly acquires urine in an in-use configuration. For the purposes of the present invention, this capability is quantified by the curved acquisition test disclosed hereinafter. The absorbent article according to the present invention has a liquid acquisition rate in the fourth gush of at least 2 milliliters per second, preferably a liquid acquisition rate in the fourth gush of at least 2.5 milliliters per second, more preferably a liquid acquisition rate in the fourth gush of at least 3 milliliters per second, most preferably a liquid acquisition rate in the fourth gush of at least 4 milliliters per second.
The entire absorbent article of the present invention is intended to be worn by a wearer such that the wearer retains his mobility during use of the article of the present invention. In some embodiments of the present invention, the absorbent article of the present invention comprises an attachment means which is unitary with the article. The term “unitary” as used herein indicates that the attachment means is joined to the absorbent article and that the attachment means is not intended to be separated from the article during use of the article. The attachment means is intended to hold the absorbent article of the present invention around the lower torso of the wearer during use. Suitable attachment means such as for example adhesive tapes, mechanical fasteners, garment like articles, and the like are well known in the art. Alternatively, the absorbent article of the present invention may be attached to the lower torso of the wearer by an attachment means which is not unitary with the article such as for example a pant.
It is further desirable for the absorbent article of the present invention that it is sufficiently flexible to readily conform with the body of the wearer during use.
For the purpose of the present invention, a Cartesian coordinate system is
Ehrnsperger Bruno Johannes
Schmidt Mattias
Addington Eric T.
Lo Weilun
Patel Ken K.
Stephens Jacqueline
The Procter & Gamble & Company
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