Dynamically moveable napkin

A sanitary napkin is provided with a positioning strap in slideable contact with a low friction baffle which is attached to the bottom of the napkin. The contact between the positioning strap and the baffle is maintained by a retention strap attached to the napkin which encircles the positioning strap. Attachment means are provided at each end of the positioning strap on the surface opposite that in slidable contact with the baffle.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The invention relates to a sanitary napkin and particularly a sanitary 
napkin which is dynamically moveable during use. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Sanitary napkins have been conventionally held in place by the user by 
means either of a belt which is designed to attach to tabs extending 
beyond the ends of a napkin or, by pressure sensitive adhesive which 
attaches directly to the wearer's undergarment. These adhesively attached 
"tabless" napkins are virtually the only type of napkins currently sold. 
Tabless napkins have the advantage of providing relatively easy and simple 
attachment without the need for a separate belt. Unfortunately, once the 
tabless napkins are positioned in the undergarment of the wearer they tend 
to stay in the same position. Sanitary napkins are not elastic and when 
the wearer is in motion, the sanitary napkin is not. The result is rubbing 
and irritation where the wearer's flesh slides along the outer surface of 
the napkin. Alternatively, the napkin can be distorted or unattached due 
to the motion of the wearer which produces napkin failure. 
Sanitary napkins have also been made with extensions usually as part of an 
attachment system. 
U.S. Pat. No. 2,964,040 discloses a tabbed sanitary napkin with a separate 
strip for tab attachment. 
U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,771 discloses a sanitary napkin which can be used 
either as a tabbed or tabless napkin by utilizing the release strip as an 
extension for tabbed attachment. 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,343 discloses a sanitary napkin having edge extensions 
which are designed to wrap around an overlap of the bottom crotch area of 
the wearer's panties and attach thereto. 
None of these prior art napkins, however, provides for dynamic slideable 
movement of the napkin in response to wearer motion. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
According to this invention a sanitary napkin is provided which allows for 
constrained longitudinal slideable movement of the napkin in response to 
wearer motion. This is accomplished by providing a sanitary napkin with a 
low friction baffle on the garment facing side thereof in slideable 
contact with a positioning strap also with a low friction surface. The 
positioning strap is adhesively attached at either one or both ends in the 
crotch area of the wearer's undergarment. In certain embodiments the 
contact between the positioning strap and the low friction baffle is 
maintained by a retaining strap attached at either side of the napkin and 
encircling the positioning strap.

Referring now to the drawings, as can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, a pad 
generally referred to at 10 contains a fluid permeable cover 11 positioned 
on the upper or body facing side of the napkin. A fluid impermeable baffle 
12 is provided at least on the bottom or garment facing surface of the 
napkin, and, as shown in FIG. 1 extends along the sides of the napkin 
also. The combination of the cover 11 and baffle 12 surround an absorbent 
layer 13 which may be of any conventional construction as known in the 
art. The particular choice of absorbent is not part of this invention. A 
retention strap 15 is attached to the napkin sides approximately centrally 
with respect to the longitudinal axis of the napkin. A retention strap 15 
is located so that one surface of the strap is adjacent the low friction 
baffle 12. The retention strap 15 encircles a portion of the positioning 
strap 16 but still allows relative movement of the low friction surface of 
the positioning strap 16 and the baffle 12. Attachment adhesive blocks 14 
are positioned on the garment facing side of the positioning strap 16 and 
attach the positioning strap, and, necessarily the remainder of the 
napkin, to the garment of the wearer. The napkin is, therefore, free to 
slide along the positioning strap between the blocks of attachment 
adhesive in response to movement by the wearer. Because of this relatively 
free movement, the napkin itself will be less subject to distortion forces 
which act to distort the top surface of the napkin and provide for 
mispositioning of the napkin with respect to fluid discharge. 
Because of the construction of this napkin, movement is limited primarily 
to the longitudinal direction with respect to the napkin axis and even 
that motion is limited by the positioning of the adhesive. Therefore, 
while the napkin can move slideably, that motion is limited to prevent the 
napkin from being positioned in such a way as to not absorb fluid. 
As can be seen from FIG. 2, the napkin can be assembled so that the 
positioning strap 16 is folded upon itself allowing the baffle 12 to serve 
as a release liner for the adhesive attachment blocks 14. While adhesive 
attachment is the currently accepted and desirable means for attachment of 
the positioning strap, the attachment may be by other means as well. It is 
the location of the attachment which is important rather than the 
particular means chosen, as can be seen from the relative positioning of 
the component illustrated in FIG. 1. 
A second embodiment of the invention is depicted at FIG. 3. The numbers 
corresponding to the components in FIGS. 1 and 2 are designated 
identically in FIG. 3. As can be seen in FIG. 3, a positioning strap which 
generally corresponds to the configurational profile of the crotch of the 
wearer's undergarments is utilized as the positioning strap 16. The 
positioning strap can, in this instance, be used as a secondary baffle to 
further protect the crotch area of the panties against staining. 
A third embodiment differs from the other embodiments in two ways. First, 
the positioning 16 is firmly anchored to the baffle 12 at one end with the 
other end adhesively attached to the undergarment of the wearer by 
adhesive patch 14. Secondly, there is no restraining strap utilized and 
the napkin is free to move around the pivot point formed by attachment to 
the undergarment as well as backward and forward as in the previous 
embodiments due to the relative freedom of movement of positioning strap 
16. 
While not necessary, a restraining strap 15 may be incorporated with the 
single anchorage feature shown in the last embodiment. When this is done 
the strap 16 may be folded on itself under restraining strap 15 to orient 
the movement of the napkin axially as was the case with the first two 
embodiments.