Surgery – Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material – Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
Patent
1996-03-05
1998-05-05
Polutta, Mark
Surgery
Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material
Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
6043851, 604393, A61F 1315
Patent
active
057467307
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an absorbent article such as an infant diaper or an adult diaper, and further to a method for manufacturing such an absorbent article.
Absorbent articles, particularly infant and adult diapers include separate-type diapers and integral-type or tapeless-type diapers. The separate-type diaper is constructed to be separable from opposite sides of its waist region so that it can be developed into a flat configuration, and includes fastening tapes for releasably connecting front and rear waist regions of the diaper when applying the diaper to a user's body. The tapeless-type diaper is a pant-type diaper which includes a waist hole and a pair of leg holes. Both the separate-type and the tapeless-type diapers include a main body which comprises a liquid impermeable backsheet, a liquid permeable and hydrophobic topsheet superposed onto the backsheet and an absorbent core interposed between the topsheet and the backsheet. The main body is configured to include an elasticized waist portion and a pair of leg holes. Especially, the tapeless-type diapers have recently gained increased acceptance from consumers for their advantageous characteristics of stability during use and applicability to standing users, which are best suited for their application to infants who have just started walking.
Conventional tapeless-type articles include pant-type and supporter-type articles. One example of the pant-type article is illustrated in JPA No. 3-82467 wherein a backsheet, formed of an elastic non-woven fabric, covers both of front and rear sections of the diaper. U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,757 discloses a diaper typical to the supporter-type article which includes elastic side bands for connecting side ends of a front section and side ends of a rear section.
When manufacturing, these articles, main bodies of the articles are assembled with their longitudinal direction being arranged either in a machine direction (MD) or in a cross-machine direction (CD), and integrally-formed front and rear sections of each of the main bodies are then bi-folded for side sealing of respective, opposite side ends thereof.
However, such manufacturing methods as mentioned above have certain limitations in terms of productivity and feasibility to accommodate various article constructions. In order to improve the productivity of those articles, JPA No. 3-123551 proposes a method wherein a backsheet is placed on a bi-folded main part comprising a topsheet and an absorbent core placed thereon prior to heat-sealing along wing and leg portions of an article.
It has been recognized that such conventional tapeless-type absorbent articles are unable to fully accommodate various product features sought for more desirable article configurations during use or more gener-specific article specifications. For example, a desirable location of a maximum absorbing capacity is different between diapers for mail and female. In order to meet such needs, an absorbent core is required to have different absorbing capacities, therefore different quantities of absorbent material between opposite sides of a crotch portion of an article.
However, such provision of different quantities of absorbent material between front and rear sides of the absorbent body consequently creates differences in thickness and rigidity between a front side and a rear side of the absorbent body exactly along its center line. When the folding of the absorbent body is not made at a correct position, the topsheet superposed on the absorbent body is also hi-folded at an off-center position so that opposite ends of the topsheet are misaligned to form an irregular waist profile after heat-sealing thereof to the absorbent core. This reduces the product value of the resulting article.
In order to minimize production of such inferior articles, it is required to effect exact alignment of opposite ends of the topsheet when it is bi-folded. It is, however, difficult to hold such flexible material correctly in a desirable position by present commercially a
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Fukui Hiroaki
Suzuki Migaku
Paragon Trade Brands, Inc.
Polutta Mark
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