WO2014114441A1

WO2014114441A1 - Sanitary absorbent article with wings

Info

Publication number: WO2014114441A1
Application number: PCT/EP2014/000144
Authority: WO
Inventors: Angelo IUPPA; Arturo MARAVIGNA; Francesco SPADACCINI
Original assignee: Silver Pharma Srl
Priority date: 2013-01-23
Filing date: 2014-01-20
Publication date: 2014-07-31
Also published as: ITAN20130013A1

Abstract

A sanitary absorbent article (10) for absorbing bodily fluids, comprising an absorbent core (11) disposed in the central portion of the article (10), which is positioned between a topsheet (21) and a backsheet (22) and comprise a pair of side wings (12,13) to secure said article (10) to user's undergarments; said wings (12,13) being discerned as left wing (12) and right wing (13). The article (10) providing - in the central longitudinal portion, of each right wing (12) and in the central portion of each left wing (13) - slits (126,136) and connecting means (125,135); each connecting means (125,136) is designed to break under predetermined shear forces, eventually due to involuntary user's movements during article's utilization, in order to separate the right wing (12) into a first right half wing (123) and a second right half wing (124) and the left wing (13) into a first left (133) and a second left half wing (134).

Description

Title of the invention: SANITARY ABSORBENT ARTICLE WITH WINGS

The present invention relates to disposable absorbent articles such as female sanitary articles, as for example sanitary napkins and pantiliners.

Particularly, the present invention is addressed to fem-care articles including lateral wings and one or more connecting means for separating wings in two half-wings in case of particular stresses that could occur under certain circumstances during article's usage.

More particularly, the connecting means permits the proper positioning of the left wing and of the right wing onto the wearer's undergarment as if the articles had only one wing, in this facilitating said positioning.

Currently, many disposable absorbent articles are available to be used for the absorption of bodily fluids such as urine and menses, in the form of feminine pads, sanitary napkins, panty-liners, panty-shields, and incontinence devices for light incontinence phenomena. Generally, such articles are characterized by an absorbent core surrounded by an upper hydrophilic layer and a lower hydrophobic layer, defined respectively as topsheet, to be places in contact with the user's skin, and backsheet, to be attached on the user's undergarment via a fastening means.

Side leakage is the most important problem that must be avoided in such absorbent articles, and it can occur for many reasons as for example a wrongly dimensioned absorbent core or a bad positioning of the article in respect of the user's skin. Side wings have been applied on absorbent articles in order to guarantee that the article remains in place without any shifting or twisting due to garment's movements during the article's usage and in order to avoid soiling of garment's edges in case of lateral leakage.

Femcare articles, more specifically in the form of sanitary napkins or panty-liners, including wings are well known in the art and have already been disclosed in several patents like US Pat. No. 4,687,478 issued to Van Tilburg on August 18, 1987 entitled "Shaped Sanitary Napkin With Flaps", US Pa. No. 4,608,047 issued to Mattingly on August 26, 1986 entitled "Sanitary Napkin Attachment Means", US Pat. No. 4,589,876 issued to Van Tilburg on May 20, 1986 entitled "Sanitary Napkin", US Pat. No. 4,285,343 issued to McNair on August 25, 1981 entitled "Sanitary Napkin", US Pat. No. 3,397,697 issued to Rickard in August 20, 1968 entitled "Disposable Sanitary Shield For Undergarments" and US Pat. No. 2,787,271 issued to Clark on April 2, 1957 entitled "Sanitary Napkin". Publications like JP HI 1 1 13959 A and JP 2009 0232950 A are related to absorbent articles including wings characterized by weakening lines, where said lines are aimed to facilitate a voluntary separation of wings in two or more parts prior or during the article's wearing phase, before coming into contact with the user's skin.

Even if wings are intended and specifically designed to prevent side leakage, articles including them can be affected by wrong positioning in the user's crotch area, due to a misalignment between the user's body and the garments, to which articles are strictly affixed, in this creating the possibility of such a leakage.

Said article's movements occur because of stresses created on the wings' folding portions when they are turned around the garments, because of a non-perfect correspondence between the wings' folding portions and the garment's edges, that can of course appear in different shapes and widths; above mentioned stresses are magnified when the user moves, particularly when seats or crouches because garments are stretched and the adhesive connection between wings and garments can loose its grip, in this creating a possible risk of detachment that will bring the article loosing benefits due to wings adoption.

Many patents have been disclosed teaching variations on above described construction in order to overcome said negativities, like US Pat. No. 4,940,462 issued to Salerno on July 10, 1990, discloses a sanitary napkin including longitudinally extensible wings, US Pat. No. 4,917,697 issued to Osborn on April 17, 1990, discloses a sanitary napkin including wings having a stress relief means in the form of a slit or of a notch, WIPO Pat. Appl. No. 2004/032813 issued to Salone on September 30, 2003, discloses a sanitary napkin including wings presenting zones of different extensibility.

Consequently, there is a need in the market for the improvement of winged articles, in order to avoid their twisting or bunching around the user's garments during its use, in this ensuring a proper side leakage containment feature.

The aim task for the subject matter of the present invention is therefore to solve the described technical problems by an absorbent article, such as a sanitary napkin, a panty- liner, a panty-shield or a light incontinence product, including wings having one or more connecting means studied to separate each wing into semi-wings, able to resist to certain stresses up to a certain limit and to break when the need arises is disclosed in accordance to what is claimed. Above mentioned connecting means permit the application onto the user's undergarment of left and right wings with single movements for each side, in this enabling an easier positioning of the article onto the wearer's undergarment versus an article having more than one wing on each side.

The absorbent article is characterized by main body part made of an hydrophilic topsheet, disposed as the layer that will be held in contact with the user's body, an hydrophobic backsheet, disposed as the layer that will be adhered to the user's garments and an absorbent core sandwiched between said two layers, and two side parts extending along the longitudinal article's edges that will work as wings to be folded around garment's edges in order to be attached on the garment's outer side.

The wings can be realized as extension of the topsheet, as extension of the backsheet, as extension of both of them or as stand-alone materials joined to article's longitudinal edges via different possible attaching techniques.

The wings extend laterally outward from the longitudinal article's edges and can be divided in a front portion and a rear portion, that remain connected by one or more connecting means until the desired stress is not applied on said means; when the predetermined stress is applied, for example due to involuntary user's movements during the article's utilization, the connecting means break and the wings are definitively divided into two portions, in this helping them in following garments' movements, avoiding the possibility of article's deformation, while still offering the user the possibility of attaching them as if they were just one wing.

Brief Description of The Drawings

Figure 1 A is a bottom plan view of the article embodiment of this invention.

Figures 1B-1C are a cross-sectional view of the absorbent layer of one embodiment of this invention.

Figure ID is a cross-sectional view of the absorbent layer of one embodiment of this invention.

Figure 2A is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of the article of this invention.

Figure 2B is a cross-sectional view of an alternative embodiment of the absorbent article of this invention.

Figure 2C is a cross-sectional view of an alternative embodiment of the absorbent article of this invention. Figure 2D is a top plan view of the embodiment of the absorbent article of this invention of Figure 2B.

Figure 2E is a top plan view of the embodiment of the absorbent article of this invention of Figure 2C.

Figures 3A,3B,3C are top plan views of one embodiment of the article of this invention when folded together with its outer wrap.

Figure 4A is a top plan view of one article to be considered as prior art.

Figure 4B is a top plan view of the article of Figure 4A with wings folded over the topsheet and protected by protective strips.

More particularly, the connecting means permits the user to position the wings when they are folded down and under a wearer's undergarment as if the articles had only one wing, in this facilitating said positioning.

The term "absorbent article", as used herein, refers to articles engineered to absorb bodily fluids, like blood and menses; the articles are intended to be held in contact to the body of the wearer with the help of garments, to which said articles are attached via different techniques. More specifically, "absorbent articles" belong to the families of feminine hygiene disposable absorbent articles, like feminine pads, sanitary napkins, panty-liners, panty-shields, and incontinence devices to be used on light incontinence phenomena. In one of the preferred embodiments described in this document, the absorbent article is intended to be a sanitary napkin.

The present invention, however, is not intended to be limited to the preferred embodiment described in this document.

A sanitary napkin 10 as shown in fig. 1 comprises an absorbent core 11 disposed in the central portion of the article, defined as the main body portion, and two lateral wings 12,13; said wings 12,13 are symmetrical each other, so in the following description whatever will be detailed for one of them, it will be exactly repeated for the other one. The sanitary napkin 10 as shown in fig. 2 comprises an upper hydrophilic layer 21, herein referred as topsheet, a lower hydrophobic layer 22, herein referred as backsheet, an absorbent layer 23, herein referred as absorbent core, and an acquisition-diffusion layer 24, herein referred as ADL.

The topsheet 21 can be realized with several materials, like for example perforated PE- based films, closed or apertured nonwoven, based as an example on PP, PET, nylon or rayon mixtures, closed or apertured woven, where each of said materials must guarantee the capability of being passed through by fluids, in this being hydrophilic.

The topsheet 21 can be treated with a surfactant in order to enhance its hydrophilicity, in order to make it able to be quickly passed through by fluids in Z direction, without giving the chance to a lateral spread in the X-Y direction.

In a preferred embodiment the topsheet 21 is put directly in contact with an acquisition- diffusion layer 24, that is engineered to spread fluids coming from the topsheet in X-Y direction, before their quick acquisition in the Z direction, toward the absorbent layer 23. In another preferred embodiment the topsheet 21 is directly put in contact with the absorbent layer 23, without any ADL layer 24.

The mentioned absorbent layer 23 is engineered to rapidly absorb and consequently store bodily exudates received from upper layers; said absorbent layer is preferably made out of a material that is able to absorb fluids without releasing them under pressure, having capabilities of conforming around the user's body without irritating user's skin. Several materials are well known in the art, such as for example cellulose pulp, absorbent foams, absorbent sponges, synthetic fibers, hydrogel forming polymer particles, super-absorbent particles or any combination of mentioned materials obtained by every industrial process, as air-laying as an example.

Super-absorbent particles, herein referred as SAP, are synthetic particles able to swell upon contact with fluids, in this acquiring and absorbing them without releasing fluids under pressure; said SAP is generally realized with substantially water- insoluble, slightly cross- linked, partially neutralized, hydrogel-forming polymer material, usually derived from polyolephinic-based materials.

Suitable materials to be used as SAP are commercially available from many different worldwide manufacturers, and are descending as an example to the US Pat. No. 4,654,039 issued to Brandt on March 31, 1987, entitled "Hydrogel-Forming Polymer Compositions For Use In Absorbent Structures".

In a preferred embodiment the absorbent layer 23 is realized, as in fig. IB, with an air-laid material 151 based on cellulose pulp, with the addition of super-absorbent particles 152, where the air-laid material 151 is transversally folded around the SAP 152 in order to contain it to avoid particle's wicking, in this creating a base layer 153 and two half upper layers 154 and 155 overlapping in a small section 156, as shown in fig. 1C.

In another preferred embodiment the absorbent layer 23 is realized with a pre-formed air- laid material 157 manufactured with super-absorbent particles 152 inside its structure, as shown in Fig. ID.

Suitable air-laid materials to be used as absorbent cores are commercially available from many different worldwide manufacturers, as for example the one disclosed in the WIPO Pat. Appl. No. 98/28479 issued to Carlucci on July 02, 1998, entitled "A dry laid structure comprising particulate material", or in the WIPO Pat. Appl. No. 99/63925 issued to Westphal on December 16, 1999, entitled "Unitary absorbent structure containing superabsorbent polymer".

In another preferred embodiment the absorbent layer 23 is realized with a cellulose fluff pulp layer, to which optionally super-absorbent particles can be mixed during the formation process on-line.

In another preferred embodiment the absorbent layer 23 is realized with two cellulose fluff pulp layers superimposed each other, having different densities, weights and overall dimensions.

The backsheet layer 22 of the sanitary napkin is a hydrophobic layer that must work as a barrier to fluids in order to protect user's garment from staining; suitable materials are PE- based films or laminates between such films and other layers. As an example, the backsheet can be realized as a lamination between an outer PE-based film, embossed or not, and an inner layer that can work as a supplementary diffusion layer, to be used in case of fluid not absorbed by the absorbent layer 23, that are consequently spread in the X-Y direction in order to be successfully absorbed.

All of the mentioned layers 21, 22, 23 and 24 are joined each other via adhesive means, applied with different techniques known in the art, as for example spraying and coating. Suitable adhesives to be used for mentioned purposes are commercial adhesives, available from many different worldwide-based manufacturers.

The backsheet 22 presents adhesive portions on its outer surface, the central adhesive portion 25 in correspondence with the central portion of the article that will be attached to the inner garment's side, and the wings' adhesive portions 223,224,233,234 in correspondence with the portions of the wings that, once folded over, will be secured to the outer garment's side, as shown in Fig. 2A.

In a preferred embodiment such adhesive zones 225, 223,224,233, and 234 are protected by siliconized paper strips 240,221,222,231,232 applied respectively on each adhesive zone 225,223,224,233,234.

In another preferred embodiment the left wings' adhesive portions 233,234 and the right wings' adhesive portions 223,224 are covered by a left protective strip 238 and a right protective strip 228, as shown in fig. 2B,2D.

In another preferred embodiment the central adhesive zone 225 is protected by a single strip 240, while wings' adhesive portions 223,224,233,234 are protected by a different single strip 241 positioned in such a way to bridge all of them, once folded over the article's topsheet 21, as shown in Fig. 2C,2E.

In another preferred embodiment the sanitary napkin 10 is coupled to the sheet 301 that, once folded over, will become the article's wrap and final pouch 302 as shown in fig. 3A, 3B, 3C; said sheet is realized in such a way that the inner side works as a protective layer for the article's adhesive, in order not to utilize any strip protecting the central adhesive zone of the article itself.

Wings 12,13 in Fig. 1 are realized as extension of both backsheet 22 and topsheet 21, but in other embodiments can be realized as extension of only backsheet 22, only topsheet 21 or as separate material strips attached to the main article's body, on the longitudinal sides.

Wings 12,13 have a proximal edge 121 adjacent to the main article's body and a distal edge 122 remote from said proximal edge 121 ; each wing 12,13 can be ideally divided into first half 123, 133 and second half 124, 134 by slits 126,136 and respectively connected by connecting means 125, 135.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention connecting means 125,135 can be more than one on each side, i.e. two on the left wing and two on the right wing. Slits 126,136 are realized via on-line cutting processes and can follow any pattern, such as curvilinear patterns as in Fig. 1 or linear patterns as in other preferred embodiments; said cutting process does not affect wings to their distal edge, thus creating connecting means 125, 135.

The connecting means 125,135 can be realized having different dimensions, depending on the resistance needed by different article's typologies, such as regular type, long type, night type and so on.

Slits 126,136 can be realized by known cutting techniques and do not require expensive modifications to productive lines, in this being a cheap solution for the article's bunching problem.

The width of said connecting means 125,135 is dependent from the article's external dimensions, and must guarantee resistance to shear forces applied on wings until they are not stressed by forces due to involuntary user's movements during the utilization of the article, when it is in direct contact with the user's skin; the reason of this resistance stays in that said connecting means 125,135 are useful in helping the user in wearing the article, that can be managed as a mono-winged one, for example by removing a single strip of protective material before wings' adhesion to the garments. Without said connecting means 125,135 the article could have been considered as belonging to the double wing category as in Fig. 4A,4B, to be considered as prior-art examples, having four separate wings 423,424,433,434, in this needing at least two separate protective strips 430,431, one covering left wings 433,434 and one covering lower wings 423,424, obliging the user to a dual-phased movement. Double winged articles can also adopt a single protective material strip for all the wings' adhesive zones, but the user could face several disadvantages in having four separate wings 423,424,433,434 flagging each without being bound by any other, as for example undesired attachment before correct wings' positioning. In a preferred embodiment of this patent a single protective strip material 240 can be adopted for the protection of all wings' adhesive areas 223,224,233,234, because of the presence of said connecting means 125,135 that make the two left half-wings 133,134 and the two right half- wings 123,124 behaving as a single left wing and as a single right wing, in this preventing improper attachment of wings' adhesive portions 223,224,233,234 due to wings 123,124,133,134 flagging before positioning. The sanitary napkin 10 of the present invention is worn by removal of central protective strip 240, or in another preferred embodiment of the single wrap material 501, from the article and consequent positioning of the article onto user's garments, in this creating an adhesion between the central adhesive area 225 disposed on the backsheet and the inner garment's side; this connection guarantees the correct positioning of the article onto panties, while wings' adhesive portions are still protected by protective strip 241, or in other embodiments by strips 231,232,221,222, or yet in other embodiments by strips 238,228. Once removed the wings' protective strip, or strips, said wings are folded around garment's edges, before being securely attached on their outer side via wings' adhesive portions 223,224,233,234; the folding creates stress forces around wings proximal edges 121,131, and said stresses increase dramatically once panties are worn by user, because panties itself make the sanitary napkin modifying its original plan shape in order to fit around user's skin. When the user moves, panties make the article moving together with the user's body, maintaining it nearby the skin; this movements create stresses around wings proximal edges, where said stresses can bring to article's folding and bunching due to wings' fixation on panties.

When above mentioned stresses appear, connecting means 125,126 broke modifying wings' structure, dividing each wing 12,13 into half-wings 123,124,133,134, in this making them able to move freely around panties, avoiding folding or bunching of the article.

Half-wings 123,124,133,134 are able to enhance the article's adaptation on panties movements because slits 126 and 136 begin working as "hinges" around which said half- wings can move without imparting stresses to the sanitary napkin, in this guaranteeing a proper fitting to the user's body and consequently good absorbing performances reducing leakage risks.

Claims

1. An absorbent article for absorbing bodily fluids, comprising an absorbent core (11) disposed in the central portion of the article (10), which is positioned between a topsheet (21) and a backsheet (22) and comprise a pair of side wings (12,13) to secure said article (10) to user's undergarments; said wings (12,13) being discerned as left wing (12) and right wing (13); the article (10) being characterized by the fact that are provided in the central portion of each right wing (12) and in the central longitudinal portion of each left wing (13), slits (126,136) and connecting means (125,135), where each connecting means (125,135) is designed to break under predetermined shear forces, eventually due to involuntary user's movements during article's utilization, in order to separate the right wing (12) into a first right half wing (123) and a second right half wing (124) and the left wing (13) into a first left half wing (133) and a second left half wing (134).

2. Article, as described in claim 1, characterized by the fact that includes one or more slits (126,136) and one or more connecting means (125,135) on each side.

3. Article, as described in claim 1, characterized by the fact that said article has at least an adhesive portion (225) to be fixed on the internal side of user's undergarments.

4. Article, as described in claims 1 or 2 or 3, characterized by the fact that each left wing (13) and each right wing (12) has two (233,234;223,224) adhesive portions.

5. Article, as described in claims 4, characterized by the fact that left adhesive portions (233,234) and right adhesive portions (223,224) are protected by at least a protective strip (231,232; 221,222).

6. Article, as described in claims 5, characterized by the fact that all said adhesive portions (233,234;223,224) are protected by a single (241) protective strip positioned after wings folding (12,13) onto the topsheet (21) of the article (10).