Patent ID: 7462174

Claim:
A sanitary napkin comprising: an elongated main body having a skin-side surface and a garment-side surface and including a liquid absorbent layer; and a pair of leakage preventing walls disposed on the skin-side surface of the main body and extending longitudinally of the main body in parallel with each other, each leakage preventing wall being composed of a sheet and a plurality of longitudinally extending elastic members for exerting an elastic contractive force on the sheet and including: a rising portion with a lower end fixed to the skin-side surface of the main body; and a skin-contacting portion contiguous to an upper end of the rising portion, the skin-contacting portion having transversely opposing outer and inner edges, the inner edge being a boundary between the rising portion and the skin-contacting portion and located closer to a longitudinal centerline of the sanitary napkin than the outer edge, longitudinally opposing front and rear ends of the inner edge, and longitudinally opposing front and rear ends of the outer edge being fixed to the skin-side surface of the main body, and the elastic members include first and second elastic members located in the outer and inner edges, respectively, and at least one additional elastic member located between the first and second elastic members, wherein a length between the front and rear ends of the outer edge is larger than a length between the front and rear ends of the inner edge, such that the leakage preventing wall rises with the outer edge moved farther away from the skin-side surface of the main body than the inner edge when the sanitary napkin assumes an uncompressed, free state, wherein along a straight line between the front end of the inner edge and the front end of the outer edge and along a straight line between the rear end of the inner edge and the rear end of the outer edge, the rising portion and the skin-contacting portion are fixed to the skin-side surface of the main body with an intermediate portion thereof of the rising portion folded in two to have a longitudinally extending fold line directed transversely outwardly over an entire length of the rising portion, wherein the skin-contacting portion is unattached to the skin-side surface of the main body substantially entirely along a longitudinal extent of the leakage preventing wall between the straight line between the front end of the inner edge and the front end of the outer edge and the straight line between the rear end of the inner edge and the rear end of the outer edge, wherein each of the straight line between the front end of the inner edge and the front end of the outer edge and the straight line between the rear end of the inner edge and the rear end of the outer edge extends obliquely outwardly in a transverse direction from the inner edge to the outer edge, and wherein when the main body is flattened, the first elastic member exerts a larger elastic contractive force than the second elastic member.