Surgery – Male reproductory tract shields or birth control devices – Condoms
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-22
2001-03-06
Lems, Kim M. (Department: 3761)
Surgery
Male reproductory tract shields or birth control devices
Condoms
Reexamination Certificate
active
06196227
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a water soluble lubricant which is used for a condom and a condom whose surface is spread with said water soluble lubricant.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
As a lubricant to be applied to a condom, the lubricant which satisfies following two items is required. Namely, a property to penetrate easily into a wound up part of condom after it is dropped on a wound up part of condom, and a sliminess property when it is used. In general, a lubricant which has an excellent slipping ability is ranked with a good lubricant, however, as a lubricant for condom, a lubricant which merely has a slipping ability is not required, but a lubricant which has adequate sliminess and appropriate slipping resistance is required. That is, the lubricant which has low static friction, high dynamic friction after starting to slip and appropriate slipping resistance is required. In this invention, the mentioned physical property is called sliminess. Further, it is required that a lubricant for condom penetrate into a wound part of the condom homogeneously when it is applied to the wound up part and furthermore required to provide a condom with a wettability. These effects can be generated by the combined use of two or more kinds of lubricant.
Presently, a silicone oil is mainly used as a lubricant for a condom. Silicone oil is applied to a condom. However, since silicone oil is a lipophilic agent and is not water soluble, it has a problem that it is very hard to be removed when it is adhered to a skin or clothes.
To solve this problem, many kinds of water soluble lubricants are proposed. However, most of these proposed lubricants, when applied to a condom, have a tendency to whiten the condom by water absorption and not only affect the appearance but also deteriorate the properties of the condom.
The lubricant which is applied to a condom disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid open publication 7-267849 is one approach to solve the problem. The feature of the invention disclosed in this publication is to add squalane to the lubricant. Squalane differs from the conventional silicone oil, which has slimy touch, and is superior at lubrication and humidity, provides a comfortable touch because of it's water solubility, does not whiten a condom and does not affect the physical property of a condom. However, since the squalane blended lubricant for condom has the following problem, squalane is not a satisfactory lubricant. That is, the lubricant does not easily penetrate into a wound up part of condom and the rubber film adheres tightly, so it becomes hard to unwind it at the time of actual use.
Further, the squalane blended lubricant for condom can improve the sliminess by increasing the viscosity, however, a threading phenomenon occurs along with the increase of viscosity and deteriorates the appearance of condom as a commodity. Therefore, this lubricant can not be used as a sliming agent.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is carried out to solve the above mentioned problem. The object of this invention is to provide a water soluble lubricant for condom which can be easily removed by water when adhered to a human skin, which does not occasion the whitening phenomenon of a condom by water absorption and which has a good penetrating property into a wound up part of a condom, gives a condom with a sliminess at the actual use, moisturizes a condom and improves a wettability. And another object of this invention is to provide a condom whose surface is spread with said water soluble lubricant.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
As above mentioned, the object of this invention is to provide a lubricant for condom which penetrates easily into the wound up part of condom and gives a condom with a sliminess at the actual use, and another object of this invention is to provide a lubricant for condom which improves the wettability of a condom and moisturizes a condom, and a lubricant for condom which penetrates easily into the wound up part of condom.
Further, the other object of the invention is to provide a condom whose incompatibility during actual use is improved to have a natural feeling by coating the condom with above mentioned lubricant for condom.
The above mentioned objects are accomplished by the following water soluble lubricant for condom and by a condom whose surface is spread with said water soluble lubricant. Namely, as the water soluble lubricants which are superior at the penetration to the wound up part of a condom and do not whiten the appearance of a condom, one or more kinds of aqueous solution of agents selected from sodium lactate, trimethylglycine, sodium dl-malate, monosaccharide and salts of dl-pyrrolidonecarboxylic acid can be mentioned.
As the water soluble lubricant which provide a condom with sliminess, at least one kind of aqueous solution of agents selected from the group listed below can be mentioned. That is: pullulan, ammonium-polymethacrylate, sodium-starch-glycollic acid, polyvinylpyrrolidone, xanthane gum, guar gum, gellan gum, tamarindo gum, tarra gum, locust bean gum, arabian gum, sodium alginate, propylene glycol alginate, karaginane, sodium-carboxymethylcellulose, dextran, furcelleran and sodium polyacrylate.
Further, as a humectant which moisturizes a condom, at least one humectant selected from glycerin, propyleneglycol and polyethyleneglycol having 200 to 600 weight average molecular weight can be mentioned.
And further, the present invention provides a condom on whose surface is spread said water soluble lubricant. As a lubricant to be applied to a condom, a lubricant composed by an agent which has good penetration to the wound up part of a condom (this kind of lubricant is simply called a penetration agent) and an agent which provides a condom with sliminess (this kind of lubricant is simply called a sliming agent), and, optionally, an agent which provides a condom with a wettability (this kind of lubricant is simply called a humectant) can be used.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to the lubricant for condom of this invention, in the lubricant composed by a water soluble lubricant which protects a condom from whitening and a lubricant which provides a condom with sliminess, as a monosaccharide to be used as a penetration agent, xylose, glucose and fructose are preferably used and when these kinds of monosaccharide are used alone, the desirable water content is 40-80 wt %. When water content is smaller than 40% penetration is not sufficient, and when water content is bigger than 80% the surface of condom becomes white. In a case of water soluble lubricant which provides a condom with sliminess, less than several % of refined water is added to sliming agent. The viscosity of obtained aqueous solution is, for instance; in a case of xanthan gum, from 400 to 10,000 centi Poise; in a case of guar gum, from 200 to 30,000 centi Poise; in a case of gellan gum, from 5,000 to 40,000 centi Poise; in a case of tamarindo gum, from 400 to 20,000 centi Poise; in a case of locust bean gum, from 400 to 60,000 centi Poise; and in a case of pullulan, from 5 to 400 centi Poise, and it is desirable to control the viscosity of each aqueous solution in above mentioned limit.
As a humectant agent, glycerin, propyleneglycol and polyethyleneglycol having 200 to 600 weight average molecular weight are preferably used, and usually these are used alone or used together.
Further, the inventors of the present invention have conducted many intensive experiments based on many kinds of knowledge to obtain a water soluble lubricant for condom which is superior at easy penetration into the wound up part of condom and having good wettability and sliming feature, and confirmed that such kind of a water soluble lubricant for condom can be obtained by mixing use of the following agents. That is, a penetration agent which has an excellent penetrating ability to the wound up part of a condom and does not whiten the appearance of the condom, and a sliming agent which provides a condom with a sliminess property are mixed together with a
Lems Kim M.
Okamoto Industries INC
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