CA2184039C

CA2184039C - Disposable absorbent undergarment

Info

Publication number: CA2184039C
Application number: CA002184039A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Masamitsu Yamamoto; Yoshihisa Fujioka; Hirotomo Mukai; Yoshio Ono; Rumi Yamaki; Wataru Kitazawa
Original assignee: Unicharm Corp
Current assignee: Unicharm Corp
Priority date: 1995-08-25
Filing date: 1996-08-23
Publication date: 2000-10-17
Anticipated expiration: 2016-08-23
Also published as: EP0761194B1; EP0761194A2; AU718109B2; DE69617566T2; EP0761194A3; MY117986A; DE69617566D1; CA2184039A1; AU6219896A; US6364863B1

Abstract

A disposable absorbent pants-type undergarment in the form of a diaper comprises short pants and a liquid-absorbent pad attached to an inner side of the short pants.
The short pants comprise a front waist section, a rear waist section and a crotch section interposed therebetween and have a waist-opening and a pair of leg-openings. The short pants are formed with first elastically stretchable regions circumferentially extending in the proximity of a waist-opening and second elastically stretchable regions circumferentially extending parallel to the first elastically stretchable regions immediately above a crotch section which is interposed between the front and rear waist sections and is longitudinally stretchable.

Description

DISPOSABLE ABSORBENT UNDERGARMENT
The present invention relates to disposable absorbent undergarments and more particularly to undergar-ments such as pants type diapers, training pants for babies, pants for incontinent users or sanitary panties for disabled women.
It is known, for example, from Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Application No. Hei6-21621 to bond longitudi nally opposite ends of a liquid-absorbent auxiliary panel presenting a U-shaped curve to an inner side of a crotch section of disposable absorbent pants. This known pants intends to avoid an undesirable excretion leakage by fitting the auxiliary panel tightly against the wearer's crotch. Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Application No.
Hei5-62227 discloses a disposable diaper comprising an elongate elastic retaining member allowing a liquid-absorb-ent pad provided on a crotch section of the diaper to be fitted tightly against the wearer's crotch.
The above-mentioned prior art devices have the problem that the short pants or diaper are inevitably subjected to a force tending to slip the short pants or diaper down when it is tried to fit the liquid-absorbent auxiliary panel or the liquid-absorbent pad placed on the retaining member tightly against the wearer's crotch. Such slip-down of the short pants or diaper might be avoided by increasing the contracting force of the elastic member circumferentially extending around the wearer's waist, but such countermeasure will result in exerting an unacceptably high pressure upon the wearer's belly.
In view of the problem described above, it is a principal object of the invention to provide an improvement in a disposable absorbent undergarment of the pants type allowing a liquid-absorbent pad provided on a crotch section of short pants to be fitted tightly against the wearer's crotch without downward slipping of the undergar-ment worn on the wearer's body.
The object set forth above is achieved, according to the invention, by a disposable absorbent undergarment z 2184cJ38 comprising short pants and a liquid-absorbent pad, the short pants being defined by a front waist section, a rear waist section and a crotch section interposed between the two waist sections and having a pair of leg-openings and a circumferentially stretchable waist-opening and the liquid-absorbent pad being attached to an inner side of the short pants so as to extend longitudinally from the crotch section into the front and rear waist sections, wherein:
the crotch section extending below upper ends of the leg-openings is provided with an elastic member so as to be stretchable at least longitudinally of the crotch section; a circumferential region defined by portions of the front and rear waist sections immediately above the crotch section is provided with an elastic member so as to be circumferentially stretchable; and the liquid-absorbent pad comprises a liquid-permeable topsheet, a backsheet and a liquid-absorbent panel disposed between these two sheets so that portions of the sheets extending outward beyond longitudinally opposite ends of the panel are joined to the front and rear waist sections, respectively.
The invention provides a disposable absorbent undergarment of pants type comprising short pants having longitudinal and transverse directions and a liquid-absorb-ent pad; the short pants being defined by a front waist section, a rear waist section, a crotch section interposed therebetween, a waist opening having first elastic material stretchable circumferentially thereof and a pair of leg-openings each having an upper end and a lower end; a circumferential region along portions of the front and rear waist sections extending in the transverse direction between the upper ends of the leg-openings including a second elastic material so as to be stretchable along the circumferential region; the crotch section further includ-ing an elastically stretchable member extending between the pair of leg-openings so as to be stretchable transversely of the short pants, a portion of the elastically stretchable member extending substantially along halves of ~184U39 rear side peripheries of the leg-openings and another portion of the elastically stretchable member extending across the crotch section in proximity of the lower ends of the leg-openings; the crotch section including a liquid-s impermeable film stretchable at least in the longitudinal direction, and film extending between the second elastic material in the front waist section and in the rear waist section; and the liquid-absorbent pad including a liquid-permeable topsheet, a liquid-impermeable backsheet and a liquid-absorbent panel disposed therebetween, the liquid absorbent pad being placed inside of the short pants so as to extend from the crotch section into the front and rear waist sections, with opposite ends of the liquid-absorbent pad in the longitudinal direction joined to the front and rear waist sections.
Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodi-ment of the invention in the form of a disposable diaper;
Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along a line II-II in Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a plan view showing the diaper as longitudinally extended;
Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along a line IV-IV in Fig. 3;
Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along a line V-V
in Fig. 3.
Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the invention in the form of disposable diaper;
Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along a line II-II in Fig. 6;
Fig. 8 is a plan view showing the diaper as has been longitudinally extended;
Fig. 9 is a sectional view taken along a line IV-IV in Fig. 8; and Fig. 10 is a sectional view taken along a line V-V in Fig. 8.

Figs . 1 and 2 exemplarily show a diaper 1 as a disposable absorbent pants-type undergarment according to the invention in a perspective view and a sectional view taken along a line II-II in this perspective view, respect-s ively. The diaper 1 comprises short pants 2 and a liquid-absorbent pad 3 attached to an inner side of the short pants 2. The short pants 2 comprise, in turn, a front waist section 6, a rear waist section 7 and a crotch section 8. The short pants 2 further include a waist-opening 9 and a pair of leg-openings 10. The front and rear waist sections 6, 7 are bonded together intermittently in the vertical direction so as to define transversely opposite narrow strip-like regions 11, with their inner surfaces put one upon another along their respective transversely opposite side edges. Referring to Fig. 1, the front and rear waist sections 6, 7 are defined above upper ends l0A of the respective leg-openings 10 while the crotch section 8 is defined below the upper ends 10A. The front and rear waist sections 6, 7 have first elastically stretchable members 13 extending along a peripheral edge of the waist-opening 9 and second elastically stretchable members 14 extending circumferentially of the wearer's waist parallel to the first elastically stretchable members 13 at a level immediately above the upper ends l0A of the leg-openings 10. The crotch section 8 includes, in addi-tion to longitudinally stretchable plastic film 27 as will be described later in connection with Fig. 4, elastically stretchable members 15 extending substantially along halves of rear side peripheries of the respective leg-openings 10.
The liquid-absorbent pad 3 longitudinally extends from the crotch section 8 into the front and rear waist sections 6, 7 and is joined at its longitudinally opposite ends 17, 18 to the front and rear waist sections 6, 7, respectively.
The liquid-absorbent pad 3 is bonded inside of the short pants 2 also along an intermediate region 19 with respect to the longitudinally opposite ends 17, 18 and this region 19 for bonding is defined by a narrow strip-like region longitudinally extending along the transverse middle of the crotch section 8 so as to be positioned toward the front waist section 6. The bonding of the pad 3 is achieved by suitable means, such as by hot melt adhesive.
Fig. 3 is a plan view showing the diaper 1 of Fig. 1 as separated along the narrow strip-like regions 11 and longitudinally extended in the direction indicated by arrows P, Q in Fig. 1 into the front waist section 6 and the rear waist section 7. Referring to Fig. 3, the front and rear sections 6, 7 include first elastically stretchable regions W~ extending around the waist-opening 9 and second elastically stretchable region WZ
circumferentially extending parallel to the first elastically stretchable regions W~, both of which are 10 to 50mm wide and respectively defined circumferentially by the first and second elastically stretchable members 13, 14 each comprising a plurality of elastic elements so that the regions W1, WZ present tensile stresses W1, WZ in a relation-ship of W1 >_ W2. Third regions W3 extending between the respective regions W~ and WZ may be circumferentially non-stretchable. The respective stresses W1, WZ in the front waist section 6 may be adjusted to be different from the corresponding stresses in the rear waist section 7 and, in such a case, the respective stresses in the front waist section 6 will be preferably adjusted to be higher than the corresponding stresses in the rear waist section 7. The elastically stretchable member 15 extending substantially along halves of the rear side peripheries of the respective leg-openings 10 and describing curves on transversely opposite sides of the crotch section 8 is continuous between the right and left leg-openings 10. More specifi-cally, they extend upward from points in the proximity of lower ends lOB of the respective leg-openings 10 (as will be apparent from Fig. 1) and then across an area of the crotch section 8 which is defined aside toward the front waist section 6. The crotch section 8 has a stretchability in its longitudinal direction owing to the presence of the stretchable plastic film 27 as will be described later in connection with Fig. 4 and, in addition, a stretchability along the peripheral edge of each leg-opening 10 which is enhanced by the elastically stretchable member 15.
The liquid-absorbent pad 3 is joined at its longitudinally opposite ends 17, 18 to the respective first stretchable regions W1 extending together around the waist-opening 9. The region 19 of the crotch section 8 at which the pad 3 is bonded to the crotch section 8 has its lower end 19B positioned toward the front with respect to the lower ends lOB of the leg-openings 10. The purpose of this region 19 is to avoid the possibility that the pad 3 might be lifted off from the crotch section 8 and/or might be shifted transversely of the crotch section 8 during use of the diaper 1. Region 19 preferably has a width equal to a small fraction of the crotch section's width, for example, 1 to 3mm.
Referring to Fig. 4 which is a sectional view taken along a line IV-IV in Fig. 3, each of the front and rear waist sections 6, 7 of the short pants 2 comprises a laminate sheet consisting of a topsheet 21 made of hydrophilic or hydrophobic nonwoven fabric and a backsheet 22 made of hydrophobic nonwoven fabric intermittently bonded together and the previously described first and second elastically stretchable members 13, 14 interposed between the topsheet 21 and the backsheet 22 wherein the members 13, 14 are secured in a stretched condition to an inner surface of at least one of the topsheet 21 and the backsheet 22. The backsheet 22 is folded along the periph-eral edge onto the inside of the short pants 2 and put upon the longitudinally opposite ends 17, 18 of the pad 3. The crotch section 8 comprises a crotch section topsheet 25 made of a hydrophilic or hydrophobic nonwoven fabric, a crotch section backsheet 26 made of a hydrophobic nonwoven fabric and a plastic film 27 being stretchable at least in its longitudinal direction, liquid-impermeable and mois-7 - 184~3~
ture-permeable. The film 27 is intermittently bonded in a stretched condition in its longitudinal direction to the inner surfaces of the crotch section topsheet 25 and the crotch section backsheet 26. When the diaper 1 is not worn on the user's body, the film 27 contracts to form a plural-ity of gathers in the crotch section 8 (as will be apparent from Fig. 1). Longitudinally opposite ends 30, 31 of the crotch section 8 are joined to the front and rear waist sections 6, 7, respectively, below the second stretchable regions WZ circumferentially extending parallel to the waist-opening 9. The liquid-absorbent pad 3 is free from being bonded to the inner surface of the short pants between the longitudinally front end 17 and the region 19 as well as between the longitudinally rear end 18 and the region 19. While adhesive H (shown in Fig. 2) by means of which the short pants 2 and the pad 3 are bonded together can be seen also in Fig. 4, bonding means for the other components are not shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along a line V-V
in Fig. 3, in which the elastically stretchable member 15 associated with the respective leg-openings presents their cross-sections in the proximity of transversely opposite side edges of the pants between the crotch section topsheet and the film 27. The member 15 is secured in a 25 stretched condition to the inner surface of at least one of the crotch section topsheet 25 and the film 27. The pad 3 comprises a panel 35 which includes, in turn, a shaped mixture of fluff pulp fibers and discrete particles of a water insoluble hydrogel covered with a tissue paper 37, a liquid-permeable topsheet 38 made of a nonwoven fabric covering a top surface of the panel 35, a liquid-imperme-able backsheet 39 made of a plastic film covering a bottom surface of the panel 35 and extending outward beyond transversely opposite side edges of the panel 35, and liquid-impermeable side sheets 42 made of a nonwoven fabric and joined to an upper surface of lateral extensions of the backsheet 39 with their inner side edges 40 bonded to an upper surface of the topsheet 38 and their outer side edges 41 extending outward beyond transversely opposite side edges of the backsheet 39. The backsheet 39 may be liquid-permeable so far as the liquid-impermeable film 27 exists and/or the panel 35 has a sufficiently high liquid retain-ing ability. Each of the side sheets 42 contains an elastically stretchable member 45 in a stretched condition in the longitudinal direction of the pad 3 within a sleeve 43 formed by folding back an outer side edge of this side sheet 42 and longitudinally opposite ends of the member 45 are secured to the longitudinally opposite ends 17, 18 of the pad 3. The backsheet 39 is fixedly bonded at the region 9 to the upper surface of the crotch section topsheet 25 by means of hot melt adhesive H. With the diaper 1 assembled as shown in Fig. 1, the elastically stretchable members 45 contract between their longitudinally opposite ends and the backsheet 39 is curved integrally with the side sheets 42 as indicated by the broken lines in Fig. 5, so as to fit closely around the wearer's legs and thereby to avoid lateral leakage of excretion.
With this diaper 1 worn on the wearer's body, the pad 3 can be reliably fitted against the wearer's crotch by longitudinally stretching the crotch section 8. A con-tracting force thereupon generated in the crotch section 8 in its longitudinal direction would otherwise slip the short pants 2 down, but such possibility is effectively reduced by the second elastically stretchable regions WZ
circumferentially extending around the wearer's waist parallel to the first elastically stretchable regions WI.
The regions WZ additionally prevent said contracting force generated in the crotch section 8 from affecting the first elastically stretchable regions Wlcircumferentially extend-ing around the waist-opening 9. Consequently, no slipping down of the short pants 2 occurs even if the diaper 1 is worn on the wearer's body with the pad 3 being tightly fitted against the wearer's crotch. In addition, the second elastically stretchable regions WZ cooperate with the g _ stretchable plastic film 27 to press the longitudinally opposite ends of the liquid-absorbent panel 35 against wearer's body and at the same time to assure a desired fit around the wearer's legs. The second elastically stretchable regions WZ are different from the first elastically stretchable regions W1 circumferentially extending in the proximity of the waist-opening 9 in that they can prevent slipping down of the pants as described above without exerting an excessive pressure on the central zone of wearer's belly even if their tensile stress is relatively high. Owing to the presence of the second stretchable regions WZ having such function, no slipping down of the short pants 2 readily occurs if the tensile stress of the first stretchable regions W1 is selected so as to be lower than that usually selected by the known short pants. The pad 3 is bonded to the inner side of the short pants 2 only at its longitudinally opposite ends 17, 18 associated with the first elastically stretchable regions W1 and at the relatively narrow region 19 defined in the crotch section 8 by a narrow strip-like area longitudinally extending along the transversely middle region of the crotch section 8 over an intermediate length between the longitudinally opposite ends 17, 18 of the pad 3 so as to be positioned aside toward the front waist section 6. Such arrangement is advantageous in that the presence of the pad 3 does not decrease the stretchability of the crotch section 8.
Another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated by a disposable absorbent undergarment lA in Figs. 6 - 10, which have substantially the same structure and components as those previously described in connection with Figs. 1 - 5, and where the similar components have the same reference numeral as those of Figs. 1 - 5. It should be noted, therefore, that a description of the similar structure and components is omitted. This embodiment includes third elastically stretchable regions W3 which are r X184~39 defined circumferentially by third elastically stretchable members 16 each comprising a plurality of elastic elements extending parallel to and between the first and second elastically stretchable members 13, 14, to provide a relatively low stretchability. A tensile stress of each region W3 may be selected to establish a relationship of W3 < W2. The respective stresses W~, W2, W3 in the front waist section 6 may be adjusted to be different from the corre-sponding stress in the rear waist section and, in such a case, the respective stresses in the front waist section 6 will be preferably adjusted to be higher than the corre-sponding stresses in the rear waist section 7.
Without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention, the longitudinally opposite ends 17, 18 of the liquid-absorbent pad 3 may be bonded to the third regions W3 below the first regions W1 rather than to the first regions W1. The region 19 of the crotch section 8 at which the pad 3 is bonded to the inner side of the short pants 2 may have its upper end 19A extending upward beyond the crotch section 8 into a lower zone of the third region W3 in the front waist section 6. The lower end 19B of the region 19 may extend beyond the lower ends lOB of the leg-openings 10 to a point adjacent the longitudinal middle of the crotch section 8. The topsheet 21 and the backsheet 22 of the short pants 2 may be replaced by sheets of liquid-impermeable plastic film. It is also possible without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention to replace the first and second elastically stretchable members 13, 14 circumferentially extending around the wearer's waist by a plurality of stretchable members, respectively. The peripheral edge of each leg-opening 10 may be provided not only along a half of the rear side but also along a half of the front side with the elastically stretchable member. When the crotch section 8 has a relatively high tensile stress, the elastically stretchable member 15 extending around the leg-openings may be elimin-ated. Concerning the pad 3, the transverse extensions of i.,, 184~3g the backsheet 39 may be dimensioned to be relatively narrow and the elastically stretchable members 45 may be elimin-ated. Furthermore, for the bonding of the components of the short pants 2 as wel l as of the pad 3 , means such as hot melt adhesive or heating may be used.
4~lith the disposable absorbent undergarment according to the invention, the undergarment can be worn on the wearer's body with the liquid-absorbent pad being tightly fitted against the wearer's crotch without demand for increased tensile stress in the elastically stretchable regions in the proximity of the waist-opening, since there are provided immediately above the crotch section the elastically stretchable regions circumferentially extending around the wearer's waist so that these elastically stretchable regions may prevent the contracting force generated in the crotch section in the longitudinal direc-tion from tending to slip the pants down. Such undergar-ment is comfortable to wear, since the contracting force generated circumferentially around the wearer's waist does not exert an excessive pressure on the central zone of the wearer's belly.
The elastically stretchable regions lying immedi-ately above the crotch section press the longitudinally opposite ends of the pad against the wearer's body and cooperate with said contracting force to improve the fit of the undergarment to the wearer's body.
Furthermore, the undergarment can be smoothly worn on the wearer's body without concern that the liquid-absorbent pad might lift off from the crotch section or shift aside since the pad is bonded to the inner side of the short pants in the proximity of the waist-opening and at the crotch section. Once the short pants have been worn on the wearer's body, the proper position of the pad relative to the wearer's body is scarcely affected by a deformation of the short pants and practicably no space is produced between the pad and the wearer's body which might cause leakage of excretion. In addition, the pad is free - 18~~ 39 relative to the short pants except its longitudinally opposite ends and intermediate bonding region, so the presence of the pad does not adversely affect the circum-ferential stretchability of the short pants. In this manner, the short pants fit around the wearer's waist with a uniform tension and are comfortable to wear.

Claims

1. A disposable absorbent undergarment of pants type comprising short pants having longitudinal and transverse directions and a liquid-absorbent pad;
said short pants being defined by a front waist section, a rear waist section, a crotch section interposed therebetween, a waist opening having first elastic material stretchable circumferentially thereof and a pair of leg-openings each having an upper end and a lower end;
a circumferential region along portions of said front and rear waist sections extending in said transverse direction between said upper ends of said leg-openings including a second elastic material so as to be stretchable along said circumferential region;
said crotch section further including an elastically stretchable member extending between said pair of leg-openings so as to be stretchable transversely of said short pants, a portion of said elastically stretchable member extending substantially along halves of rear side peripheries of said leg-openings and another portion of said elastically stretchable member extending across said crotch section in proximity of said lower ends of said leg-openings;
said crotch section including a liquid-impermeable film stretchable at least in said longitudinal direction, and film extending between said second elastic material in said front waist section and in said rear waist section; and said liquid-absorbent pad including a liquid-permeable topsheet, a liquid-impermeable backsheet and a liquid-absorbent panel disposed therebetween, said liquid-absorbent pad being placed inside of said short pants so as to extend from said crotch section into said front and rear waist sections, with opposite ends of said liquid-absorbent pad in said longitudinal direction joined to said front and rear waist sections.

2. The undergarment as defined by claim 1, wherein said pad is bonded, along a narrow region longitudinally extending on a transverse middle of said pad, to said crotch section, so that said pad can remain free relative to said short pants except at said longitudinally opposite ends of said pad and along said narrow region thereof.

3. The undergarment as defined by claim 2 wherein said narrow region has a width of 1 to 3mm.

4. The undergarment as defined by claim 2 or 3, wherein said bonding region provided on said crotch section is placed toward said front waist section.