Surgery – Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material – Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
Patent
1992-06-19
1994-11-22
Green, Randall L.
Surgery
Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material
Absorbent pad for external or internal application and...
604358, 604373, 6043851, 156161, 156229, 156496, A61F 1315, A61F 1320, B65H 8100, B32B 3100
Patent
active
053664523
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for the flat manufacture of three-dimensional articles, in particular absorbent disposable articles, and to an article produced in accordance with the method.
Absorbent disposable articles, such as diapers, incontinence guards and sanitary napkins, often consist of a substantially flat absorbent pad enclosed between an outer, liquid-impermeable casing layer and an inner, liquid-permeable casing layer. Such articles are mass produced, by placing absorbent pads on a moving web of material and placing a further web of material on the first mentioned web and fastening the two material webs together in regions thereof which protrude beyond the absorbent pads, whereafter a finished article is cut from the thus formed composite web. In the case of the present document, this article is considered to be flat. The human bodies on which such articles are worn, however, are anything but flat and consequently when the article is put on, the absorbent pad will deform and form folds and pleats in the article. Furthermore, it is difficult to shape such articles so that they conform to the shape of the user's body when worn. These factors contribute to an impaired function of the article, particularly with respect to leakage reliability.
If this deformation and folding of absorbent, disposable articles could be eliminated or reduced and/or controlled, the risk of leakage with such articles would be reduced to a significant extent. A large number of different constructions are known whose primary purpose is to avoid the formation of folds in sensitive regions of the article, for instance at the margins or edges of the crotch region of the article, or to provide controlled deformation of the article, for instance so that raised embankments or flaps are formed along the edge margins of the crotch part of the article. It is also known to provide such articles with patterns of pre-tensioned elastic threads or bands, so as to impart a basin-like shape to the article or parts thereof.
SUMMARY
An object of the present invention is to solve the aforesaid problems encountered with absorbent, disposable articles, by providing an article which can be manufactured in a flat state and which, subsequent to manufacture, will assume a three-dimensional shape corresponding to the shape of the user's body.
To this end, there is proposed in accordance with the invention a method of the aforesaid kind which is characterized by placing a plurality of flat, flexible pads intended to form the three-dimensional article sequentially on a flat support surface, such that the side surfaces of at least some mutually adjacent pads will diverge from one another over at least certain sections of the bodies, and by mutually joining the side surfaces of said pads with the aid of pre-stretched contractable devices, and by subsequently permitting the devices to contract so as to convert the article from a flat state to a three-dimensional shape.
The invention also relates to an absorbent, disposable article, such as a diaper, an incontinence guard or a sanitary napkin, manufactured in accordance with said method and comprising an absorbent pad or body enclosed between an inner and an outer casing layer. The inventive article is characterized in that the absorbent body is constructed from a plurality of elongated narrow bodies, each of which is enclosed between two casing layers which are mutually joined along parts lying externally of said bodies; and in that the side surfaces of said bodies are joined, or substantially joined, to the side surfaces of adjacent bodies at least in those parts which lie outside the crotch region of the article; and in that the article has a three-dimensional shape.
So that the invention will be more readily understood and further features thereof made apparent, the invention will now be described in more detail with reference to an exemplifying embodiment thereof illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
REFERENCES:
patent: 4636209 (1987-01-01), Lassen
patent: 4642110 (1987-02-01), Dudek
patent: 4735624 (1988-04-01), Mazars
patent: 4775375 (1988-10-01), Aledo
patent: 5151091 (1992-09-01), Glaug et al.
Hansson Roy
Widlund Leif U. R.
Green Randall L.
Molnlycke AB
Zuttarelli P.
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