Personal care product containing a product agent

Details Personal care product containing a product agent Personal care product containing a product agent

1999-05-28

2001-08-28

Ruhl, Dennis (Department: 3761)

Surgery

Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material

Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...

C604S385010

Reexamination Certificate

active

06281407

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to absorbent articles, particularly absorbent structures that are useful in personal care products such as disposable diapers, incontinence guards, childcare training pants and the like. (The reference to “diapers” in the title is merely illustrative). More particularly, the invention relates to absorbent articles that reduce the hydration of the skin by reducing and/or controlling the relative humidity (RH) in the air within the article's enclosure through the use of drying agents. This removes water vapor from the area between the article and the skin and, as a result, aids the skin in its fight against the detrimental effect of bodily exudates and mechanical abrasion.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Personal care products are absorbent articles including diapers, training pants, incontinence devices and the like. These products are designed to absorb and contain body exudates and are generally single-use or disposable items which are discarded after a relatively short period of use—usually a period of hours—and are not intended to be washed and reused. Such products are placed against or in proximity to the wearer's body to absorb and contain various exudates discharged from the body. All of these products typically include a liquid permeable bodyside liner or cover, a liquid impermeable outer cover or backsheet, and an absorbent structure disposed between the bodyside liner and outer cover. The liquid impermeable outer cover may be breathable, i.e., permeable to water vapor, but typically is not.
It has been found that urination can occur at rates as high as 15 to 20 milliliters per second and at velocities as high as 280 centimeters per second. The volume of urine released per occurrence can vary from about a nominal amount to about 100 ml. It's important for the absorbent article to rapidly uptake liquid to avoid excessive pooling of liquid on the body-facing surface of the bodyside liner in order to avoid leakage. Even if absorbed, however, any liquid in the article contributes to the overall relative humidity near the wearer' skin, causing discomfort and potential skin health problems due to excessive skin hydration.
The problem of high relative humidity near the skin in an absorbent article has been addressed in the art through a number of means. U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,525 for example, uses mechanical means to increase airflow in the article. Breathable outer covers allow air and water vapor diffusion into and out of the absorbent article's enclosure and have been mentioned previously.
Despite these attempts, the need exists for further improvement in the reduction of skin hydration within absorbent articles. In particular, there is a need for drying agents that can remove water vapor from the air within an article near the skin. The present invention provides for such reduced relative humidity and skin hydration within an absorbent article's enclosure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A personal care product having a drying agent incorporated into it achieves the objects of this invention. The drying agent can reduce or control the relative humidity in the air within a personal care product significantly. Such a drying agent is a desiccant or a humectant or a combination of both, and might be melt processable so that it may be used in modern fiber forming processes like spunbonding and meltblowing. The drying agent may alternatively be placed in a bag and inserted below the liner in a personal care product. If in particulate form, a drying agent could be attached to the fibers of a web like the liner or to a superabsorbent/pulp layer through the use of an adhesive or binder.
The reduction or control of the relative humidity within a personal care product presumably reduces skin hydration which is believed to reduce redness and irritation due to contact with fluids.
DEFINITIONS
“Disposable” includes being disposed of after usually a single use and not intended to be washed and reused.
“Hydrophilic” describes fibers or the surfaces of fibers, which are wetted by the aqueous liquids in contact with the fibers. The degree of wetting of the materials can, in turn, be described in terms of the contact angles and the surface tensions of the liquids and materials involved. A Cahn SFA-222 Surface Force Analyzer System or a substantially equivalent system can provide equipment and techniques suitable for measuring the wettability of particular fiber materials. When measured with this system, fibers having contact angles less than 90° are designated “wettable” or hydrophilic, while fibers having contact angles equal to or greater than 90° are designated “nonwettable” or hydrophobic.
“Layer” when used in the singular can have the dual meaning of a single element or a plurality of elements.
“Liquid” means a nongaseous substance and/or material that flows and can assume the interior shape of a container into which it is poured or placed.
“Liquid communication” means that liquid such as urine is able to travel from one location to another location.
“Particles” refers to any geometric form such as, but not limited to, spherical grains, cylindrical fibers or strands, or the like.
“Spray” and variations thereof include forcefully ejecting liquid, either as a stream such as swirl filaments, or atomized particles through an orifice, nozzle, or the like, by means of an applied pressure using air or other gas, by force of gravity, or by centrifugal force. The spray can be continuous or non-continuous.
“Relative humidity” refers to the ratio of the quantity of water vapor present in the atmosphere to the quantity that would saturate at the existing temperature. It is also the ratio of the pressure of water vapor present to the pressure of saturated water vapor at the same temperature.
“Spunbonded fibers” refers to small diameter fibers which are formed by extruding molten thermoplastic material as filaments from a plurality of fine, usually circular capillaries of a spinneret with the diameter of the extruded filaments then being rapidly reduced as by, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,563 to Appel et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,618 to Dorschner et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,817 to Matsuki et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,338,992 and 3,341,394 to Kinney, U.S. Pat. No. 3,502,763 to Hartman, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,542,615 to Dobo et al. Spunbond fibers are generally not tacky when they are deposited onto a collecting surface. Spunbond fibers are generally continuous and have average diameters (from a sample of at least 10) larger than 7 microns, more particularly, between about 10 and 30 microns. The fibers may also have shapes such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,976 to Hogle et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,410 to Hills and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,069,970 and 5,057,368 to Largman et al., which describe fibers with unconventional shapes.
“Meltblown fibers” means fibers formed by extruding a molten thermoplastic material through a plurality of fine, usually circular, die capillaries as molten threads or filaments into converging high velocity, usually hot, gas (e.g. air) streams which attenuate the filaments of molten thermoplastic material to reduce their diameter, which may be to microfiber diameter. Thereafter, the meltblown fibers are carried by the high velocity gas stream and are deposited on a collecting surface to form a web of randomly disbursed meltblown fibers. Such a process is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,241. Meltblown fibers are microfibers which may be continuous or discontinuous, and are generally smaller than 10 microns in average diameter.
“Conjugate fibers” refers to fibers which have been formed from at least two polymer sources extruded from separate extruders but spun together to form one fiber. Conjugate fibers are also sometimes referred to as multicomponent or bicomponent fibers. The polymers are usually different from each other though conjugate fibers may be monocomponent fibers. The polymers are arranged in substantially constantly positioned distinct zones across the cross-section of the conjuga

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