Surgery – Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material – Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
Patent
1994-05-18
1997-10-28
Weiss, John G.
Surgery
Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material
Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
604378, 6043851, 604358, A61F 1315
Patent
active
056812990
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is a 371 of PCT/GB92/01959, which is the PCT application of Great Britain application 9124527.4.
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to disposable articles and more particularly to disposable composite structures such as nappies (diapers), feminine hygiene products, and incontinence products.
BACKGROUND ART
The increasing demand for disposable products is producing an escalating problem of waste build Up which contaminates the natural environment.
One of the major contributors to this build up of waste is in the domain of absorbent products. It is well known that current technologies fall short in providing materials which obviate the problem.
Consideration of current structures used to produce disposable absorbent products, especially those which absorb body fluids, reveal that they represent a health risk due to the difficulties of handling and storage in the soiled state. Attempts have been made to re-cycle such products through collection and eventual processing but any system which requires mass storage prior to re-cycling will, almost by definition, increase the risk to health and is likely to be socially unacceptable.
Whilst feminine hygiene products are routinely flushed (after being torn in half along their length prior to flushing), the materials conventionally used in the manufacture of both nappies (hereinafter called diapers) and adult incontinence products, make them incompatible with the flushing process and the subsequent sewage cycle. Diapers are, for example, usually provided with a polythene backing layer which is both insoluble and does not biodegrade.
An advance in this field is described in PCT patent specification publication No W0-A-92/02199 (priority date 10 Aug. 1990, international filing date 9 Aug. 1991 and publication date 20 Feb. 1992). This describes a composite material for providing a disposable product such as a diaper having an outer, soluble layer supporting a liquid impervious barrier, exampled by a coating, which separates the soluble layer from a disintegratable and dispersible liquid absorbent layer. However, this construction suffers from the disadvantage that although it is designed to maintain its integrity during normal use, problems arise because the outer soluble layer can dissolve if it inadvertently comes into contact with liquid, e.g. if it is handled by a person having wet hands. This problem is acknowledged in the final paragraph of WO-A-92/02199 which describes an insoluble re-usable plastics outer cover (shown in FIG. 15 thereof) in which the disposable linings can be used. This cover obviously helps protect the lining, and particularly the soluble outer layer thereof, from inadvertently coming into contact with liquid.
Another approach has been to coat a backing layer formed of a water soluble material such as polyvinyl alcohol with an alkali soluble polymer, e.g. as described in WO-A-90103156 and GB-A-2195919. In such an arrangement, the alkali soluble coating protects the backing layer from dissolving if it inadvertently comes into contact with water. However, when the diaper is flushed, it is necessary to ensure that the flushing environment is sufficiently alkaline to dissolve the polymer coating. This usually requires the addition of a pH adjuster to the flushing water.
In yet another approach described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,311, the surface or surfaces of a disposable article made of a water soluble polymer which are to come into contact with moisture are coated with a degradable, water-insoluble polymer. When an article with the coating applied to only one surface is flushed, the water soluble polymer dissolves leaving a thin layer of degradable, water insoluble coating which is then able to degrade over a period of time. If the water soluble polymer is coated on both sides with the water-insoluble polymer, then both of the coatings have to bio-degrade before the soluble polymer is able to dissolve.
The present invention aims at providing a disposable article which can be disposed of in a manner which causes it to disso
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Ecoprogress Limited
Ruhl Dennis
Weiss John G.
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