Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Structurally defined web or sheet – Including aperture
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-09
2003-03-18
Watkins, III, William P. (Department: 1772)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Structurally defined web or sheet
Including aperture
C428S131000, C428S138000, C604S378000, C604S383000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06534149
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a structure in an article for personal care like diapers, training pants, absorbent underpants, adult incontinence products, bandages and feminine hygiene products, which can accept and distribute liquid.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Personal care articles include such items as diapers, training pants, feminine hygiene products such as sanitary napkins, panty-liners and tampons, incontinence garments and devices, bandages and the like. The most basic design of all such articles typically includes a bodyside liner, an outercover and an absorbent core disposed between the bodyside liner and the outercover.
Personal care products must accept fluids quickly and hold them to reduce the possibility of leakage outside the product. The product must be flexible and have a pleasing feel on the skin, and even after liquid insult, must not become tight or bind the user. Unfortunately, while previous products have met many of these criteria to varying degrees, a number have not.
It has been found that continuous flow insults in feminine hygiene products average 1 ml/hr and are not literally continuous or constant, but rather variable in rate and may even pause during a cycle. “Gush flow” is defined as a sudden heavy flow condition and occurs at flow rates of up to 1 ml/sec. During a gush, 1-5 ml of fluid is released from the body onto the product. The term “continuous flow” is used to define any flow which falls outside of the definition of gush flow.
Combining continuous and gush flow conditions results in variable flow. Essentially, “variable flow” is defined as continuous flow with intermittent gush flow occurrences.
FIG. 1
illustrates the differences between variable flow (diamonds) and continuous flow (squares) over the life of a single product where flow rate volume is on the y-axis in g/hr and time is on the x-axis in hours.
The response to this problem is termed “variable flow management” and is defined as the ability to absorb and contain continuous and light flow (1-2 ml/hr) as well as multiple gushes or sudden heavy flow insults (1 ml/sec with a total volume of 1-5 ml) over the life of the product.
Many feminine care cover materials, for example, have low z-directional conductivity, low surface energy, low void volume, and provide little separation between the absorbent core and the user due to their two dimensional structure. Consequently, these covers result in slow and incomplete intake, high rewet, and large surface stains. In addition, typical intake or acquisition layers are low density, high void volume structures which are ideal for fast fluid intake, but because these structures typically have low capillarity, fluid is not adequately desorbed from the cover material, resulting in smearing and surface wetness. Materials which enhance cover desorption are typically high density, high capillarity materials, but because these materials have low void volume and low z-directional permeability, they inherently retard fluid intake.
There remains a need to address variable flow management by developing on an intake/distribution material which has the void volume necessary for fast intake and the high capillarity desired for sufficient cover desorption (i.e. surface dryness) while maintaining an appropriate capillary structure for fluid distribution.
An objective of this invention is, therefore, to provide such an intake/distribution material to manage a wide variety of flow conditions including sudden heavy flow insults, or gushes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The objects of the invention are achieved by a airlaid fabric layer and spunbond nonwoven fabric transfer delay layer which have been joined by aperturing or “co-apertured”. The result is improved multiple intake performance and a clean and dry cover surface during use in a feminine hygiene product. The material technology developments surrounding variable flow management focus on attaining the proper material structure and property balance necessary to achieve fast intake and improve cover desorption, cover staining, and rewet characteristics. These functional properties are provided through improved material technologies and product construction.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3029817 (1962-04-01), Harwood et al.
patent: 3338992 (1967-08-01), Kinney
patent: 3341394 (1967-09-01), Kinney
patent: 3375448 (1968-03-01), Newman et al.
patent: 3502763 (1970-03-01), Hartmann
patent: 3542615 (1970-11-01), Dobo et al.
patent: 3667468 (1972-06-01), Nystrand et al.
patent: 3692618 (1972-09-01), Dorschner et al.
patent: 3749627 (1973-07-01), Jones, Sr.
patent: 3802817 (1974-04-01), Matsuki et al.
patent: 3849241 (1974-11-01), Butin et al.
patent: 3855046 (1974-12-01), Hansen et al.
patent: 3860002 (1975-01-01), Kolbach
patent: 3871378 (1975-03-01), Duncan et al.
patent: 3897784 (1975-08-01), Fitzgerald
patent: 4016628 (1977-04-01), Kolbach
patent: 4027672 (1977-06-01), Karami
patent: 4093765 (1978-06-01), Schmidt
patent: 4100324 (1978-07-01), Anderson et al.
patent: RE29789 (1978-10-01), Kolbach
patent: 4340563 (1982-07-01), Appel et al.
patent: 4494278 (1985-01-01), Kroyer et al.
patent: 4614679 (1986-09-01), Farrington, Jr. et al.
patent: 4636209 (1987-01-01), Lassen
patent: 4640810 (1987-02-01), Laursen et al.
patent: 4795455 (1989-01-01), Luceri et al.
patent: 4818464 (1989-04-01), Lau
patent: 4988344 (1991-01-01), Reising et al.
patent: 5047023 (1991-09-01), Berg
patent: 5057368 (1991-10-01), Largman et al.
patent: 5069970 (1991-12-01), Largman et al.
patent: 5108820 (1992-04-01), Kaneko et al.
patent: 5108827 (1992-04-01), Gessner
patent: 5147345 (1992-09-01), Young et al.
patent: 5231122 (1993-07-01), Palumbo et al.
patent: 5277976 (1994-01-01), Hogle et al.
patent: 5281208 (1994-01-01), Thompson et al.
patent: 5300054 (1994-04-01), Feist et al.
patent: 5304161 (1994-04-01), Noel et al.
patent: 5318554 (1994-06-01), Young et al.
patent: 5330456 (1994-07-01), Robinson
patent: 5336552 (1994-08-01), Strack et al.
patent: 5348547 (1994-09-01), Payne et al.
patent: 5364382 (1994-11-01), Latimer et al.
patent: 5366451 (1994-11-01), Levesque
patent: 5374260 (1994-12-01), Lemay et al.
patent: 5382400 (1995-01-01), Pike et al.
patent: 5397316 (1995-03-01), LaVon et al.
patent: 5429629 (1995-07-01), Latimer et al.
patent: 5437653 (1995-08-01), Gilman et al.
patent: 5439458 (1995-08-01), Noel et al.
patent: 5454800 (1995-10-01), Hirt et al.
patent: 5460622 (1995-10-01), Dragoo et al.
patent: 5466232 (1995-11-01), Cadieux et al.
patent: 5466410 (1995-11-01), Hills
patent: 5466513 (1995-11-01), Wanek et al.
patent: 5476711 (1995-12-01), Hebbard et al.
patent: 5486167 (1996-01-01), Dragoo et al.
patent: 5514104 (1996-05-01), Cole et al.
patent: 5527171 (1996-06-01), Soerensen
patent: 5549589 (1996-08-01), Horney et al.
patent: 5558655 (1996-09-01), Jezzi et al.
patent: 5562650 (1996-10-01), Everett et al.
patent: 5603707 (1997-02-01), Trombetta et al.
patent: 5607414 (1997-03-01), Richards et al.
patent: 5634915 (1997-06-01), Osterdahl
patent: 5647862 (1997-07-01), Osborn, III et al.
patent: 5647863 (1997-07-01), Hammons et al.
patent: 5649916 (1997-07-01), DiPalma et al.
patent: 5662633 (1997-09-01), Doak et al.
patent: 5665082 (1997-09-01), Boulanger
patent: 5669895 (1997-09-01), Murakami et al.
patent: 5695487 (1997-12-01), Cohen et al.
patent: 5728085 (1998-03-01), Widlund et al.
patent: 5730737 (1998-03-01), Widlund et al.
patent: 5785697 (1998-07-01), Trombetta et al.
patent: 5797894 (1998-08-01), Cadieux et al.
patent: 5807362 (1998-09-01), Serbiak et al.
patent: 5817394 (1998-10-01), Alikhan et al.
patent: 1128704 (1982-08-01), None
patent: 19609462 (1997-09-01), None
patent: 0 124 365 (1984-11-01), None
patent: 2 111 836 (1983-07-01), None
patent: 8164160 (1996-06-01), None
patent: 95/07673 (1995-03-01), None
patent: 95/10996 (1995-04-01), None
patent: 95/17870 (1995-07-01), None
patent: 96/33679 (1996-10-01), None
patent: 97/14384 (1997-04-01), None
patent: 97/18783 (1997-05-01), None
patent: 97/36565 (1997-10-01), None
patent: 97/45083 (1997-12-01), None
patent: 98/13003 (1998-04-01),
Daley Michael Allen
Hammonds Yvette Lynn
Mace Tamara Lee
Matela David Michael
Flack Steven D.
Kimberly--Clark Worldwide, Inc.
Watkins III William P.
LandOfFree
Intake/distribution material for personal care products does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Intake/distribution material for personal care products, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Intake/distribution material for personal care products will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3074129