CA1043503A

CA1043503A - Wrapped sanitary napkins

Info

Publication number: CA1043503A
Application number: CA252,660A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Subramanian Srinivasan; Fred H. Steiger
Original assignee: Personal Products Co
Current assignee: Personal Products Co
Priority date: 1975-05-19
Filing date: 1976-05-17
Publication date: 1978-12-05
Also published as: DE2622109A1; AU1253176A; AU499603B2; US3973567A

Abstract

WRAPPED SANITARY NAPKINS
Abstract of the Disclosure A sanitary napkin having an adhesive element thereon for attaching to an undergarment is provided with means for both protecting the napkin and the adhesive element prior to use ant for disposing of the napkin after use. The means comprise providing the napkin with a sheet of flexible material overlying one major surface, and the sides of the napkin and at least partially overlapping on the second major surface of the napkin. The sheet is releasably adhered to and held in place by the adhesive element.

Description

10~3S03 Background of the ~nvention This invention concerns the handling and disPosing of sanitary napkins and, in particular, concerns means for protecting a sanitary napkin having an adhesive attachment system before use and means for dispos~ng of such a napkin after use.
The art is now replete with suggestions for aanitary napkins which can be applied to the crotch portion of an undergarment and held in place there by an adhesive element thus eliminating the need for the re conventional attachment systems such as belts, pine, and the like. Generally, such napkins comprise an adhesive element in the fonm of a rectan-gular layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive or a double faced adhesive tape arranged in various patterns on the bottom surface of the napkin (i.e., the surfnce of the napkin worn away from the body). Because such adhesive elements are necessarily tacky, it i8 essential that a protective layer be provided to overlie the adhesive element prior to use, the pro-tective layer being capable of releasably peeling from the adhesive element at the time of use. Such protective layers have heretofor comprised a relatively stiff sheet of material essentially co-extensive in size with the adhesive element and being specially treated 80 as to easily peel firom the adhesive element at the time of use. For example, a heavy paper strip having one surface coated with silicone has been used commercially.
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~A~

Napkin~ of this type are then typically packaged, without further protection, in cartboard or flexible film packages of eight, ten, twelve or more napkins.
Several drawbacks are associated with the construction and packaging of adhesiv~attached napkins in the manner des-cribed above. Firstly, a large number of napkins packaged in a ~ingle package, necessarily means that the package will remain open, with the unused napkins exposed and sub~ected to soiling, for a period of days and even for as much as a month or longer. Secondly, a user will frequently remove several napkins from the large package and place them in her handbag for future use. The expo~ed napkins are once again sub~ect to be~ng soiled when carried in a purse. Thus,~it is advan- ;
tageous to individually wrap each napkin. Unfortunately, the ... ~ .
additional material3 and proce~sing steps required to 80 wrap ench napkin would appear to greatly increase the cost of the product to the-consumer and heretofor, no economical means have thus far been suggested for accomplishing this without such increased C08t.
Still another problem which relates to the above described napkins is in the disposal of the used napkin. Ideally a u~ed napkin should be fully wrapped immediately after u~e and disposed of in a closed trash receptacle. Understandably however, there i8 a great reluctance toward -any exten~ive handling of the used napkin and 80 all too frequently, the napkin i8 di~posed of in an unwrapped condition or alternatlvely is ~imply flushed in a water closet where it often causes clogging of the as~ociated piping. Several suggestions are found in the prior art for aU~.viating this problem and are exemplified by U.S. Patent Number 2,750,033 issued June 12, 1956 to J. B. Pickens or U.S. Patent Number 2,766,927, lssued on October 16, 1956 to J. S. Wallace. Each of these patents describe a closed envelope or recept4cle for receiving a soiled napkin, the envelope being reclosable or sealable after receiving O the same. While it appears that these suggestions would function quite well with conventional napkins, it is like.wise apparent that these complex, specially designed receptacles would represent a substantial portion of the cost of the product to the consumer. Additionally, when attempting to use these S receptacles with the newly developed-adhesively attached napkins, it is exceedingly difficult to slide such a used napkin into an envelope-like receptacle without extensive handling of the soiled napkin. This is primarily tue to the resistance to sliding caused by the now exposed adhesive element 3 which is tacky and adheres to the wall~ of the envelope.
Accordingly, there is a need for an inexpensive, yet effective means for packaging and disposing of adhesively attached sanitary napkins.

_4_ .

Summary of ~h- I = cion -In accordance with this instant invention, a sanitary napkin having an adhesive ele-~ent thereon for attaching to an undergarment i8 provided with means for both protecting the napkin and the adhesive element prior to use and for disposing ~5 of the napkin after use. It has been discovered that such means may be provided with~_t unduly increasing the cost of the napkin to the consumer, while still overcoming the problems a ociated with prior attempts to meet these desired results.
Specifically, the means of this invention comprise provlding an adhesively attached napkin with a sheet of flexible material overlying one ma~or surface and the sides of said napkin and at least partially overlapping on the second major surface of said napkin, sait sheet belng releasably adhered to and held in place by said adhesive element. Preferably, the sheet o~erlaps on that surface on which the adhesive element is disposed. Thus, by simply providing the over-lapped sheet as described above, the napkin i8 protected from soiling and because the sheet overlies the adhesive element, the need for a protective, specially treated, release 8trip ~20 found to be necessary in prior art adhesively attached napkine i6 now completely eliminated. In fact, the adhesive element iR utilized as the means for holding the flex~ble sheet ln place, thus elimlnating the need for special sealing steps in fabricating an envelope to protect the napkin. The provision of 1043S03 , the slmple sheet construction in combination with the utili-zation of the adhesive element to hold it in place represents only a small fraction of the cost of the finished product and this cost is offset by the savings realized in eliminating 5 the release strip heretofore required.
In use, the sheet is simply unwrapped from the napkin and releases easily from the adhesive element leaving the napkin ready for use. The sheet may then be folded and placed in a handbag or another convenient place until the napkin i8 .0 to be discarded. At this time, the sheet may be unfolded, the napkin laid onto the unfolded sheet and then wrapped in the sheet with the adhesive element again acting to hold the sheet in place. Thus, the now wrapped napkin may safely and sanitarily be disposed of in a trash receptacle.
.5 In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the sheet is in the form of a parallel~grEm having both short parallel sides and long parallel sides. The short sides are at least twice as long as the width of the napkin and are spaced apart by a distance at least as long as the length of the napkin.
'O The napkin is then placed onto this sheet with the longitudinal sides of the napkin essentially perpendicular to the short ~- sides of the sheet,~and preferably with the top maJor surface of the napkin (the surface normally worn against the boty and ~ without the adhesive element~ fac~ng the sheet. A first part '5 of the sheet i8 then folded over the napkin about a line essentially coincidental to one longitudinal edge of the napkin so that this folded portion of the sheet forms a right tri-angular shape on the surface of the napkin. When, a~ in the ~referred embodiment, the adhesive element is on the ~urface - covered by this folded portion, the folded portion is advan-tageously adhered to and held in place by the adhesive element.
Similarly, the remainder of the napkin is covered by olding a second portion of the sheet about a line co~ncidental with the second longitudinal edge of the napkin and again advanta-geously using the adhesive to hold this folded portion in place.
In this manner, the napkin is fully covered using a minimum of sheet material. The hypotenuse of each of the triangular portions of the sheet each cross the adhesive element on the napkin at at least one point and, accordingly, it is assured that the sheet will be held in place by the adhesive element even though the sheet is not In perfect registration with the napkin.
1~ Other closure means may be provided such as a cuff which folds over the seal the open end of the package. In still another embodiment, the sheet i8 formed integral with an envelope for receiving the wrapped nap~in and further insuring that the used napkin is fully enclosed when disposing of the same.
According to a broad aspect of the present inven-tion, there is provided a sanitary napkin having an adhesive element thereon for attaching to an undergarment. The improve-ment comprises means for protecting the napkin and the adheqive element prior to use and for discarding the napkin after use.
This means comprises a sheet of flexible material overlying the major surface and the sides of the napkin and at least partially overlapping on the second major surface of the napkin. The sheet is releasably adhered to and held in place by the adhesive element.

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Brief Descri~tion of the Drawings In the Drawings:
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the wrapped, adhesively attached sanitary napkin of this invention, with parts broken away to expose internal features;
Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the napkin of Fig.
1 taken throug~line 2-2;
Fig. 3 is an analogous cross-sectional view of a second embodiment of this invention;
Fig. 4 i8 a planar view of a napkin placed on a sheet -L0 prior to wrapping and illustrating another embodiment of this invention;
Fig. 5 is a planar view of the napkin and sheet of Fig. 4, in a partially folded oondition;
Fig. 6 is a planar view of the napkin and sheet of Figs.
4 and 5 in a completely wrappet condition;
Fig. 7 is a planar view of a wrappet napkin of this invention illustrating still another specifie embodiment;
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Fig. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the wrapped napkin of Fig. 7 taken along line 8-8;
Fig. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the wTapped napkin of Fig. 8 taken along line 9-9;
Fig. 10 is a perspective view of a used, wrapped and folded napkin prior to sealing and discarding;
Fig. 11 is a perspective view of the napkin of Fig. 10 after sealing;
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1~43S03 Fi~. 12 is a planar view oi a na~kin placed in a wrapper with an integral envelope and illustrating still another embodiment o this invention;
Fig. 13 is a cross-sectional view of the napkin and wrapper of Fig. 12 taken through line 13-I3; and Fig. 14 is a perspective view of the napkin of Fig. 14, wrapped and being folded and placed in the envelope for discarding.

Detailed Description of the Invention ~10 Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate an embotiment of the invention and specifically depict a wrapped sanitary napkin 10 with its bottom surface 12 facing upward in the drawing. The wrapped napkin comprises an absorbent core 14 which may be made up of any suitable absorbent material such as, for example, ~15 comminuted wood pulp fibers, cotton linters, rayon fibers, cotton staple, bleached sulfite creped wadding and the like.
The core 14 is surrounded by a fluid pervious cover 16 which may ~-~ be such sheet material as gauze or nonwoven ~abrics reinforced ~ with adhesive binders or the like. In certain instances, the -20 portion of the cover overlying the bottom ma~or surface of the napkin may conprise a fluid impermeable sheet material such as ~-~ polyethylene or polypropylene, cellophane and other similar films. Such a napkin construction i8 described in U.S. Patent 3,643,662, issued on February 22, 1972 to M. McGuire.

~ _g_ 04~S0 3 Applied to the bottom surface of the napkln is a pressure sensitive adhesive element 18, which, in the con-figuration shown in Fig. 1, is in the form of a single band of pressure sensitive adhesive extending centrally and parallel to the longitudinal edges of the napkin. In use, the napkin is applied to the crotch portion of an undergarment by pressing the adhesive thereto and this may be worn, without substantial repositioning of the napkin, and without the need for belts, pins and the like as with conventional tabbed napkins. The adhesive element may comprise any of a large number of pressure sensitive adhesives now available on the market, including, for example, the so-called cold pressure sensitive adhesives such as the acrylate adhesives, e.g., vinyl acetate-2 ethyl hexyl acrylate copolymer which i8 generally conbined with tackifiers such as, for example, ethylene amine. AlternativeIy, the adhesive ;~ may compri~e the rapid setting thermoplastic (hot melt) adhesives such as block copolymers exemplified by styrene and butadiene styrene copolymers. The adhesive element may also c ~: prise a two-sided adhesive tape such as that described in the afor~mentioned U.S. patent~ 3,643,662.
It will be understood that while a particular geome-trical configuration for the adhesive element is illustrated, : the advantages of this invention accrue to various patterns of adhesive elements such as squares, triangles or other forms as will occur to one skilled in the art.

1~43503 In accordsnce w~th the teachings of this invention, means are provided for both protecting the adhesive element and the napkin prior to use. These means comprise a sheet 20 of flexible material, covering the top surface 22, the sides 24 and overlapping on the bottom surface 12. The sheet is then held in place by being adhered to the adhesive element and thus, the sheet and the adhesive element cooperate in that the sheet provides a protective covering for the adhesive whereas the adhesiveprovides a means for holding the sheet L0 about the napkin to protect the napkin from soiling. By this simple expedient, it can be seen that the specially designed release strip heretofore found necessary for protecting the adhesive element in napkins of this type is completely eliminated while obtaining the advantages of a completely L5 wrapped product. When using the napkin, the sheet may be simply pulled away from the adhesive element and folded up and placed in the user's purse. Thereafter, when discarding the used napkin, the sheet may be unfolded, the napkin placed onto the center of the sheet, the sheet refolded and adhered ~20 to the adhesive element, all these steps requiring only minimal handling of the used napkin itself. The fully wrapped napkin ~ may now bP discarded in a trash receptacle.
- The embodiment shown in Figs. 1 and 2 are so constructed as to provide a product which will not unintentionally unwrap ~25 even when handled by virtue of the fact that the longitudinal edges 26 of the covering sheet both contact and are adhered to the adhesive element. This configuration is relatively easy to achieve when wrapping a used napkin for discarding the ~043503 same by simply taking care to register the napkin with respect to the unfolded sheet so that when the sheet is folded about the napkin, the edges adhere to the adhes~ve. A simple manual adjustment can be made should the registration be imperfect.
In mass producing such wrapped napkins however, registration may become a problem, particularly when the adhesive element used i9 a narrow adhesive band. Accordingly, it may be more advantageous ~o produce a product wrapped as illustrated in ~`
Fig. 3. Depicted there is sanitary napkin 10, overwrapped by the flexible sheet 20, but unlike the construction shown in Figs.
1 and 2, the longitudinal edges 26 of the sheet 20 overlap on the top major surface 22 of the napkin rather than on the bottom surface 12 on which the adhesive element 18 i8 digposed.
As in the prior embodiment, the sheet is held to the napkin by the adhesive element and similarly protects the adhesive element .
and the product from soiling. However, it will be appreciated that in this embodiment, even gross misregistration of the sheet ~ and napkin will still provide a completely protected adhesive - element. The fact that the longitudinal edges of the sheet are not adhered presents no great disadvantage when it is considered that the unused napkins are packaged closely together and not handled until use. When the time comes to dispose of a used napkin however, the same sheet may be applied as is shown in Fig. 1 and 2 by the user so that a safely wrapped napkin can be deposited in a trash receptacle.
Illustrated in Figs. 4-6 is still another embodiment of this invention which more elegantly solves the afore~entioned problem of registration while still maintaining the advantages of this invention in proviting a completely wrapped product and eliminating the need for a special protective strip for the adhesive eloment. Shown in these figures is a sanitary napkin 30 similar in construction to the napkin 10 shown in Figs. 1-3 in that napkin 30 comprises an absorbent core (not visible) overwrapped in a fluid-pervious cover 32 and, havi~g on the bottom surface of the napkin (facing upward in the drawing) two pressure sensitive adhesive elements 34. For illustrative purposes, the a &esive elements 34 are shown as two rectangles ;10 extending transversely across the napkin and located at either end of the napkin. It will be understood that this configuration ~, i8 one of many possible configurations and, for example, is completely interchangeable with the adhesive configuration shown in Figs. 1-3 while ~till obtaining the advantages of this -.15 invention.
The napkin 30 i8 placed on a flexible sheet 36 which is in the shape of a parallelogram having two short parallel sides 38,39 and two longer parallel sides 40,41. The dimensions of -~ the sheet are chosen relative to the size of the napkin such that the shorter parallel sides 38, 39 are at least twice as long as the width W of the napkin and are spaced apart by -~ a distance at least as long as the length L of the napkin.
- The napkin is p~aced on the sheet preferably with the top ma~or surface of the napkin facing the sheet, and with the longi-tudinal edges of the napkin essentially perpendicular to the short sides of the sheet.

Fig. 5 illustrstes the embodiment shown in Fig. 4 with the napkin partially wrapped. The sheet is first folded about a line essentially coincidental to one longitudinal edge 42 of the napkin, with a corner of the sheet c folded over a second corner d, thus forming a right tr~nglecover 46 on the bottom ma~or surface of the napkin. The right triangle covers approximately half of this surface~andis held in place by overlying and adhering to the adhesive element 34. Illus-trated in Fig. 6 i8 the completely wrapped napkin which is .0 obtained by folding the sheet about a line essentially coin-cidental with the second longitudinal edge 44 of the napkin, with the ~rnerof the sheet a folded over the corner b. Thus, again, a right triangle cover 48 is formed on the bottom major surface of the napkin and covers the remaining half of ~5 this surface. Again, this portion of the cover is adhered to the adhesive element 34. It will be appreciated that because the hypotenuse of each of the right triangles lies diagonally ;~ across the face of the napkin, of necessity at least a portion - of each triangle will contact and adhere to the adhesive ~lement.
0 Accordingly, even gross misregistration of the napkin as placed ;~ onto the sheet will not result in the sheet being unadhered to the adhesive and so this particular embodiment may be advantageously used in the rapid mass production of wrapped product. As in the prior embodiment described herein, the sheet may be saved by the user and employed in rewrapping the used product when disposing of the napkin.

The wrapped product illustrated in Figs. 1-3 ant Fig. 6 may be completely enclosed within the sheet by seal~ng the marginal edges of the sheet which extend beyond the ends of the napkin using such methods known in the art as heat sealing or adhesive sealing. Generally, such sealing is un-necessary in packaging unused napkins in that they are ade-quately protected from ~oillng by the unsealed flexible wrapper.
When disposing of the napkin, however, it may be desirable to more effectively ~eal the used napkin for sanitary rea~ons.
This may readily be accomplished by providing resealable adhesive elements on the marginal portions of the wrapped sheet. Another highly effective method is illustrated in Figs.
7-11. Illustrated in Figs. 7-9 is the wrapped napkin, in essentially the form of the embodiment shown in Fig. 6 with the exception that, on the uppermost triangle 48 of the folded sheet, a pocket or cuff 50 has been provided. The cuff may consist of a rectangular sheet of the same material as the flexible sheet, overlying the portion of the triangle `- 48 nearest one end of the napkin. The cuff is formed by sealing the periphery of the rectangular sheet to the triangular portion leaving an open mouth 52 facing the center of the wrapped napkin. The sealing may be accomplished by adhesive or heat seals 53. Alt~rnatively, the rectangular sheet may be integral with the flexible sheet 36 and then folded about linee-a (see Figs. 4 and 5) and sealed along the longit~nal edges to form the cuf~.

~043.S03 In any event, the cuff now provides a convenient and easy-to-use means for sealing a wrapped used napkin.
~ As is illustrated in Fig. 10, a used napkin, first wrapped ; as described above, is folded in half. Fingers may then be inserted into the mouth of the cuff at one end of the folded napkin and,as is shown in Fig. 11, the cuff may then be turned around the other end of the napkin, thus prod~cing a neatly sealed package which may be safely discarded and which has been formed around the used napkin with minimal handling of the napkin.
~10 Figs. 12 through 14 illustrate ~till a further embodiment of the instant invention. A rectangular sheet 60 having a length k equal to at least the length of the napkin is divided into a central portion 64 and two lateral portions 62 and 63, each of the portions being at least as wide as the width W of a napkin 68. Integral with the sheet 60 and extending from the central portion 64 is a bottom panel 70 also of a width and length at least as large as that of the napkin.
Overlying the bottom panel 70 is a top panel 72 generally of the same dimensions as the bottom panel and sealed to the bottom panel along the peripheral edges 75, 75', 75" of the panels but unsealed at the edge facing the sheet 60 so as to form an envelope with a mouth 74 opening from the direction of the sheet 60. A~ shown in this specific embodiment, a cuff 78 is provided on the outside surface of the top panel 72 near the mouth 74, the cuff having a mouth 80 opening in a direction opposite to mouth 74. In using thi~ sheet and integral envelope, ~04:~503 the napkin 68 is laid onto the central portion 64 of sheet 60, preferably with the adhe~ive element 69 facing upwardly. Por-tions 62 and 63 are alternately folded or wrapped about the napkin. In this connection, it has been ~ound desirable to pro-vide slits 82 and 83 cut through the sheet 60 at the points where the sheet is integral with the formed envelope to facilitate `the folding.
As is best illustrated in Fig. 14, the wrapped napkin may now be folded in half and rolled into the integral envelope.
Thereafter, fingers may be inserted into the cuff at mouth 80 and the cuff turned about the open mouth 74 of the envelope to safely seal the napkin therein-for discarding.

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Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exlcusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:-

1. In a sanitary napkin having an adhesive element thereon for attaching to an undergarment, the improvement which comprises means for protecting said napkin and said adhesive element prior to use and for discarding said napkin after use, said means comprising a sheet of flexible material overlying one major surface and the sides of said napkin and at least partially overlapping on the second major surface of said napkin, said sheet being releasably adhered to and held in place by said adhesive element.

2. The improved sanitary napkin of Claim 1 wherein said sheet overlaps on the major surface of the napkin on which the adhesive element is disposed.

3. The improvement of Claim 2 wherein said sheet is in the form of a parallelogram having short parallel sides and long parallel sides, said short parallel sides being at least twice as long as the width of the napkin, and said short sides being spaced apart a distance at least as long as the length of said napkin.

4. The napkin of Claim 1 wherein said flexible sheet is sealed to itself at one end of said napkin.

5. The napkin of Claim 1 wherein a cuff is provided on the flexible sheet approximately one end of the napkin whereby said cuff may be turned around said end of the napkin to seal the napkin within the sheet.

6. The napkin of Claim 1 wherein said sheet is integral with an envelope for receiving said napkin.

7. The napkin of Claim 6 wherein said envelope is provided with a cuff at one end thereof whereby said napkin may be placed in said envelope and said cuff may be turned around said cata-menial napkin to seal said napkin in said envelope.