Surgery – Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material – Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-26
2001-08-28
Weiss, John G. (Department: 3761)
Surgery
Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material
Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
C604S386000, C604S387000, C604S385030, C604S385240, C604S390000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06280428
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins, panty liners, adult incontinence devices, and the like. Still more particularly, the present invention concerns absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins, and the like having flaps with a step configuration. The absorbent articles are preferably also provided with a deformed hinge and zones of extensibility for relieving the stresses that develop in the flaps when the flaps are folded down and under a wearer's undergarment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Absorbent articles, particularly sanitary napkins, having wings or flaps are disclosed in the patent literature and are available in the marketplace. Sanitary napkins having flaps of the various types are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,478, entitled “Shaped Sanitary Napkin With Flaps”, which issued to Van Tilburg on Aug. 18, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,047, entitled “Sanitary Napkin Attachment Means”, which issued to Mattingly on Aug. 26, 1986, U.S. Patent No. B1 4,589,876, entitled “Sanitary Napkin”, which issued to Van Tilburg on May 20, 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,343, entitled “Sanitary Napkin”, which issued to McNair on Aug. 25, 1981, U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,697. entitled “Disposable Sanitary Shield For Undergarments”, which issued to Rickard on Aug. 20, 1968, U.S. Pat. No. 2,787,271, entitled “Sanitary Napkin”, which issued to Clark on Apr. 2, 1957; and design patent Des. 365,147 issued to Hamel on Dec. 12, 1995.
A number of variations on the types of flaps described above have been presented in an attempt to solve various problems. U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,320 issued to McCoy on Feb. 13, 1990, discloses a sanitary napkin having flaps affixed at points inward from the longitudinal edge of the napkin. U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,701 issued to Mavinkurve on Mar. 27, 1990, discloses a sanitary napkin having elastic means for providing greater convex shape to the body-facing portion of the central absorbent and for enabling adhesive-free placement of the flaps of the napkin. U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,462 issued to Salerno on July 10, 1990, discloses a sanitary napkin with longitudinally expandable flaps. A sanitary napkin having flaps with stress relief means in the form of a notch or a slit is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,697 which issued to Osborn, III, et al. on Apr. 17, 1990. U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,094 issued to Lavash et al. on Feb. 14, 1995, discloses sanitary napkins (and other types of absorbent articles) having flaps and zones of differential extensibility.
Although the sanitary napkins described in the Lavash, et al. patent work quite well, the search for sanitary napkins that have improved flaps has continued. For example, when flaps are wrapped around the curved side edges of the crotch of a wearer's undergarment, stresses are exerted on the flap fasteners, particularly with longer flaps. These stresses tend to cause the flap fasteners to become unattached from the surface to which they are attached, whether it be the underside of the wearer's panties or the opposing flap. This is referred to herein as “wing pop-off”. In addition, there is a tendency for the portions of the flaps located in the region of the juncture of the flaps with the main body portion of the sanitary napkin, particularly at those portions of the flaps that are spaced farthest away from the transverse centerline of the flaps (that is, the end portions of the flaps), to wrinkle and be compressed inward due to the forces exerted thereon by the wearer's panty elastics and the wearer's legs.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article having flaps, such as a sanitary napkin, with a structure that allows the flaps to cover as large an area of the wearer's panties as possible without the fasteners thereon becoming unattached.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article having flaps, such as a sanitary napkin, with a structure that resists the tendency for the end portions of the flaps to wrinkle and be compressed inward.
These and other objects of the present invention will be more readily apparent when considered in reference to the following description and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, an absorbent article, such as a sanitary napkin, is provided. The sanitary napkin has flaps with a step configuration and preferably also has a deformed hinge and zones of extensibility for relieving the stresses that develop in the flaps when the flaps are folded around and under the edges of the crotch of the wearer's panties.
The sanitary napkin has a principal longitudinal centerline and a principal transverse centerline. The sanitary napkin comprises a main body portion and a pair of flaps joined to the main body portion. The main body portion of the sanitary napkin comprises a liquid pervious topsheet, a liquid impervious backsheet joined to the topsheet, an absorbent core positioned between the topsheet and the backsheet. The main body portion has two spaced apart longitudinal edges and two spaced apart transverse end edges.
The flaps are each joined to the main body portion at a juncture. The flaps extend laterally outward from at least the central region of the main body portion beyond the longitudinal side edges of the main body portion. In one preferred embodiment, the flaps are integral extensions of the topsheet and backsheet. The flaps are divided into a front half and a back half by a flap transverse centerline. The flaps each have two comer regions which are located adjacent to the area of the ends of the junctures of the flaps with the main body portion. One comer region is located adjacent the area of the juncture in each direction spaced away from the principal transverse centerline.
The flaps have a step configuration in which a portion of the flaps adjacent to the juncture is longer as measured in the longitudinal direction than a portion of the flaps located adjacent to the distal edges of the flaps. The step configuration provides the flaps with improved protection against staining of the sides of the wearer's undergarments (or “side soiling protection”), while reducing the tendency for the flap fasteners to become unattached from the undergarment (reducing “wing pop-off”). The sanitary napkin preferably further comprises a deformed hinge (or bending zone) located in a region that includes the juncture of the flaps with the main body portion and zones of differential extensibility in the corner regions of the flaps. The deformed hinge provides at least one axis about which the flaps may fold relative to the main body portion. The zones of differential extensibility allow the corner regions to extend outward (preferably in a generally transverse direction) to provide a means for the relief of the stresses that develop in the flaps of the sanitary napkin when the flaps are folded down and under the curved side edges of the wearer's undergarments.
In a preferred embodiment, at least a portion of the deformed hinge comprises a portion of the sanitary napkin that has a strainable network formed therein. The strainable network comprises at least two visually distinct regions, referred to as a first region and a second region. The network is configured so that at least one of the regions, the second region, has a surface-pathlength (dimension measured along the surface) which is greater than that of the first region. The second region exhibiting the longer surface-pathlength preferably comprises one or more rib-like elements. The first region with the shorter surface-pathlength is preferably substantially planar. In this embodiment, the portion of the deformed hinge comprising this type of strainable network is preferably located at least in the region of the flap transverse centerline.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4900319 (1990-02-01), Richwine
patent: 4950264 (1990-08-01), Osborn, III
patent: 5009653 (1991-04-01), Osborn, III
patent: 5098422 (1992-03-01), Davis et al
Bamber Jeffrey Vincent
Chow Shirley Lee
Lash Glen Ray
Olsen Robb Eric
Terada Nami
Bamber Jeffrey V.
Bogart Michael
Fitzpatrick Matthew P.
The Procter & Gamble & Company
Weiss John G.
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