Surgery – Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material – Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-20
2001-04-03
Weiss, John G. (Department: 3761)
Surgery
Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material
Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
C604S385040, C604S385280, C604S385201
Reexamination Certificate
active
06210385
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a disposable absorbent article and more particularly to a sanitary napkin adapted to absorb and contain menstrual discharge, a pad adapted to absorb and contain urine for women suffering from incontinence and the like.
In general, conventional sanitary napkins comprise the absorbent laminate which comprises, in turn, a liquid-pervious topsheet, a liquid-impervious backsheet and a liquid-absorbent core disposed between these two sheets. Japanese Patent Application Disclosure Gazette No. Hei2-11138 discloses a sanitary napkin adapted to be convexly deformed towards a wearer's skin by a deformation inducing element having a flexural resistance and underlying the liquid-absorbent core.
According to the disclosure of Japanese Patent Application Disclosure Gazette No. Hei2-11138, the convex deformation occurs merely in accordance with a previously given convex shape of the deformation inducing element. The sanitary napkin of this type will be compressed in a direction of its thickness during operation of packaging to alleviate its bulkiness. If the napkin remains packaged for a long period until it is unwrapped for its actual use, a compressive restoring force of the deformation inducing element may be deteriorated and it may be impossible to obtain a desired convex deformation. While this drawback may be compensated by properly selecting the material for the deformation inducing element, such proper selection is not necessarily easy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the problem as has been described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sanitary napkin adapted to eliminate the foregoing drawbacks.
According to the present invention, by a substantially flat and elongate absorbent article having a longitudinal center line, a transverse center line being orthogonal to the longitudinal center line, a body-facing side and a garment-facing side, wherein:
the article includes absorbent means and deformation inducing means lying adjacent said garment-facing side and causing the absorbent means to be convexly deformed towards the body-facing side; the deformation inducing means includes a hydrophobic panel member having a Gurley stiffness value of at least 100 mg; and a convexly deformable zone of the absorbent means and the panel member includes first deformation guiding means formed on the garment-facing side so as to lie on transversely opposite sides of the absorbent means symmetrically with respect to the longitudinal center line and, in the convexly deformable zone, to extend along the longitudinal center line.
When the absorbent article according to the present invention is worn by a wearer, the absorbent means is convexly deformed towards the body-facing side and placed closely against the wearer's external genital organs under the lifting effect of the hydrophobic panel member serving as the deformation inducing means.
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patent: 5864890 (1999-02-01), Niedermeyer
Baker & Daniels
Shanoski Paul
Uni-Charm Corporation
Weiss John G.
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