CA1078342A - Manufacture of tampons - Google Patents

Manufacture of tampons

Info

Publication number
CA1078342A
CA1078342A CA279,728A CA279728A CA1078342A CA 1078342 A CA1078342 A CA 1078342A CA 279728 A CA279728 A CA 279728A CA 1078342 A CA1078342 A CA 1078342A
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
mandrel
layer
tampon
absorbent material
applying
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
CA279,728A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Richard Harbour
John A. Howard
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Unilever PLC
Original Assignee
Unilever PLC
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Unilever PLC filed Critical Unilever PLC
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA1078342A publication Critical patent/CA1078342A/en
Expired legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A61MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
    • A61FFILTERS IMPLANTABLE INTO BLOOD VESSELS; PROSTHESES; DEVICES PROVIDING PATENCY TO, OR PREVENTING COLLAPSING OF, TUBULAR STRUCTURES OF THE BODY, e.g. STENTS; ORTHOPAEDIC, NURSING OR CONTRACEPTIVE DEVICES; FOMENTATION; TREATMENT OR PROTECTION OF EYES OR EARS; BANDAGES, DRESSINGS OR ABSORBENT PADS; FIRST-AID KITS
    • A61F13/00Bandages or dressings; Absorbent pads
    • A61F13/15Absorbent pads, e.g. sanitary towels, swabs or tampons for external or internal application to the body; Supporting or fastening means therefor; Tampon applicators
    • A61F13/20Tampons, e.g. catamenial tampons; Accessories therefor
    • A61F13/2082Apparatus or processes of manufacturing
    • A61F13/2085Catamenial tampons

Landscapes

  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Vascular Medicine (AREA)
  • Epidemiology (AREA)
  • Biomedical Technology (AREA)
  • Heart & Thoracic Surgery (AREA)
  • Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Animal Behavior & Ethology (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Public Health (AREA)
  • Veterinary Medicine (AREA)
  • Absorbent Articles And Supports Therefor (AREA)

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This invention is directed to a method for the manufacture of a sleeve shaped tampon. The method comprises forming a layer of absorbent material, applying the layer as a sleeve onto a hollow end portion of an elongate mandrel to a length corresponding to that of the tampon, applying a fluid pervious layer over said absorbent material layer so as to completely cover said absorbent material layer and have a portion extending at least said length beyond the end of said mandrel, and applying a force to the exterior of the extending portion to cause it to introvert into the hollow end portion of the mandrel and removing the resultant annular bag shaped tampon from the mandrel.

Description

The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for manufacturing tampons for the absorption .
of body fluids, particularly vaginal tampons.
Highly absorbent gel material such as modified celluloses and starches and polyacrylonitrile materials have been proposed for use in tampons, however it is difficult to ensure that during manufacture the materials are located and maintained in the correct position within the tampon, and also it is difficult to arrange for the j 10 best utilisation of these materials during conditions of use. A possible construction of tampon satisfying -these requirements is in~ofim~.of an annular bag of thin fluid pervious material enclosing a sleeve shaped layer of absorbent material.
The present invention aims to provide a method and apparatus for manufacturing such a tampon.
~ ~cor~ingly the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a sleeve shaped tampon compD~ing forming a layer of absorbent material, applying said layer as a sleeve on to a hollow end portion o~ an elongate mandrel to a length correpponding to that of the tampon, applying a fluid pervious layer over said absorbent material layer so as to completely cover said abeorbent material layrr and have a portion extending at least said length beyond the end of said mandrel, and applying a force to the exterior of said extending portion to cause it to introvert into the~h~llow end portion of said mandrel, and removing ':
, ' 10~834~
, the resultant annular bag shaped tampon from said mandrel.
An external probe or an air jet may be applied as the external force.
An alternative is to apply a vacuum from within the hollow to induce an atmospheric force on the exterior. In neither case however is it necessary or desirable to attach anything, such as a drawstring, to the material at th~t stage.
It should be noted that in US Patent 3 712 305 a method is proposed where a string is applied up the centre of the mandrel to the interior of the extending layer.
However this requires two string tying stage, and also makes it impossible to operate a continuously running system, since the string for each successive tampon has to be separately fed into thehhollow-mandrel.
A further advantage of not t~ing the extending -~
portion is that after it has been introverted lt can revert to a substantially cylindrical form parallel to the overlying layer, and thus a neater finished article can be produced.
The inventiqn also ~ rovides an apparatus for forming a tampon comp~aing an elongate mandrel having a hollow end, means for feeding a layer of absorbent material onto the hollow end of said mandrel to form a sleeve having a length corresponding to that of the tampon, means for feeding a fluid pervious layer over said - 1~'7834Z

absorbent material layer so as to completely cover said absorbent material layer and have a portion extending at least the saoe length beyond the end of said mandrel, and means for applying a force to the exterior of said extending portion to cause it to introvert into the hollow end of sa~d mandrel. Preferably said force applying means is -aia ~ir jet directed into the hollow of said mandrel or applies a vacuum within the hollow mandrel to induce ~tmospheric pressure on the exterior.
The layer of absorbent material may be formed from a sheet of a composite absorbent, or by sandwiching absorbent material within a pair of carrier layers.
The layer may then be in single, double, treble or fourfold form.
An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompaaying diagrammatic drawings in which:-Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an equipment for making a sandwich of tissues inaorporating absorbent gel;
Figure 2 is a pers~ective view showing how the sandwich and an outer layer are formed on a mandrel;
Figure 3 is a view of the end of the mandrel showing formation of the tampon;
Figure 4 is a similar view to Figure 3 at a different operational stage; and . .. . , , . , . . ~ . ,;

10~83~1Z

Figure 5 is a diagrammatic representation of the tampon so formed.
Referring to Figure 1 a hopper 1 contains a suitable highlyaabsorbent milled particulate cross-linked carboxyalkylated starch derivative gel. A
vibratory fe~der 2 is arranged to feed this gel material into the nip of a pair of rollers 3, 4 of which the upper roller 3 is of steel and the lower roller 4 of rubber so as to accommodate variations in the size or evenness of the particle layer.
Also feeding into the nip of the rollers 3, 4 are two layers of tissue carrier material 5, 6 supplied from supply rolls~ 7, 8 via intermediate feed rollers 9.
In each case a water spray device 10 is provided whieh wets the tissue carrier webs S and 6 before they reach -the nip of rollers 3 and 4.
The wetted carrier layers 3, 4 then receive the layer of particulate gel at the nip of the two rollers 3 and 4 and thereafter feed forward as a composite
2~ sandwich ply through ~ heating chamber 11 which removes moisture from the tissue carriers and gel, round a cooling roller 12 and thence to a storage reel 13.
The heating chamber 11 is an enclosure consisting essentially of an open feedthrough system of rollers 14, radiant heaters 15, and forced extraction exhaust duct 16.
The material on the storage reel 13 is slit on a conventional slitting machine into a width to suit the ~ 7834Z

tampon dimensions and the required number of layers of sandwich stock material.
Referring now to Figure 2, this shows the first part of the system for the production of tampons from the gel sandwich stock material formed on ~he equipment described with reference to, and as shown in Figure 1 r In Figure 2 this sandwich stock material 18 may be used in one, two, three or four layers which may be formed using cutting, folding, and direction re-orientation -systems as required. These methods are well known to those skilled in the art and for clarity only the single layer sandwich 17, and the cutting knife 20 are shown in Figure 2.
The discrete pieces 21 of sandwich material thus formed are fed by the conveyor 19 to the next stage.
At the next stage a web 22 of a non-woven outer cover material i8 fed from a sspply ~eel 23 in the longitudinal feeding direction followed by the sandwich stock material 17.
The feed speed of the non-woven web 22 is just over ¦ twice the speed of feed tof the stock material 17. Thus, the discrete pieces 21 are picked up by the web 22 with a spacing between successive pieces which is slightly greater than the length of each piece.
A polished shaped guide piece tnot shown) then forces the web into a sleeve shape on a mandrel 25 with the two edges of the web 22 overlapping. These webs are heat . " ., .i . -. , , " ;, ~ ;

10~83~

sealed or glued by a roller 24 as the web feeds onto the mandrel 25. -Referring now to Figure 3, the mandrel which is a low surface friction bar having a hollow 26 at its further end, carries a series of spaced ~ieces of sandwich stock 21 surrounded by an overlying sleeve shaped layer of non-woven material 22. The material is carried along the mandrel by a pair of endless belt conveyors 27 which each carry spaced rubber grippers 28 located to grip the web at the points where the pieees of sandwich stock 21 locate.
The material is fed off the end of the mandrel to a position where a pair of cutter rollers 29 bring knife edges together to cut the end of the web 22. An air blast jet 30 is then actuated, and this forces the free end of the web back into the hollow 26 at the end of the mandrel (see F~gure 4). The grippers 28 are continuously feeding the material on, so that the folded material passes the cutter rollers. Then, when the position shown in Figure 3 is again reached, the so-formed tampon (at the extreme right hand position of Figure 3) is severed.
In an alternative form tnot illustrated) a suction method i8 employed. In this case the mandrel is hollow down its whole length (see dotted lines in Figure 4~ and suction is produced down the hollow to introvert the web material. In this case a rotary air valve is synchronised , ", :, 10'7834Z
.1 with the cutter rollers to open immediately after the cutting of the web. This allows the suctionc-of~a continuously running fan to be interconnected ~ia a flexible tube to the hollow mandrel. At the open end of thehhollow mandrel there is therefore imposed a suction force on the web. The resultant low pressure from suction causes the ambient air pressure to introvert the web.
The so-formed tampon is then fed to further machinery where the tampon is compressed to a tight cylindrical form, a string is tied to the end, and is inserted in a telescopic cardboard applicator.
These latter can all be standard operations, well known in the art and in consequence have not been described although it should be not~d that the tucks can be formed by stationary fingers which cause the web to tuck in as the sleeve leaves the mandrel. Alternatively the tucks can be produced after the cutting knife, whilst the tampon sleeve is gripped only along a narrow width on the centre line of the machine. Rotating tucking discs can introduce the tucks at this stage. A further alternative is to produce the tucks by a combination of both methods.
Reference is now made to F~gure 5 which diagrammatically shows a tampon in accordance with the invention, having a ` withdrawal cord 31. In the tampon shown, the sandwich ; is folded into~two layers, and it will be seen that the ~'7~34Z

absorbent gel material 32 is well protected, by virtue of two layers of material, one of tissue 5 or 6 and one of the non-woven outer 22. Moreover these two layers of material act as both a capillary path, and a temporary reservoir until the gel has absorbed the extant liquid.

. .
. : ~

Claims (5)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
1. A method of manufacturing a sleeve shaped tampon comprising forming a layer of absorbent material, applying said layer as a sleeve on to a hollow end portion of an elongate mandrel to a length corresponding to that of the tampon, applying a fluid pervious layer over said absorbent material layer so as to completely cover said absorbent material layer and have a portion extending at least said length beyond the end of said mandrel, and applying a force to the exterior of said extending portion to cause it to introvert into the hollow end portion of said mandrel and removing the resultant annular bag shaped tampon from said mandrel.
2. A method according to Claim 1 in which said external force is applied by air pressure.
3. A method according to Claim 2 in which a vacuum is formed within the hollow end of the mandrel, so that atmospheric pressure applies said external force.
4. An apparatus for forming a tampon comprising an elongate mandrel having a hollow end, means for feeding a layer of absorbent material on to the hollow end of said mandrel to form a sleeve having a length corresponding to that of the tampon, means for feeding a fluid pervious layer over said absorbent material layer so as to completely cover said absorbent material layer and have a portion extending tat least the same length beyond the end of said mandrel, and means for applying force to the exterior of said extending portion to cause it to introvert into the hollow end of said mandrel.
5. An apparatus according to Claim 4 comprising air supply means for inducing positive air pressure on the exterior of said extending portion.
CA279,728A 1976-06-03 1977-06-02 Manufacture of tampons Expired CA1078342A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB22980/76A GB1586568A (en) 1976-06-03 1976-06-03 Manufacture of tampons

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA1078342A true CA1078342A (en) 1980-05-27

Family

ID=10188157

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA279,728A Expired CA1078342A (en) 1976-06-03 1977-06-02 Manufacture of tampons

Country Status (6)

Country Link
CA (1) CA1078342A (en)
CH (1) CH615826A5 (en)
DE (1) DE2725003A1 (en)
FR (1) FR2353278A1 (en)
GB (1) GB1586568A (en)
SE (1) SE7706467L (en)

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5498252A (en) * 1993-01-11 1996-03-12 Silber; Arthur L. Toxicity resistant, self-fitting and adjustable, self-closing tampon structure

Family Cites Families (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3222844A (en) * 1962-04-04 1965-12-14 Applied Developments Inc Of Te Method and machine for wrapping continuously moving products with a flexible overwrap
SE358554B (en) * 1970-06-03 1973-08-06 Svenska Cellulosa Ab
US3875615A (en) * 1973-09-25 1975-04-08 Procter & Gamble Device and method for forming tampon

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB1586568A (en) 1981-03-18
FR2353278A1 (en) 1977-12-30
DE2725003A1 (en) 1977-12-15
SE7706467L (en) 1977-12-04
CH615826A5 (en) 1980-02-29

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