Garment shield

A garment shield for preventing an underarm portion of a garment from being damaged or becoming unsightly as a result of perspiration. The shield has an absorbent layer of material, the absorbent layer of material being of a predetermined length and a predetermined width and being foldable substantially midway along the length thereof. The absorbent layer of material having oppositely opposed indentations at peripheral edges of the width at substantially where the shield is folded, and the indentations preferably being void of any sharp edges. A plurality of spreadable incisions are located in the absorbent layer of material, with each of the incisions extending radially inward from the peripheral edge of the shield and spaced apart from one another along the peripheral edge, and the indentations being void of any of the incisions. An adhesive is affixed to an undersurface of the absorbent layer of material for removably adhering the absorbent layer of material to the underarm portion of the garment and acting as a barrier to substantially prevent moisture from passing therethrough and onto the garment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates generally to clothing protectors and, more 
particularly to a lightweight absorbent garment shield for use in 
conjunction with the underarm area of a woman's or man's garment in order 
to prevent the garment from being damaged by perspiration and for avoiding 
the unsightliness of perspiration stain. 
There are various types of clothing shields available to protect the 
underarm area of clothing from perspiration. Generally these shields are 
made up of an absorbent material backed by a liner with an adhesive 
attached to the liner for adhering the shield to the underarm portion of a 
garment. 
These past shields, although generally effective in preventing perspiration 
damage to the garment, have numerous drawbacks associated therewith. For 
example, many of the current shields are bulky in design. This bulkiness 
can cause discomfort to the wearer. In addition, past shields have failed 
to fit snugly under the garment causing unsightly bulges beneath the 
garment and therefore, in many instances may be visible therethrough. It 
is therefore evident that there still exists a need for a more effective 
garment shield. 
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an extremely 
lightweight garment shield. 
It is another object of this invention to provide a streamlined and thin 
garment shield. 
It is still another object of this invention to provide a flexible garment 
shield which is easily contoured to the underarm area of a garment. 
It is another object of this invention to provide a disposable garment 
shield. 
It is another object of this invention to provide a garment shield which 
contains alignment means thereon. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The garment shield of this invention overcomes the problems encountered in 
past garment shields and meets the above objects in a novel manner. 
The garment shield of the present invention has a substantially circular, 
oval, square or rectangular configuration with opposed indentations devoid 
of sharp edges and a plurality of spaced apart slits or incisions which 
permit the garment shield to be used effectively with any type of garment. 
In addition, the use of a minimum number of elements, in conjunction with 
a minimum amount of substantially odorless adhesive permits the shield of 
this invention to be virtually unnoticeable under a garment. Another 
feature of this invention involves the utilization of a centering mark 
associated with the garment shield to enable the shield to be easily 
centered with respect to the underarm area of the garment. 
The garment shield of this invention incorporates therein a layer of 
absorbent material comprising of a soft lightweight thermal bonded web 
formed on a nonwoven carrier. The thermal bonded web would permit moisture 
to pass therethrough and keep the skin dry while the nonwoven carrier 
would absorb moisture. 
For a better understanding of the present invention, together with other 
and further objects thereof, reference is now made to the following 
description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims 
.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Reference is now made to FIG. 1 of the drawings which discloses the 
placement of a pair of garment protectors or shields 10 of this invention 
in place on the inside surface of the underarm area of a garment 12. 
Although garment 12 is shown in FIG. 1 as a dress it may be in the form of 
any woman's or man's garment in which protection from underarm 
perspiration is desired. Further, for ease of understanding the 
descriptions of the various embodiments of the garment shield or protector 
of this invention, identical reference numerals will be utilized to 
identify similar components and portions of the various embodiments 
Reference is now made to FIGS. 1-5 of the drawings for a detailed 
description of one of the preferred embodiments of the garment shield of 
this invention, More specifically, each garment protector or shield 10 of 
this invention is made up of a substantially elongated oval or 
substantially circular configured layer of absorbent material 14 (shown in 
cross-section, in FIG. 5). An example of a preferred material for the 
layer of absorbent material 14 would be a soft lightweight thermal bonded 
web formed on a nonwoven carrier. The thermal bonded web would permit 
moisture to pass therethrough and keep the skin dry while the nonwoven 
carrier would absorb moisture. The absorbent layer of material 14 
preferably has a larger vertical length 16 than the horizontal width 18, 
with the horizontal length 18 having oppositely opposed curved 
indentations 20 at opposed peripheral edges of shield 10. For example, the 
vertical length would be preferably less than 10 inches and the horizontal 
length preferably less than 8 inches. However, other dimensions within the 
scope of this invention could also be used. 
These curved indentations 20 are preferably made without any sharp edges in 
order to fit snugly beneath the underarm of a garment 12 without pinching 
the user. Referring to FIG. 3 and 5 of the drawings, a center mark in the 
form of a dot 15 or arrow or other such mark is imprinted on the outside 
surface of the center of the absorbent layer of material 14 midway between 
the curved indentations 20 in order to assist the wearer in properly 
placing the shield 10 along the inner seam of the underarm portion of a 
garment. The wearer utilizes this mark 15 in conjunction with the curved 
indentations to properly center the shield in place. 
As shown in FIG. 4 of the drawings, an entire undersurface of absorbent 
material 14 is coated with an adhesive film or tape 22 which not only 
enables the shield 10 to removably adhere to the underarm portion of a 
garment 12, but also acts as a barrier to substantially prevent the 
moisture or perspiration from passing onto the garment 12. The use of only 
an adhesive film or tape 22 with the absorbent layer of material 14 
enables the protector 10 of this invention to be extremely flexible and 
when folded as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 of the drawings remains in a 
substantially folded position without the need for creases or scoring of 
the material, a process step which adds to the expense of manufacture. 
It should be also understood that if such a double-faced tape 22 is used 
with this invention the side of the tape attached to the material 14 would 
have a stronger adhesive capability than the side which is attached to the 
garment. In addition, the use of a minimum of elements makes shield 10 
extremely light weight and virtually unnoticeable under a garment. There 
are no intermediate layers of material to add rigidity to the shield 10. 
An example of the type of adhesive film or tape used with the garment 
protector 10 of this invention could be a double faced tape in which the 
adhesive is substantially odor free. Furthermore, the adhesive should be 
of the type which adheres to the cloth material of a garment yet when 
removed leaves virtually no adhesive substance on the cloth garment. 
Still referring to FIGS. 2-5 of the drawings, the layer of material 14 and 
the thin removable (peelable) paper or cloth adhesive cover 24 have a 
plurality of spreadable incisions 26 located therein extending radially 
inward from the peripheral edges of the shield 10. These incisions, 
preferably 4 in number, permit the absorbent layer of material 14 to 
conform to the underarm portion of various sized garments 12 without 
creating a "bunching up" of the material. This makes shield 10 extremely 
comfortable for the user and prevents unsightly bulges beneath the 
garment. 
It should also be realized that these spreadable incisions 26 are necessary 
within the layer of absorbent material 14 but are optional within the 
peelable cover 24. The method of manufacture dictates whether the 
incisions 26 are only in the absorbent layer of material 14 or in both the 
peelable cover 24 and the absorbent material 14. 
FIGS. 6 and 7 of the drawings show another embodiment of this invention 
wherein shield 30 has an adhesive film or tape 22 only covering a portion 
of a under surface of absorbent material 14. In this embodiment, the 
adhesive film or tape covers at least 3/4 of the surface since the 
adhesive film or tape not only serves as an adhesive but also as a 
perspiration/moisture barrier. 
Reference is now made to FIGS. 8-13 of the drawings for a further 
embodiment of this invention. For example, shields 40 and 50 have overall 
configurations which vary slightly from the configurations of the 
embodiments of shields 10 and 30. These configurations may be 
substantially square as shown in FIGS. 8 and 10 or substantially 
rectangular as shown in FIGS. 10 and 13. The actual vertical and 
horizontal dimensions however, would still be substantially identical to 
the dimensions provided above with respect to shields 10 and 30. Also, the 
other remaining components of shields 40 and 50 would be virtually 
identical to the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-7. Therefore, similar 
components of shields 40 and 50 to those of shields 10 and 30 will be 
referred to by identical reference numerals. 
It is also essential that all shields 10, 30, 40 and 50 be extremely thin, 
since the thickness of the absorbent layers of material 14 will add to the 
bulkiness of the shield. For example, the absorbent layer of material 14 
should preferably be approximately 1-5 mm in thickness and the spreadable 
incisions 26 should be approximately 0.5-2 cm in radial length. 
Although this invention has been described with reference to particular 
embodiments, it will be understood to those skilled in the art that this 
invention is also capable of a variety of other and further embodiments 
within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.