Source: https://patents.justia.com/patent/7727209
Timestamp: 2020-04-07 17:28:42
Document Index: 795403891

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 90', 'art 90', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 30', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 300', 'art 90', 'art 300', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 300', 'art 90', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 300', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 90', 'art 600', 'art 90', 'art 91', 'art 90', 'art 91', 'art. 90', 'art 91', 'arts 90', 'art 96', 'art 91', 'art 91', 'art 91', 'art 92', 'art 92', 'art 92', 'art 93', 'art 93', 'art 93', 'art 92', 'art 92', 'art 93', 'arts 92', 'art 93', 'art 93', 'art 9', 'art 900', 'arts 910', 'art 900', 'arts 910']

US Patent for Interlabial pad and individual packaging body for individual package of interlabial pad Patent (Patent # 7,727,209 issued June 1, 2010) - Justia Patents Search
Justia Patents IntravaginalUS Patent for Interlabial pad and individual packaging body for individual package of interlabial pad Patent (Patent # 7,727,209)
Feb 18, 2004 - Uni-Charm Corporation
An interlabial pad, which can be discarded by flushing down a toilet and yet with which neither the functions and comfort during use of the interlabial nor the functions of a septic tank are damaged, is provided. The interlabial pad comprises: an absorbent body absorbing liquids; and a cover body covering the absorbent body in an enclosing manner and comprising a liquid permeable surface side sheet and a liquid impermeable back face side sheet. The cover body is arranged from a plurality of small sheet pieces and the small sheet pieces that are adjacent each other are mutually overlapped and form seam parts. The seam parts are set so as to become weakened in physicochemical strength upon permeation of water and separate into the plurality of small sheet pieces when the interlabial pad is discarded by being flushed down a toilet.
The present invention relates to an interlabial pad to be fitted between a woman's labia. To be more specific, the present invention relates to an interlabial pad that can be discarded in a toilet and an individual packaging body for individual package of an interlabial pad.
Interlabial pads, which are fitted between a woman's labia and absorb menstrual blood, urine, and other body fluids, have been known as absorbent articles for menstruation or for prevention of continence or for both of these purposes. As such an interlabial pad, an interlabial pad, which comprises a surface side sheet, a back face side sheet, and an absorbent body, disposed between the surface side sheet and the back face side sheet and absorbing and holding body fluids, and with which the back face side sheet is equipped with a mini-sheet piece for insertion of the pad using fingers, has been proposed (for example, International Patent Publication Pamphlet No. 02/094148).
Also in order to facilitate the discarding of an interlabial pad after use, an interlabial pad has been proposed with which the back face sheet of the interlabial pad is arranged as a biodegradable sheet or a water disintegrable sheet. For example, a biodegradable sheet, mainly formed of polybutylene succinate, is used for the back face side sheet of an interlabial pad (trade name: Envive (Moderate)) that has been test-sold in the USA by The Procter and Gamble Corp. (referred to hereinafter as “PG Corp.”). This sheet has a size with a length dimension of 90 mm and a width dimension of 50 mm and the shape of the sheet is elliptical.
The present invention has been made in view of such issues as the above and an object thereof is to provide an interlabial pad, which can be discarded by flushing down a toilet without damaging the functions of a septic tank and yet which is not lowered in the functions and comfort during fitting of the interlabial pad. That is, the present invention provides an interlabial pad, with which after the interlabial pad is discarded after use by flushing down a toilet, a cover body, covering an absorbent body, or in particular, a back face side sheet, which is a part of the cover body, separates into a plurality of small sheet pieces and becomes dispersed in water so that in the wetted state during use, the interlabial pad prevents the leakage of menstrual blood without disintegrating and is maintained in a good state of use.
Here, “water disintegrability” refers to the property of disintegrating readily by the actions of water. Also, “actions of water” refers to the action caused by water permeating into a certain object and changing the physicochemical characteristics of that object, including the physical action caused by water flow. With the present invention, in order to disperse the cover body into small pieces, it is preferable that the cover body is exposed to water so that water permeates into the cover body, and is moved underwater.
FIG. 1A is a perspective view of an interlabial pad of a first embodiment of the present invention.
Interlabial pads according to the present invention shall now be described with reference to the drawings. In the description that follows, members that are the same shall be provided with the same symbols and description thereof shall be omitted or simplified.
As shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, an interlabial pad 10 has an absorbent body 40, which absorbs body fluids and other liquids, and the absorbent body 40 is covered by a cover body 23. The cover body 23 is provided with a surface side sheet 20, having a permeable property for liquids which allows the permeation of liquids, including menstrual blood, urine, and other body fluids (hereinafter, this property shall be referred to as “liquid permeability”), and a back face side sheet 30, having an impermeable property against liquids which does not allow the permeation of liquids (hereinafter, this property shall be referred to as “liquid impermeability”). The absorbent body 40 is disposed between the surface side sheet 20 and the back face side sheet 30.
Also, the surface (referred to hereinafter as “outer surface”) 30s of the back side sheet 30, which is positioned at the side opposite to the absorbent body attached preferably has the property of being wetted by water (hereinafter referred to as “water wettability”). An interlabial pad that uses a back face side sheet with water wettability prevents the leakage of body fluids during use and yet becomes wetted with water readily and does not float readily to the water surface when discarded in a toilet.
Examples of the back face side sheet 30, with which the outer surface 30s has water wettability, include sheets which is formed by adhering hydrophilic fibers to one side of a biodegradable or a water disintegrable sheet, laminated paper which is formed by laminating liquid impermeable resin onto one side of a hydrophilic nonwoven fabric using hydrophilic fibers as the raw material, and sheets which is formed by a hydrophilic nonwoven fabric being subject to a water repellent treatment using a sizing agent, etc. so that the water repellency is adjusted by the mixing ratio, etc. Also if necessary, coloring may be applied by mixing an inorganic pigment in a range of 0.1 to 5%. A wet forming spun laced nonwoven fabric may be cited as a specific example of a hydrophilic nonwoven fabric, which is formed with predetermined amounts of fibers having a fiber length in the range of 1 to 38 mm preferably 2 to 20 mm and fineness in the range of 1.1 to 3.3 dtex, like rayon fibers, acetate rayon fibers, cotton fibers, pulp fibers, or synthetic fibers, mixed and adjusted so that the hydrophilic nonwoven fabric has the specific weight is in the range of 10 to 60 g/m2. The liquid impermeable film to be adhered onto the hydrophilic nonwoven fabric preferably has a specific weight of 10 to 40 g/m2 and is adhered by an emboss process or by a water disintegrable adhesive agent at an adhesion percentage in the range of 1 to 30%. A resin to be laminated preferably has a thickness in the range of 10 to 40 μm.
The back face side sheet of the interlabial pad of the present invention has parting zone for separation of the back face side sheet into a plurality of small sheet pieces by the actions of water. With the present embodiment, back face side sheet 30 of FIG. 1 is arranged from two small sheet pieces 30a and 30b as shown in FIG. 2 and a longitudinal seam part 90, extending along the longitudinal central line m at which small sheet pieces 30a and 30b overlap so as to cross longitudinal central line m, is the parting zone. The small sheet pieces 30a and 30b overlap with each other over a range of 1 to 25 mm and preferably 5 to 15 mm to form longitudinal seam part 90. When the width of the region from end part 300a of small sheet piece 30a to end part 300b of small sheet part 30b, at which the two small sheet pieces overlap, is less than 1 mm, the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b may separate due to movements of a user and gaps may thus form to cause leakage of body fluids. On the other hand, if this width is greater than 25 mm, it becomes difficult for the small sheet pieces to disperse upon discarding into a toilet. The interlabial pad 10 may therefore become readily retained on a filter element of a small-scale combined treatment septic tank or an aeration tube of an independent treatment septic tank and damage the functions of the septic tank. Furthermore, by the part at which the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b overlap being excessive, a user may be subject to a foreign-body sensation during use.
In order to prevent clogging of a septic tank, each of the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b has a size of no more than 60×60 mm, preferably no more than 45×45 mm, and more preferably no more than 30×30 mm as the longitudinal dimension×lateral dimension. The total area of the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b that make up the back face side sheet 30 may be made slightly greater than the area of the surface side sheet 20. By doing so, leakage of body fluids due to separation of the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b during the use of the interlabial pad 10 can be prevented. Though the back face side sheet 30 in the present embodiment is formed of two small sheet pieces, it may be formed of a larger number of small sheet pieces, and in this case, the size of a single small sheet piece can be made smaller within the abovementioned range.
The outer surface 30s of the back face side sheet 30 is preferably made uneven. The outer surface 30s may be made uneven by an emboss process, and the unevenness may also be formed by adhering a nonwoven fabric to the outer surface 30s and confounding the fibers of the fabric. When the outer surface 30s is made uneven, after the interlabial pad is discarded into a toilet, water will enter readily between the mutually opposing parts of the back face side sheet 30 that is folded in two during use. In particular, in the case where a nonwoven fabric is adhered onto the outer surface 30s and a hydrophilic nonwoven fabric is used, the water of the toilet will be absorbed rapidly upon discarding into a toilet. Water will thus enter between the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b that overlap at the longitudinal seam part 90 and the back face side sheet 30 will disintegrate readily along the longitudinal seam part 90 and become dispersed as the plurality of small sheet pieces.
In order to facilitate the dispersal of the back face side sheet 30 of a used interlabial pad 10 that is discarded into a toilet, in addition to making the outer surface 30s uneven, perforation-like slits may be formed in the small sheet piece 30a, which is positioned at the side (hereinafter referred to as the “outer side”) opposite to the absorbent body side at the longitudinal seam part 90. Also, end part 300a of the small sheet piece 30a may be folded back so that water will enter readily into the longitudinal seam part 90 from the outer side of the interlabial pad 10. Furthermore, in the case where an adhesive agent is applied between the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b, a part of a small sheet piece (for example, the vicinity of end part 300a of small sheet piece 30a) may be left free of any adhesive agent.
Also, the absorbent body 40 may be separated along the longitudinal seam part 90 of the back face side sheet 30 or perforation-like slits may be formed in the absorbent body 40 to make the absorbing body 40 integral to small sheet piece 30a or 30b. By doing so, since weight and surface area of the absorbent body 40 becomes increased by absorption of water, the back face side sheet 30 can be prevented from floating to the surface of the water inside the septic tank even if a buoyancy is occurred by foam that is generated in a septic tank.
The back face side sheet 30 of the interlabial pad 10 of the present embodiment is adhered and joined to the surface side sheet 20 at peripheral edge parts of the absorbent body 40 by an adhesive agent or by fusion and adhesion by an emboss process. Meanwhile, as mentioned above, the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b, which make up the back face side sheet 30, are completely separable at longitudinal seam part 90, which is water disintegrable. Thus after the interlabial pad 10 is discarded into a toilet, the longitudinal seam part 90 parts and separates the back face side sheet 30 into the smaller small sheet pieces 30a and 30b, thereby enabling the load placed on a septic tank to be lightened. Furthermore, by the back face side sheet 30 being provided with the plurality of small sheet pieces 30a and 30b, impacts that arise due to the movements of a wearer of the interlabial pad 10 can be absorbed and the foreign-body sensation during fitting can be lightened.
With respect to the small sheet piece 30a, the small sheet piece 30b is positioned so as to cover the side closer to the longitudinal central line m and is disposed at the absorbent body 40 side (referred to hereinafter as the “inner side”) at the longitudinal seam part 90. Meanwhile, the other small sheet piece 30a, which overlaps with the small sheet piece 30b at the longitudinal seam part 90, is positioned to the outer side of the small sheet 30b and its end part 300a is exposed to the outer side at a position away from the longitudinal central line m. Thus as shown in FIG. 3, when the interlabial pad 10 is folded in two at the vicinity of the longitudinal central line m and fitted between labia, the body fluids that move inside absorbent body from longitudinal central line m towards the outer edges of the interlabial pad 10 are prevented from entering into the longitudinal seam part 90 from the open part at the end part 300b of the small sheet piece 30b or the end part 300a of the small sheet piece 30a and the leakage of the body fluid can thus be prevented.
The small sheet pieces 30a and 30b may or may not be adhered at the longitudinal seam part 90 at which they overlap. The small sheet pieces 30a and 30b may be adhered by the application of an adhesive agent or by an emboss process.
FIG. 4 is a sectional view in the lateral direction of an interlabial pad 11 of a second embodiment of the present invention. A small sheet piece 30a and a small sheet piece 30b are overlapped at a longitudinal seam part 90 and an adhesive agent 50 is applied between both pieces. The small sheet pieces 30a and 30b are thereby adhered together, the airtightness is improved, and leakage of body fluids can be prevented. It is sufficient that the adhesive agent 50 be applied to at least one of either small sheet piece 30a or small sheet piece 30b and the adhesive agent 50 does not have to be applied to one or both of the end part 300a of the small sheet piece 30a and the end part 300b of the small sheet piece 30b. Even when the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b are adhered by an adhesive agent 50 just at the vicinity of the central part in the lateral of the longitudinal seam part 90, body fluids will be prevented from entering readily into the longitudinal seam part 90 as mentioned above and thus the longitudinal seam part 90 will not be lost. Meanwhile, after the interlabial pad 11 is discarded by flushing, water will enter readily into the longitudinal seam part 90 from the outer surface 30s of the back face side sheet 30 and the back face side sheet 30 will thus receive the actions of water and separate readily.
Also, the adhesive agent 50 may be applied not just to a part of an absorbent body side surface (referred to hereinafter as the “inner surface”) 30u of the back face side sheet 30 but to the entirety of this surface. When the adhesive agent 50 is applied to the entire surface of the inner surface 30u, the absorbent body 40 can be adhered and fixed to the back face side sheet 30. Also, the chances of end part 300a or 300b of the small sheet piece 30a or 30b separating from the other small sheet piece and consequent loss of longitudinal seam part 90 and leakage of body fluids can be reduced.
Adhesive agent 50 is applied to a specific weight in the range of 1 to 20 g/m2 and preferably 3 to 10 g/cm2. The application pattern of adhesive agent 50 may be a wave-form, O-form, spiral-form, line-form, dotted, etc. and the adhesive agent does not have to be applied to some parts thef longitudinal seam part 90. Since the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b are overlapped at the longitudinal seam part 90, as long as the two small sheet pieces are adhered together at least partially, the leakage of body fluids can be prevented. In the other hand, the back face side sheet 30 can be dispersed readily into the small sheet pieces 30a and 30b when the interlabial pad 11 is discarded into a toilet, and foreign-body sensations during fitting can be lightened.
FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B show diagrams of an interlabial pad 12 of a third embodiment of the present invention that has a mini-sheet piece. FIG. 5A is a sectional. schematic view in the lateral direction of the interlabial pad 12. FIG. 5B is a perspective view of the abovementioned interlabial pad 12, placed with a back face side sheet 30 facing upwards so that the left side of the FIGURE becomes the ventral side and the right side becomes the dorsal side when the interlabial pad 12 is fitted on. The back face side sheet 30 of the interlabial pad 12 is equipped with a mini-sheet piece 60. The mini-sheet piece 60 is so as to cover a part of the outer surface 30s of the back face side 30 that is set at the dorsal side when the interlabial pad 12 is worn, and is adhered to the back face side sheet 30 at peripheral edge parts of the interlabial pad 12. A straight end part 600 of the mini-sheet 60 is not adhered to the back face side sheet 30 and a pocket 61, into which a finger is inserted when the interlabial pad 12 is worn and took off, is formed between the mini-sheet piece 60 and the back face side sheet 30.
A back face side sheet 31 of an interlabial pad of a fourth embodiment of the present invention shall now be described using FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the back face side sheet 31 of this embodiment, placed so that the left side of the FIGURE becomes the ventral side when the interlabial pad is worn and so that the side at which the absorbent body is disposed is the upper side. The back face side sheet 31 is provided with four small sheet pieces 31a, 31b, 31c, and 31d. As with the interlabial pad 10 of the first embodiment of FIG. 1, a longitudinal seam part 90 is provided near a longitudinal central line m. Also in the present embodiment, a lateral seam part 91 is provided near a lateral central line n. The small sheet piece 31a is overlapped with the small sheet piece 31b at the longitudinal seam part 90 and with the small sheet piece 31c at the lateral seam part 91, in both cases so that the small sheet piece 31a is positioned at the side at which the absorbent body is disposed, in other words, at the inner side. The small sheet piece 31d is overlapped with the small sheet piece 31c at the longitudinal seam part. 90 and with the small sheet piece 31b at the lateral seam part 91, in both cases so that the small sheet piece 31d is positioned at the inner side. The width of mutual overlap of the small sheet pieces at the seam parts 90 and 91 is 1 to 25 mm and preferably 5 to 15 mm.
With this embodiment, the small sheet pieces 31c and 31d, which cover the side that becomes the ventral side when the interlabial pad is fitted on (left side of FIG. 6), are overlapped with the small sheet piece 31a and the small sheet piece 31b at the lateral seam part 96 so as to be at the outer side. Body fluids that flow in the direction from the dorsal side to the ventral side of the interlabial pad (from the left to right direction in FIG. 6) are thus prevented from entering between the small sheet pieces 31a and 31c or between the small sheet pieces 31b and 31c from the gaps of the lateral seam part 91, and the leakage of body fluids can thus be prevented. Also, in the case where the back face side sheet 31 is provided with a mini-sheet piece, having an opening for insertion of a finger in the direction from the ventral side to the dorsal side, the finger can be prevented from catching on to the lateral seam part 91 and can thus be prevented from damaging the lateral seam part 91 and giving rise to a cause of body fluid leakage.
FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a back face side sheet 32 of an interlabial pad 14 of a fifth embodiment of the present invention, placed so that the part that becomes the ventral side is positioned at the left side when the interlabial pad is fitted on and so that the side at which the absorbent body is disposed faces upwards. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which the abovementioned interlabial pad 14 is fitted between. labia. In FIG. 8, the interlabial pad 14 is folded in two along a longitudinal central line m and is fitted between labia. The back face side sheet 32 of the interlabial pad 14 is arranged from nine small sheet pieces 32a, 32b, 32c, 32d, 32e, 32f, 32g, 32h, and 32i.
With the present embodiment, a longitudinal seam part 92 has a first longitudinal seam part 92a and a second longitudinal seam part 92b, and a lateral seam part 93 has a first lateral seam part 93a and a second lateral seam part 93b. With the small sheet pieces that mutually overlap at the longitudinal seam part 92, the small sheet pieces (32a, 32d, and 32g), which cover the side closer to a longitudinal central line m, are overlapped with the small sheet pieces (32b, 32e, 32h, 32c, 32f, and 32i), which cover the side closer to the peripheral parts, so as to be at the outer side. With the back face side sheet 32, since the longitudinal seam part 92 is not set at the vicinity of the vestibular floor when the interlabial pad 14 is fitted on as shown in FIG. 8, the foreign-object sensation during fitting can be lightened.
Also, with the small sheet pieces that mutually overlap at lateral seam part 93, the small sheet pieces (for example, 32h, 32g, and 32i), which cover the side closer to the side that is to become the ventral side (left side of the FIG. 7) when the interlabial pad is fitted on, are overlapped with the small sheet pieces (for example, 32e, 32d, and 32f), which cover the side closer to the side that is to become the dorsal side (right side of the FIG. 7.), so as to be at the outer side. Thus body fluids, which are discharged from the ostium vaginae positioned near the small sheet piece 32a, and flows in the direction of the ventral side at the left side of FIG. 7, are prevented from entering between overlapping the small sheet pieces from the gaps of the seam parts 92 and 93 and the leakage of body fluids can thus be prevented. Furthermore, in the case where the back face side sheet 32 is provided with a mini-sheet piece, having an opening for insertion of a finger in the direction from the ventral side to the dorsal side, the finger can be prevented from catching on to the lateral seam part 93 and can thus be prevented from damaging the lateral seam part 93 and giving rise to a cause of body fluid leakage.
The back face side sheet may also be arranged from a single sheet piece. FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a back face side sheet 33 of an interlabial pad of a sixth embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the outer side, that is, as viewed with the side opposite to the absorbent body side facing upward. With this embodiment, the back face side sheet 33 has two parting lines 94a and 94b and is provided with a single sheet piece. Parting lines 94a and 94b are parts at which slits 70, provided in the back face side sheet 33, are aligned serially along the longitudinal directon.
FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a back face side sheet 34 of an interlabial pad of a seventh embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the outer side, that is, as viewed with the side opposite to the absorbent body side facing upward. With the seventh embodiment, a part of the back face side sheet 34, having parting lines 94a and 94b formed by slits 70, is overlapped so as to cover the gaps that the slits 70 form. With this embodiment, due to the gaps of the slits 70 being covered with the back face side sheet 34 folded, the leakage of body fluids can be prevented. Also as with the above-described back face side sheet 33 of the sixth embodiment, the back face side sheet 34 disintegrates near the slits 70 and disperses into small pieces upon being flushed down a toilet.
FIG. 11A is a plan view of a packaging body 1 according to the present invention, and FIG. 11B is a plan view of a state in which the packaging body 1 of FIG. 11A is partially opened up. As shown in FIG. 11A, the packaging body 1 has an interlabial pad 10, which was shown in FIG. 1A, and a packaging sheet 2, which covers the interlabial pad 10. As shown in FIG. 11B, the packaging sheet 2 is arranged from two short sheet pieces 2a and 2b, and these small sheet pieces overlap to form a seam part 9.
Though the size of the packaging sheet 2 depends on the shape of the interlabial pad 10, which is enclosed in the individual packaging body, it must be made at least larger than the interlabial pad 10, because it must cover the entirety of interlabial pad 10. Specifically, when the packaging sheet 2 is made to have a rectangular shape as shown in FIG. 11B, it preferably has a size in the range of 40 to 360 mm in the longitudinal direction and 25 to 200 mm in the lateral direction in the opened-up state. Also in consideration of the load placed on a septic tank, each of the small sheet pieces 2a and 2b, which make up the packaging sheet 2, has a longitudinal dimension×width dimension of no more than 60×60 mm, preferably no more than 45×45 mm, and more preferably no more than 30×30 mm.
The range in which the small sheet pieces 2a and 2b overlap is 1 to 2 mm and preferably 5 to 15 mm, and preferably small sheet pieces 2a and 2b are adhered together by application of an adhesive agent to one or both of the small sheet pieces. As the adhesive agent to be used for adhering together the small sheet pieces, the same adhesive agent used for adhering together the small sheet pieces that make up a back face side sheet of an interlabial pad may be used. The adhesive agent is applied to a specific weight in the range of 1 to 20 g/m2 and preferably 3 to 10 g/cm2, and the application pattern may be selected suitably from among wave-form, O-form, spiral-form, line-form, dotted, solid, etc.
The water disintegrability of the present invention's interlabial pad shall now be described based on examples.
As shown in FIG. 12A, the interlabial pad of this example is equipped with a surface side sheet 102 and a back face side sheet 103, which make up a cover body, an absorbent body 104, enclosed in these sheets, and a mini-sheet piece 105. The surface side sheet 102 is a wet forming spun lace, prepared by mixing rayon fibers, with a fiber length of 5 mm and fineness of 1.7 dtex, and conifer Kraft pulp at proportions of 70% and 30%, respectively, subjecting the fibers to a papermaking process, and then forming into a sheet by hydro-entanglement. The absorbent body 104 is prepared by making a conifer pulp sheet into a cotton-like pulp by means of a pulp crusher, adjusting the specific weight of the pulp to 300 g/m2, adjusting the thickness to 4 mm by a press, and forming into a rectangular shape with a width of 52 mm and 85 mm. The back face side sheet 103 is arranged from six small sheet pieces 103a of laminated nonwoven fabric, prepared by laminating a polybutylene succinate resin to a thickness of 20 μm onto a water dispersible paper with dimensions of 37×34 mm and a specific weight of 18 g/m2. As shown in FIG. 12C, with the six small sheet pieces 103a, adjacent small sheet pieces are overlapped with each other at a longitudinal seam part 900, having a width of 10 mm, and at a lateral seam parts 910a and 910b, having a width of 10 mm each and being disposed at positions that divide the longitudinal direction into three substantially equal parts. Between the small sheet pieces 103a, which overlap at the longitudinal seam part 900 and the lateral seam parts 910, a heat-sensitive, water disintegrable adhesive agent, having polyvinyl acetate as the main component, is applied at an application amount of approximately 5 g/m2 in a dotted application pattern and the small sheet pieces 103a are thereby adhered to each other.
The simulated night soil treatment device 200 of FIG. 13A is provided with a semi-siphon type Western-style toilet 201 and a small-scale combined treatment septic tank 203 and with this device, the discharge amount is 8 liters per single time of flushing and the diameter of the trap part is 53 mm. The toilet 201 and the small-scale combined treatment septic tank 203 are connected by a pipe 202, and the pipe 202 is set to have a diameter of 100 mm, a slope grade of 1/100, and a length L3 of 10 m. The small-scale combined treatment septic tank 203 has a filter element 203a. Meanwhile, a simulated night soil treatment device 203 of FIG. 13B has, in place of the small-scale combined treatment septic tank 203 of FIG. 13A, an independent treatment septic tank 204, having an aeration tube 204a. The interiors of the septic tanks 203 and 204 were both filled with tap water. As the filter element 203a of the small-scale combined treatment septic tank 203, skeletal spheres of a diameter of 150 mm, which are used in model CXIII of AMS Co., Ltd., are filled inside the small-scale combined treatment septic tank 203 to a height of approximately 650 mm. Also, the aeration tube 204a of the independent treatment septic tank 204 is made to have a diameter of 18 mm.
When the interlabial pad 100 was discarded by flushing down the above-described toilet 201, the interlabial pad 100 flowed through the pipe 202, and by the time the interlabial pad 100 was reached to the septic tank 203 or 204, the back face side sheet 103 was dispersed into the plurality of small sheet pieces 103a, neither clogging the filter element 203a of the small-scale combination treatment tank 203 nor being entangled onto the aeration tube 204a of the independent treatment septic tank 204. On the other hand, with the interlabial pad of the comparative example, it was visually observed that the back face side sheet clogged the filter element 203a of the small-scale combination treatment tank 203 and became entangled onto the aeration tube 204a of the independent treatment septic tank 204.
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Patent number: 7727209
Patent Publication Number: 20040193124
Inventors: Satoshi Mizutani (Kagawa), Yuki Noda (Kagawa)
Application Number: 10/782,385
Current U.S. Class: Intravaginal (604/385.17); Having Specific Design, Shape, Or Structural Feature (604/385.01); Individual Wrapper (604/385.02)
International Classification: A61F 13/15 (20060101); A61F 13/20 (20060101);