JP2005312946A - Sponge for application - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sponge for application having an excellent feeling of use (having a condition of allowing uniform application and a condition of soft touch) and hardly leaving an applied material inside the sponge by developing a structure capable of reducing the permeation amount of contents (the applied material) into the sponge. <P>SOLUTION: In the urethane foam sponge comprising a continuous foam cell structure, the area rate of aperture parts 3 in membrane-like skeletons 2 forming foam cells is 5-30%. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a coating sponge, and more particularly to a cosmetic sponge, a paint sponge, a car wax sponge, and a floor sponge.

Conventionally, there are many coating sponges composed of continuous foamed cells on the market.
Such a sponge for application is used after applying an application product (contents of cosmetics, etc.) to the sponge surface. However, a considerable part of the application product penetrates into the sponge and is efficient for application. In addition to being bad, the applied material remained inside the sponge, leading to deterioration and alteration of the sponge.

Especially for cosmetic sponges, a small amount of liquid foundation is applied to the sponge to make up the makeup. It was.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-164017 Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 2-33218

  In order to solve such problems, methods such as Japanese Patent Application Nos. 9-164017 and 2-33218 have been disclosed, but the former melts the puff surface and some bubbles on the puff surface. Since the fine opening of the sponge puff is damaged, and the fine opening inside the sponge puff remains as it is, the coated material once passed through the surface of the sponge puff remains in the sponge as before. The problem of deterioration and deterioration of the sponge occurred. The latter sponge puff also forms the heat stamp on the sponge puff surface, and thus the same problem as the former has occurred.

The present invention has developed a structure that can reduce the amount of content (applied product) permeating into the sponge, thereby providing excellent usability (provided that it can be uniformly applied and has a soft feel), and at the same time It is intended to provide an application sponge that does not leave much of the applied material inside the sponge.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is the urethane foam sponge having a continuous foam cell structure, wherein the area ratio of the openings in the membranous skeleton forming the foam cells is 5 to 30. %, It is a sponge for application characterized by being%.

According to the application sponge according to claim 1 of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the amount of the contents permeated into the sponge, and the feel of the surface of the sponge is not impaired as compared with the conventional application sponge. The effect was achieved.

2. The coating according to claim 1, wherein the diameter of the openings 3 in the membranous skeleton 2 is 5 to 50 microns on average and the diameter of more than half of the openings is 5 to 50 microns. For sponges.

According to the sponge for application according to claim 2 of the present invention, a particularly excellent feeling of use as a cosmetic applicator can be achieved.

A third aspect of the present invention is the application sponge according to the first or second aspect, wherein the surface of the urethane foam sponge is embossed.

According to the sponge for application according to claim 3 of the present invention, it is possible to achieve the effect of further reducing the amount of content penetration into the sponge.

As described above, as compared with the conventional application sponge, the effect of being able to reduce the amount of content penetration into the sponge and not damaging the surface feel of the sponge was achieved.

The second aspect of the present invention has an effect that a particularly excellent usability can be achieved as a cosmetic applicator.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the effect of further reducing the amount of content penetration into the sponge can be achieved.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the application sponge according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
1 is a perspective view of a foamed urethane sponge according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged electron microscope plan view (× 30) of the foamed urethane sponge, FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between the opening area ratio and the permeability, FIG. These are the expanded partial sectional views of the Example which performed the heat press process so that the surface of foaming urethane sponge might become embossed.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in a foamed urethane sponge 1 (both dry and wet types) having a continuous foamed cell structure, the foamed cell is formed of a film-like skeleton 2, and this film-like structure An opening 3 is formed on the surface of the skeleton 2. One or a plurality of openings 3 are formed for each unit film-like skeleton 2, and the area ratio of the openings 3 in the film-like skeleton 2 is 5 to 30%.
In the electron micrograph of FIG. 2, the portion displayed in black is the membrane skeleton 2, and the portion displayed in black in the membrane skeleton 2 is the opening 3.

The area ratio of the opening 3 in the membranous skeleton 2 is 5 to 30%, but if it is less than 5%, the penetration rate of the contents 5 into the urethane foam sponge 1 is lowered, and the contents of the polyurethane foam sponge 1 are retained. Not only can the effect be expected and it becomes difficult to use, but the foamed urethane sponge 1 feels hard and the usability also deteriorates.

On the other hand, if it exceeds 30%, the penetration rate of the contents 5 into the foamed urethane sponge 1 becomes too large, and the contents are unnecessarily taken into the interior of the foamed urethane sponge 1.
According to the inventor's foundation utilization experiment, the content penetration rate into the sponge suddenly increased after exceeding the area ratio of 30%, with the area ratio of 40% being 70% of the total use amount and the area ratio of 45% being the total use amount. 80% penetrated into the sponge, and the amount of foundation adhering to the skin was only about 20-30%.

As shown in the graph of FIG. 3, a range surrounded by a dotted line is a range in which the effective effect of the present invention is exhibited. Specifically, a material having an opening area ratio of 5 to 30% has a permeability of 10 It was found to be ˜50%.
When the penetration rate is 50% or more, the foundation coating amount is reduced and the function as a coating sponge is not satisfied.
On the other hand, when a coating sponge having a penetrability of 5% or less is used, the foundation slides up and satisfactory coating cannot be performed.

The “area ratio of the opening” described in this specification is an area ratio occupied by the opening in the enlarged electron microscope plan view of FIG. 2. As a specific measuring method, an enlarged electron microscope plan view Is printed on paper, and the total weight of the paper and the weight of only the paper corresponding to the opening are calculated.
Here, when the area ratio of the opening is determined, if the entire area to be actually measured is small, the measurement value varies depending on the measurement position. Therefore, the entire area to be actually measured is “range of 297 mm × 210 mm in actual dimensions” The “measured value” is a preferable condition.

Furthermore, if the diameter of the opening 3 in the membranous skeleton 2 is formed to an average of 5 to 50 microns, very good results are obtained when the urethane foam sponge 1 of the present invention is used as a cosmetic applicator. It is done. The reason is that since the diameter of the unit cosmetic raw material as the content 5 is often the same as or larger than that of the opening 3, the residual rate of the content 5 penetrating into the urethane foam sponge 1 is reduced. to cause. That is, when the foamed urethane sponge 1 is used, the contents 5 of the cosmetic are scraped off in the compressed state of the foamed urethane sponge. A large amount of the content does not penetrate into the urethane sponge, and once the content has penetrated, the content does not remain in the foamed urethane sponge and the residual rate decreases.

The “diameter of the opening” described in the present invention is the maximum diameter of the opening (the longest diameter portion in the opening) in the enlarged electron microscope plan view of FIG.
Here, when determining the direct line of the opening, if the actual measurement range is narrow, the measurement value varies depending on the measurement position. Therefore, the actual measurement range is “measurement value in the range of 297 mm × 210 mm in actual dimensions” Is a preferable condition.

Since the foamed urethane sponge 1 according to the present invention has the membrane skeleton 2, when the foamed urethane sponge 1 is compressed by applying pressure to the sponge, the opening 3 in the membrane skeleton 2 is blocked. As a result, the above-described application action can be performed smoothly and a good effect can be achieved.

When the urethane foam sponge 1 according to the present invention is formed with embosses 4 forming irregularities on the surface and subjected to a heat press treatment (in this case, the heat press condition is 200 ° C./2 minutes), The contents are held in the embossed part 4 as in the case of fingerprints, and the contents 5 can be released from the foamed urethane sponge 1 little by little with the image of extending the contents with the fingertips, so that uniform application can be realized.

The application sponge according to the present invention is particularly useful as a cosmetic tool, so that it can be used in the cosmetic industry, and can also be used in the fields of paint sponges, car wax sponges, and floor sponges.

1 is a perspective view of a foamed urethane sponge according to the present invention. It is an enlarged electron microscope top view photograph (* 30) of the urethane foam sponge which concerns on this invention. It is a graph which shows the relationship between an opening part area rate and a permeability. It is an expanded partial sectional view of the Example which performed the hot press process so that the surface of the foaming urethane sponge concerning this invention might become embossed.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Urethane foam sponge 2 ... Film-like frame | skeleton 3 ... Opening part 4 ... Embossing 5 ... Contents

Claims (3)

  A foamed urethane sponge having a continuous foamed cell structure, wherein the area ratio of the openings in the membranous skeleton forming the foamed cell is 5 to 30%.   The sponge for application according to claim 1, wherein the opening 3 in the membranous skeleton 2 is formed so that the average diameter is 5 to 50 microns, and more than half the diameter of the openings is 5 to 50 microns. The application sponge according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the surface of the foamed urethane sponge is embossed.