Surgery – Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material – Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-20
2004-07-20
Lo, Weilun (Department: 3761)
Surgery
Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material
Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
C604S378000, C604S367000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06764476
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to liquid handling members intended to be used in devices for handling urine. In particular, the present invention relates to those liquid handling members which are used for initial acquisition of the urine. The present invention further relates to devices for handling urine such as diapers, training pants, adult incontinence devices, bed mats, and the like which comprises the liquid handling members of the present invention.
BACKGROUND
Devices for handling urine such as diapers, training pants, adult incontinence devices, 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. Typically, these devices comprise liquid handling members which are specifically designed for the rapid initial acquisition of urine disposed onto the device.
It has been recognized in the prior art that it is beneficial for example for the wearing comfort of such a device for handling urine to transport the acquired urine away from the point of acquisition already in the liquid handling member. Providing sufficient void space in the liquid handling member below the point of acquisition requires the liquid acquisition member to have a high caliper and hence to be very bulky. This problem can only be avoided if the acquired urine is transported away from the point of acquisition in a direction parallel to the surface of the liquid handling member.
The most commonly used mechanism for liquid transportation is capillary pressure. It is to be noted in this context that liquid transportation requires high capillary suction which in turn requires small capillaries to build up that suction. But in the case of liquid handling members which are intended for liquid acquisition large capillaries are needed to provide the void space for quickly acquiring the urine. Thus, in the case of the above described liquid handling members wicking liquid away from the point of liquid acquisition by means of capillary pressure is not very efficient.
As a result, it may be observed in prior art devices for handling urine that only a small fraction of the x, y-dimension of the liquid handling member is actually used when the first gush of urine is acquired. Hence, the void volume and liquid acquisition performance of the liquid handling member is not fully utilized.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a liquid transport member which overcomes the problems posed by the prior art.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a liquid handling member which distributes already the first gush of urine over a large fraction of its x, y-dimension.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the liquid handling member which can acquire liquid while maintaining a relatively small wet caliper.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device for managing body liquids which comprises a liquid transport member of the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a liquid handling member for use and device for handling urine. The liquid handling member has an x, y-dimension of at least 60 square centimeters and the liquid handling member has a first gush distribution area of at least 80 percent of said x, y-dimension according to the member liquid distribution test defined herein.
The present invention provides a liquid handling member for use and device for handling urine. The liquid handling member has an x-dimension of at least 15 centimeters and the liquid handling member has a first gush distribution length of at least 80 percent of said x-dimension according to the member liquid distribution test defined herein.
The present invention further provides a device for handling urine comprising a first member for temporary storage of the acquired urine. The first member has an x, y-dimension of at least 60 square centimeters. The first member further has a first gush distribution area of at least 80 percent of said x, y-dimension of said acquisition member according to the member liquid distribution test defined herein.
The present invention further provides a device for handling urine comprising a first member for temporary storage of the acquired urine. The first member has an x-dimension of at least 15 centimeters. The first member further has a first gush distribution length of at least 80 percent of said x-dimension of said acquisition member according to the member liquid distribution test defined herein.
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.
The following description is adopted for devices for handling body liquids of the baby diaper type, and in particular for devices intended for babies in the weight range of about 9-18 kg. Nonetheless, the skilled person will be able to readily adopt it for other purposes, such as for other sizes, or adult incontinence applications. The average gush size for the above babies is 75 ml, the 95 percentile of their gush size is 110 ml. The average urination rate for the above babies is 15 ml per second, the 95 percentile of their size is 22 milliliters per second. In adult incontinence context, the average gush size is 110 milliliters and average urination rate is at 22 ml per second. Nonetheless, gushes in the adult incontinence context may be up to 180 milliliters with peak rates up to 40 ml/s.
The present invention provides a liquid handling member which is intended to be used for the initial rapid acquisition of liquid gushes disposed onto a device for handling urine. The present invention further provides a device for handling urine comprising such a liquid handling member. The device of the present invention may be used for example as diapers, training pants, adult incontinence devices, or the like.
The term “liquid handling device” as used herein refers to devices which are designed to handle body liquids such as urine, menses, feces, and the like. Handling body fluids includes but is not limited to acquiring, distributing, and storing the body liquids.
The device for handling urine according to the present invention further comprises a liquid acquisition region.
The term “acquisition region” as used herein refers to that region of the device for handling urine according to the present invention which is intended to first come into contact with the exudated body liquids. In many cases, the acquisition region of the device is distinguished from other regions of the device by for example different materials. In this case, the acquisition region comprises the total surface area covered by the specific acquisition material. In cases where the acquisition region is not distinguished from other regions in their readily apparent way, the acquisition region is considered to be that region which is centered around the intended loading point of the device, which is about a third of the length of the device long, and which spans over the entire width of the device. In case, more than one loading point is foreseen in the intended use of the device, the geometric average of these loading points is to be used for the definition of the acquisition region.
For the purpose of the present invention, a Cartesian coordinate system is defined as follows. The. z-direction is defined to be perpendicular to the surface of the acquisition region at the intended loading point. The x-direction is defined to coincide with the longitudinal dimension of the de
Ehrnsperger Bruno Johannes
Goldman Stephen Allen
Schmidt Mattias
Hughett Eileen L.
Lo Weilun
Milbrada Edward J.
Patel Ken K.
Stephens Jacqueline F
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