JP5400313B2 - Tampon applicator - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an applicator for a tampon that contains an absorbent body and pushes out the absorbent body during use.

  The tampon applicator includes an outer cylinder that houses the absorber and an inner cylinder that pushes out the absorber in the outer cylinder. These outer cylinder and inner cylinder are molded by resin injection molding. The inner cylinder is operated to move into the outer cylinder, and this operation acts to push the absorber out of the outer cylinder. A petal body that is normally closed is provided in the extrusion opening at the tip of the outer cylinder, and the absorber pressed by the inner cylinder spreads the petal body and is pushed out of the outer cylinder from the extrusion opening. . In order to perform such an inner cylinder moving operation with certainty, a grip cylinder part (grip part) is formed on the outer cylinder. Patent Documents 1 to 4 disclose conventional techniques related to the improvement of the grip cylinder part.

In patent document 1, it is set as the high friction structure which formed the flat surface in the holding cylinder part and formed the slit groove | channel etc. in this flat surface. In patent document 2, it is set as the structure which made the grip cylinder part into the hollow shape within 10 mm, and formed the convex part of less than 10 mm in this hollow part. In Patent Document 3, a substantially elliptical columnar flat shape portion is formed in the gripping cylinder portion, and a rib-like protrusion is provided on the outer periphery of the flat shape portion. In patent document 4, it is set as the structure which provided the rib-shaped protrusion in the outer periphery while making a grip cylinder part into substantially polygonal shape.
Special table 2004-532712 gazette WO2005-0009312 Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 61-54822 Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 61-54823

  In a conventional tampon applicator, a gripping cylinder portion is provided with a non-slip projection, whereby the inner cylinder and the absorber can be moved smoothly. In this case, in order for the absorbent body to be smoothly pushed out from the extrusion opening, it is necessary for the petal body to open smoothly when pushed by the absorbent body. If the petals do not open smoothly, it is necessary to increase the pushing force by increasing the moving force of the inner cylinder. However, if the pushing force is strong, it becomes difficult to insert the absorber into the body, and the user There is a problem that causes anxiety.

  Therefore, the present invention provides a tampon application that can smoothly open the petal body when the absorbent body is pushed out, can smoothly insert the absorbent body into the body, and does not give the user anxiety. The purpose is to provide data.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, an extrusion opening through which the absorber is pushed out is provided on one side of the absorber housing cylinder part in which the absorber is housed, and an edge of the extrusion opening extends from the housing cylinder part. And an outer cylinder provided with a plurality of petals that are bent arcuately toward the radial center of the accommodating cylinder, and the absorber is inserted into the outer cylinder by moving into the outer cylinder. An applicator for a tampon comprising an inner cylinder capable of pushing the petal body from the extrusion opening outward in the radial direction of the housing cylinder part and pushing it outward, the petal body and the extrusion opening of the housing cylinder part A spreading force reducing means for reducing a spreading force of the petal body when pushing out the absorber from the inside of the housing cylinder portion is provided in a continuous portion with the edge portion.

  The invention of claim 2 is the tampon applicator according to claim 1, wherein the pushing force reducing means sets the cross-sectional area of the continuous part to be smaller than the cross-sectional area of the accommodating cylinder part. .

  The invention of claim 3 is the tampon applicator according to claim 2, characterized in that the pushing force reducing means is a thin part in which the thickness of the continuous part is smaller than the thickness of the accommodating cylinder part. To do.

  Invention of Claim 4 is the applicator for tampons of Claim 2, Comprising: The said spreading force reduction means is provided between the said continuous parts of the said adjacent petal body, and the notch hole opened between adjacent petal bodies It is a part.

  The invention of claim 5 is the tampon applicator according to claim 1, wherein the pushing force reducing means is a thin region in which the thickness is gradually reduced from the continuous portion to the tip side of the petal body. Features.

  The invention of claim 6 is the tampon applicator according to claim 1, wherein the spreading force reducing means is provided in the continuous portion of the intermediate portion in the circumferential direction of the petal body along the axial direction of the accommodating cylinder portion. The slit is provided.

  According to the present invention, since the spreading force reducing means is provided at the continuous portion between the petal body and the extrusion opening edge of the outer cylinder to reduce the spreading force of the petal body, the petal body is smoothly spread. It is done. For this reason, the insertion of the absorber into the body can be performed smoothly, and the user does not feel uneasy.

  FIG. 1 is a front view showing an entire tampon applicator according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an extrusion opening portion of an outer cylinder.

  The tampon applicator 1 of this embodiment has an outer cylinder 2 and an inner cylinder 3. Each of the outer cylinder 2 and the inner cylinder 3 is entirely formed of polyolefin such as polyethylene or polypropylene.

  An absorber 4 is accommodated inside the outer cylinder 2. An extraction string 5 is connected to the absorber 4 at the base end. The take-out string 5 is inserted through the inner cylinder 3 from the base end of the absorber 4, and the insertion end is extracted from the inner cylinder 3. The absorbent body 4 can be pulled out from the body by pulling the take-out string 5 during use.

  A distal end portion of the outer cylinder 2 is an absorber housing cylinder portion (hereinafter referred to as an accommodation cylinder portion) 6 having a large diameter, and a proximal end portion is a gripping cylinder portion 7 having a small diameter. The leading end portion of the inner cylinder 3 is inserted into the gripping cylinder portion 7, and the leading end surface of the inserted inner cylinder 3 faces the absorber 4. The distal end portion of the housing cylinder portion 6 is an extrusion opening, and a petal body 8 is connected to the extrusion opening. The petal body 8 is normally closed at the edge of the extrusion opening, but when the absorbent body 4 is pushed out by the inner cylinder 3, it is spread and opened by the absorbent body 4. Thereby, since the absorber 4 is extruded from the accommodation cylinder part 6, the absorber 4 can be inserted in a body.

  The gripping cylinder part 7 becomes a grip part gripped by a finger during such a movement operation of the inner cylinder 3. A plurality of protrusions 7a are formed on the outer peripheral surface of the gripping cylinder portion 7, and the protrusions 7a receive the user's finger. Then, the inner cylinder 3 can be pushed into the outer cylinder 2 by pressing the inner cylinder 3 with a finger hooked on the protrusion 7a.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the housing cylinder portion 6 in the outer cylinder 2, and an extrusion opening 10 is provided on one side (left side). A plurality of petals 8 are connected to the edge of the extrusion opening 10. Each petal body 8 is formed in a petal shape in which the base side is wide and the width gradually decreases in a curved manner toward the tip side, and the extrusion opening 10 is normally closed. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the petal body 12 is bent in an arc shape toward the radial center portion side of the housing cylinder portion 6, and the extrusion opening 10 is closed by this bending. As described above, the petal body 8 is pushed and spread by being pushed by the absorbent body 4 in the housing cylinder portion 6 to be in the open state shown in FIG.

  In this embodiment, a spreading force reducing means for smoothly spreading the petal body 8 is provided. Hereinafter, the spreading force reducing means will be described.

  In FIG. 2, 13 is a continuous part where the edge part of the extrusion opening 10 and the petal body 8 are continuous. The continuous portion 13 is a region that connects the base 8a of the petal body 8 in the circumferential direction, and a spreading force reducing means is provided in this region. As shown in FIG. 2, the accommodating cylinder portion 6 gradually decreases in thickness from the gripping cylinder portion 7 toward the extrusion opening 10, and the continuous portion 13 has the smallest thickness. By changing the thickness in this way, the outer peripheral diameter D1 of the continuous portion 13 and the outer peripheral diameter E1 on the gripping cylindrical portion 7 side of the accommodating cylindrical portion 6 are the same dimension (D1 = E1), whereas the continuous portion 13 Is larger than the inner diameter E2 on the base side (the gripping cylinder part 7 side) of the accommodating cylinder part 6 (D2> E2).

  By setting it as the said relationship, the cross-sectional area of the continuous part 13 becomes smaller than the cross-sectional area of the accommodating cylinder part 6, and the petal body 8 connected to the continuous part 13 reduces the resistance at the time of pushing open. For this reason, the petal body 8 can be smoothly spread. It is more preferable that the outer peripheral diameter D1 of the continuous portion 13 and the outer peripheral diameter E1 of the accommodating cylinder portion 6 on the gripping cylinder portion 7 side are set as D1 <E1. By setting it as such a dimensional relationship, while being able to reduce the extrusion force of the petal body 8, it becomes possible to forcibly remove in the injection molding.

  In this embodiment, since the inner diameter D2 of the continuous portion 13 is larger than the inner diameter E2 on the base side of the housing cylinder portion 6, the diameter of the absorber 4 can be increased accordingly. For this reason, an absorptance can be improved. In addition, when the diameter of the absorber 4 is constant, a space is created between the absorber 4 and the housing cylinder 6, so that the housing cylinder 6 is inserted into the outer diameter of the absorber 4 when inserted into the body. It can be a collapsed ellipse shape reaching up to. In addition to this, it is possible to make the accommodating cylinder portion 6 other than a cylinder.

  3 to 6 show other embodiments of the spreading force reducing means, respectively.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the thickness of the portion corresponding to the continuous portion 13 connecting the base portion 8 a of the petal body 8 in the accommodating cylinder portion 6 is made thinner than the other portions of the accommodating cylinder portion 6. A portion corresponding to 13 is a thin portion 15. By forming the thin portion 15, the resistance of the petal body 8 against spreading is reduced, and the petal body 8 can be smoothly spread.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, a notch hole 17 is formed in the base 8 a of the petal body 8. The cutout hole 17 is provided in the base 8 a of the petal body 8, so that it is located in the region of the continuous part 13 and is stretched over the base 8 a of the adjacent petal body 8. By providing such a notch hole portion 17, the resistance of the petal body 8 against spreading is reduced, so that the petal body 8 can be smoothly spread.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, one or a plurality of slits 18 are formed in a portion corresponding to the vicinity of the base 8 a of the petal body 8. The slit 18 is provided in the continuous part 13, and in this embodiment, is formed in the radial direction of the accommodating cylinder part 6 so as to cross the bottom part of each petal body 8.

  Here, the slit 18 may have a groove shape (a shape that does not penetrate in the thickness direction of the housing cylinder portion) or may penetrate through the thickness direction of the housing cylinder portion.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, one or a plurality of slits 19 are formed along the axial direction of the accommodating cylinder portion 6. The slit 19 is a position corresponding to the base 8 a of the petal body 8 and is provided at the bottom of the petal body 8, whereby the slit 19 is formed in the continuous part 13. The slit 19 in FIG. 6 is formed along the axial direction of the accommodating cylinder portion 6. By forming the slits 18 and 19 as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the resistance when the petal body 8 is pushed out can be reduced, and the petal body 8 can be smoothly spread out.

  In the above embodiment, since the spreading force of the petal body 8 is reduced, the petal body 8 can be smoothly spread and the absorber 4 can be smoothly inserted into the body. For this reason, the user does not feel uneasy.

  In addition, in this invention, you may combine the above embodiment and it becomes possible to perform a petal body spreading more smoothly by this.

It is a front view of the whole tampon applicator of one embodiment of the present invention. It is the A section expanded sectional view in FIG. It is sectional drawing of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing of the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing of the 4th Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing of the 5th Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Applicator for tampon 2 Outer cylinder 3 Inner cylinder 4 Absorber 5 Take-out string 6 Storage cylinder part 7 Grasping cylinder part 8 Petal body 8a Base part of petal body 10 Extrusion opening 13 Continuous part 15 Thin part 17 Notch hole part 18, 19 Slit

Claims (3)

An extrusion opening through which the absorbent body is pushed out is provided on one side of the housing cylinder portion of the absorbent body in which the absorbent body is housed. An outer cylinder provided with a plurality of petals that are bent in an arc shape toward the center in the radial direction of the part, and the absorber inserted into the outer cylinder and moved into the outer cylinder by pushing the absorber from the extrusion opening to the petal body An applicator for a tampon comprising an inner cylinder that can be pushed outward by pushing the container cylinder portion radially outward,
The outer cylinder has a gripping cylinder part into which the inner cylinder is inserted and whose diameter is smaller than that of the housing cylinder part,
In the continuous part of the petal body and the pushing opening edge of the housing cylinder part, there is provided a spreading force reducing means for reducing the spreading force of the petal body when pushing out the absorber from the inside of the housing cylinder part,
The spreading force reducing means is a thin portion in which the cross-sectional area of the continuous portion is set smaller than the cross-sectional area of the accommodating cylinder portion, and the thickness of the continuous portion is smaller than the thickness of the accommodating cylinder portion;
The outer peripheral diameter of the continuous part where the spreading force reducing means is formed and the outer peripheral diameter on the gripping cylinder part side in the accommodating cylinder part are the same diameter ,
The tampon applicator characterized in that the spreading force reducing means further includes a thin wall region in which the thickness is gradually reduced from the continuous portion to the tip side of the petal body .   2. The tampon applicator according to claim 1, wherein the pushing force reducing means further includes a slit provided in the continuous portion in the circumferential intermediate portion of the petal body along the axial direction of the accommodating tube portion. A tampon applicator characterized by the above.   3. The tampon applicator according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a notch hole portion in which the spreading force reducing means is provided between the continuous portions of the adjacent petal bodies and opens between the adjacent petal bodies. An applicator for a tampon, comprising:

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