Disposable Diaper

Abstract: A disposable diaper including a liquid-absorbent pad including an absorptive core and upper and lower absorptive sheets covering upper and lower surfaces of the absorptive core, respectively. The upper and lower absorptive sheets are bonded to the upper and lower surfaces of the absorptive core by means of adhesive applied on respective inner surfaces of the upper and lower absorptive sheets, and bonded to each other by means of the same adhesive at their portions extending outward beyond longitudinally opposite ends and transversely opposite side edges of the absorptive core. The adhesive describes spirals extending longitudinally of the diaper and these spirals on upper and lower absorptive sheets transversely alternate and each pair of adjacent spirals overlap each other at their transversely opposite side edges except in the proximities of their axes.

Description: This invention relates generally to disposable diapers, and more particularly to disposable diapers such as infant and adult diapers for the absorption and containment of urine and other body exudates. It is well known to make a liquid-absorbent pad disposed between a topsheet and a backsheet of a disposable diaper by covering upper and lower surfaces of an absorptive core, for example, made of fluff pulp with upper and lower absorptive sheets such as tissue sheets. It is also well known to bond these absorptive sheets to the surfaces of the absorptive core by means of adhesive agent such as hot melt adhesive. The adhesive has conventionally been applied on respective inner surfaces of these absorptive sheets in the form of a plurality of lines extending in parallel to one another or a plurality of spots. By covering the absoptive core in this manner, fluff pulp is prevented from scattering in the course of production, so wasteful use of material is avoided and productivity is improved. However, the conventional manner of adhesive application as in the above-mentioned well known art makes it difficult to seal the absorptive core around it with the upper and lower absorptive sheets and sometimes undesirable leakage of the absorptive core material occurs through gaps of the upper and lower absorptive sheets during a process of production. To avoid this, separate adhesive exclusively for sealing purpose must be applied to portions of the sheets around the absorptive core. As a result, in addition to the adhesive used to bond the sheets to the absorptive core, the adhesive used to seal the absorptive core will be applied to the sheets. This leads to unacceptably high rigidity of the sheets which irritates the wearer's skin and degrades a feeling to wear. While it is possible to assign the respective adhesives different regions, the equipment for production will be inevitably complicated and a cost of the product will be correspondingly increased GB-A-2252047 discloses an absorbent article including an absorbent element prepared by applying a pressure-sensitive adhesive in the form of a plurality of overlapping spirals on an absorbent sheet, spreading an absorbent polymer thereon, placing another absorbent sheet thereon, and compressing the components together to form a one piece composite structure. EP-A-0721768, published on 17th July 1996, discloses a disposable diaper according to the preamble of claim 1. In view of the problem as has been described above, it is a principal object of the invention to provide disposable diapers provided with a liquid-absorbent pad contributing to simplification of the manufacturing process and ensuring a good feeling to wear the diaper. The object set forth above is achieved, according to the invention, by a disposable diaper comprising a liquid-permeable topsheet; a liquid-impermeable backsheet and a liquid-absorbent pad disposed between these two sheets and including an absorptive core formed from at least fluff pulp of 40-100% by weight; said absorptive core being shaped to be elongated in the longitudinal direction of said diaper and having upper and lower surfaces thereof covered with upper and lower absorptive sheets, respectively; and said upper and lower absorptive sheets being bonded to said upper and lower surfaces of said absorptive core and to each other in portions extending outwardly beyond the longitudinally opposite ends as well as the transversely opposite ends of the absorptive core by adhesive; characterised in that: a plurality of first spirals of adhesive are applied on the inner surface of the upper absorptive sheet and a plurality of second spirals of adhesive are applied on the inner surface of the lower absorptive sheet so as to describe spirals extending in said longitudinal direction, the spirals on each sheet being spaced apart from one another by a predetermined distance; wherein said upper and lower absorptive sheets are placed so that, when these two sheets are put one upon another with interposition of said absorptive core, said first and second spirals of adhesive are alternately arranged transversely of said diaper and the spirals of each pair of adjacent first and second spirals overlap one another at their transversely opposite side edges but not in the proximities of their axes, with said first and second spirals of adhesive being spaced apart from each other in the thickness direction of the diaper in a region of said absorptive core and, with said upper and lower absorptive sheets directly overlaying one another in the respective portions extending beyond the longitudinally opposite ends and the transversely opposite side edges of the said absorptive core so that the respective portions of said upper and lower absorptive sheets are sealed together by said first and second spirals of adhesive overlapped at said respective portions. With the disposable diaper provided by the invention, the adhesives applied on the respective inner surfaces of the upper and lower tissue sheets covering the absorptive core of the absorbent pad describe the spirals extending longitudinally of the diaper. When these two sheets are put one upon another, the spirals on them are alternately arranged and each pair of adjacent spirals overlap each other along their transversely opposite sides except their portions in the proximity of their axes. The upper and lower sheets are bonded to each other in sealed relationship by the spirals of adhesive applied on these two sheets at their portions extending outward beyond the longitudinally opposite ends of the absorptive core and bonded to each other in sealed relationship by the spirals of the adhesive applied on one of these two sheets at their portions extending outward beyond the transversely opposite side edges of the absorptive core. Such manner of adhesive application is effective to reduce a cost of the product, since no separately provided equipment is necessary to bond the upper and lower sheets to each other in sealed relationship along their portions extending outward beyond the peripheral edge of the absorptive core. Furthermore, it is unnecessary to use a large amount of adhesive at the longitudinally opposite ends as well as the transversely opposite side edges of the upper and lower tissue sheets and consequently there is no apprehension that these portions might have unacceptably high rigidity due to the adhesive. Other and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description. Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a disposable diaper according to the invention as partially broken away; Fig. 2 is a sectional view of a liquid-absorbent pad taken along line II-II in Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a plan view showing an application pattern of adhesives as viewed in a direction indicated by an arrow P in Fig. 1. Disposable diaper 1 shown by Fig. 1 in a perspective view as partially broken away comprises a liquid-permeable topsheet 2, a liquid-impermeable backsheet 3 and a liquid-absorbent pad 4, and these components form a front waist region 6, a rear waist region 7 and a crotch region 8 extending between these two waist regions 6, 7 as viewed in the longitudinal direction. The topsheet 2 and the backsheet 3 are bonded to each other along their portions extending outward beyond a peripheral edge of the absorbent pad 4 to define transversely opposite side edges 11, 12 of the front and rear waist regions 6, 7, respectively, transversely opposite said edges 13 of the crotch region 8 defining respective leg-openings and longitudinal ends 14, 16 of the front waist region 6 and the rear waist region 7, respectively, defining together a waist-opening. The leg-opening defining the side edges 13 and the longitudinal ends 14, 16 are provided with leg-opening elastic members 17 and waist-opening elastic members 18, 19. These elastic members 17, 18, 19 are secured in their longitudinally extended conditions to the inner surface(s) of the topsheet 2 and/or the backsheet 3. The rear waist region 7 is provided on its transversely opposite side edges 12 with laterally extendible tape fasteners 21, respectively. These tape fasteners 21 comprises distal end portions 26 folded back onto the inner side of the diaper 1 so as to be extendable outward and proximal end portions 24 secured to the diaper. In the diaper 1, the topsheet 2 is formed by a nonwoven fabric of thermally meltable synthetic resin such as a polypropylene or perforated film and the backsheet 3 is formed by a film of thermally meltable synthetic resin such as polyethylene and polypropylene. The distal end portion 26 and the proximal end portion 24 of the tape fastener 21 are made of a nonwoven fabric and/or film obtained from thermally meltable synthetic resin such as polypropylene and an fastening zone is formed on the inner surface of the distal end portion 26. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the liquid-absorbent pad 4 taken along line II-II in Fig. 1. The absorbent pad 4 comprises a absorptive core 41 formed by a mixture of fluff pulp of 40 ~ 100 % by weight, liquid-absorptive polymer particles of 0 ~ 45 % by weight and thermoplastic synthetic fibers of 0 ~ 20% by weight, and upper and lower tissue sheets 42, 43 covering upper and lower surfaces of the absorptive core 41. The upper and lower tissue sheets 42, 43 are bonded to each other by means of first and second hot melt adhesives 46A, 46B as will be described later along their portions extending outward beyond longitudinally opposite ends (only the front end 44 is shown in Fig.1) as well as beyond transversely opposite side edges (not shown) of the absorptive core 41. The upper and lower tissue sheets 42, 43 are bonded also to the upper and lower surfaces of the absorptive core 41 by means of the first and second hot melt adhesives 46A, 46B. The upper tissue sheet 42 is bonded to the inner surface of the topsheet 2 by means of third hot melt adhesive 47 and the lower tissue sheet 43 is bonded to the inner surface of the backsheet 3 by means of fourth hot melt adhesive 48. Fig. 3 is a plan view partially showing an application pattern of the first and second hot melt adhesives 46A, 46B as viewed in a direction indicated by an arrow P. The first hot melt adhesive 46A is applied on the inner surface of the upper tissue sheet 42 and the second hot melt adhesive 46B indicated by imaginary lines so as to be distinguished from the first hot melt adhesive 46A is applied on the inner surface of the lower tissue sheet 43 in counterclockwise and clockwise spirals of a predetermined pitch, respectively. The spirals described by the respective adhesives 46A, 46B respectively have widths W 1 and W 2 and overlap each other except their zones adjacent their axes. A width of such overlapping is designated by h. Being applied in this manner, the first and second hot melt adhesives 46A, 46B serve to maintain the portions 48 (Fig. 1) of the upper and lower tissue sheets 42, 43 extending beyond the longitudinally opposite ends of the absorptive core 41 and put one upon another in sealed relationship, on one hand, and the portions 49 (Fig. 1) of the upper and lower tissue sheets 42, 43 extending outward beyond transversely opposite side edges of the absorptive core 41 and put one upon another are also maintained in sealed relationship by the spirals of the first or second hot melt adhesive 46A or 46B. The first and second hot melt adhesives 46A, 46B spirally applied on the upper and lower tissue sheets 42, 43, respectively, slightly overlap at the portions 48, 49 of these two tissue sheets put one upon another as well as at the portions thereof in the proximity of the longitudinally opposite ends of the absorptive core 41. This unique manner in which the upper and lower tissue sheets 42, 43 are bonded to each other eliminates a demand for an equipment which otherwise should be separately provided to bond these two sheets 42, 43 to each other in sealed relationship at the longitudinally opposite ends as well as the transversely opposite side edges thereof. In addition, an amount of the adhesives to be applied on these ends and side edges is at the most equal to an amount of the adhesives which otherwise would be applied on any one of these two sheets 42, 43. Accordingly, the diaper 1 of the invention is not only economical from the viewpoint of the equipment for application of adhesives and the amount of the adhesive to be consumed but also advantageously prevents the longitudinally opposite ends and the transversely opposite side edges of the absorbent pad 4 from having a rigidity unacceptably increased due to use of a large amount of the adhesives. Having described our invention as related to the embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, it is our intention that the invention be not limited by any of the details of description, unless otherwise specified, but rather be construed broadly within its spirit and scope as set out in the accompanying claims.

Claims: A disposable diaper comprising a liquid-permeable topsheet (2); a liquid-impermeable backsheet (3) and a liquid-absorbent pad (4) disposed between these two sheets and including an absorptive core (41) formed from at least fluff pulp of 40-100% by weight; said absorptive core (41) being shaped to be elongated in the longitudinal direction of said diaper and having upper and lower surfaces thereof covered with upper and lower absorptive sheets (42, 43), respectively; and said upper and lower absorptive sheets being bonded to said upper and lower surfaces of said absorptive core (41)and to each other in portions (48, 49) extending outwardly beyond the longitudinally opposite ends as well as the transversely opposite ends of the absorptive core (41) by adhesive; characterised in that : a plurality of first spirals of adhesive (46A) are applied on the inner surface of the upper absorptive sheet (42) and a plurality of second spirals of adhesive (46B) are applied on the inner surface of the lower absorptive sheet (43) so as to describe spirals extending in said longitudinal direction, the spirals on each sheet being spaced apart from one another by a predetermined distance; wherein said upper and lower absorptive sheets (42, 43) are placed so that, when these two sheets are put one upon another with interposition of said absorptive core (41), said first and second spirals (46A, 46B) of adhesive are alternately arranged transversely of said diaper and the spirals of each pair of adjacent first and second spirals overlap one another at their transversely opposite side edges but not in the proximities of their axes, with said first and second spirals (46A, 46B) of adhesive being spaced apart from each other in the thickness direction of the diaper in a region of said absorptive core (41) and, with said upper and lower absorptive sheets directly overlaying one another in the respective portions (48, 49) extending beyond the longitudinally opposite ends and the transversely opposite side edges of the said absorptive core (41) so that the respective portions (48, 49) of said upper and lower absorptive sheets (42, 43) are sealed together by said first and second spirals (46A, 46B) of adhesive overlapped at said respective portions. The disposable diaper according to Claim 1, wherein said upper and lower absorptive sheets (42, 43) are made of tissue paper. The disposable diaper according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein said absorptive core (41) further includes liquid-absorptive polymer particles. The disposable diaper according to any one of Claims 1-3, wherein said adhesive is hot melt adhesive.

Inventors: MISHIMA YOSHITAKA, SHIMIZU SHINGO, MISHIMA, YOSHITAKA, SHIMIZU, SHINGO
Applicants: UNI CHARM CORP, UNI-CHARM CORPORATION
Application year: 1997
Main classification: A61F13
IPC codes: A61F13, A61F5