Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
DISPOSABLE GARMEDITS OF PAWL'S TYPE
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates i~o disposable garments
and more particularly to such garments of pants type having
a simplified const.ruation.
While most of commonly used disposable garments such as
diaper, training pants and incontinence briefs have been of
so-called open type, such disposable garments of pants type
have been also proposed, for example, by U.S. Patent No.
4,771,483.
The present invention is directed to disposable
garments of pants type having a simplified construction.
The above-identified U.S. Patent No. 4,771,483 also proposes
such disposable pants type garments of a simplified
construction. According to this prior art, a rectangular
sheet material is provided along each of opposite side edges
with a single slit extending substantially in paxallel to
the associated ane of said opposite side edges and a narraw
section defined between said slit and said a~saciated one of
'the opposite side edges is incorporated with a suitable
elastic member under its stretched condition so as to farm a
pair of waist-hole surrounding elastic bands. However, this
prior art .has substantially no regard for prevention of body
fluid leakage possibly occurring around the leg-holes, which
1
~~~~o~~
is critical for the disposable garments in general and,
therefore, may raise a problem in practical use. In view of
such situation, it is an object of the invention to provide
novel disposable garments of pants type allowing said body
fluid leakage to be effectively prevented with a simplified
construction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object set forth above is achieved, in accordance
with the invention, by disposable garments of pants type
comprising a basic assembly including at least a liquid-
permeable topsheet and a liquid-impermeable backsheet, and
elastic bands mounted on said basic assembly for partially
surrounding a waist-hole, said basic assembly having
outlines traversing respective longitudinally extending
opposite side edges and transversely extending opposite end
edges, characterized in that each of said opposite side
edges is provided with a flap and said elastic band, said
flap surrounding a leg-hole cooperatively with said elastic
band, an outer side edge of said leg-hole surrounding flap
being attached to said basic assembly along the associated
one of said opposite side edges thereof, and respective end
edges of said leg-hole surrounding flap and said waist-hole
surrounding elastic band being attached to said, basic
assembly by means of respective attaching lines provided
2
along the outline of said garments. These and the other
features of the invention will be more apparent from the
following description.
According to the present invention, there are provided
a pair of leg--hole surrounding flaps extending
longitudinally of the garments along the opposite side edges
thereof, respectively. Each of said leg-hole surrounding
flaps has its outer side edge fluid-tightly attached to the
associated one of said opposite side edges of the garments
and its inner side edge cooperating with said topsheet of
the garments to form a pocket opened towards a center line
extending longitudinally of said garments. Said pocket is
effective to prevent leakage of body exudate which otherwise
might occur around the legs of a wearer. There are further
provided a pair of waist-hole surrounding elastic bands
extending along said apposite side edges, resepctively.
These elastic bands are attached to the basin assembly of
the garments only at their end edges along the respective
outlines of said basic assembly. Ac~cordi.ngly, said garments
are excellent in function and very :pimple in construction,
allowing themselves to be easily asp>embled and to be offered
to users at a reasonably low cost.
BRIEF DESCRIPTTON OF THE DRAY~IINCS
Fig. 1 is a perspective view illustrating disposable
3
diaper of pants type as one emboi3iment of the present
invention;
Fig. 2 is a plan view of the carne;
Figs. 2A through 2C are fragmentary plan views
illustrating by way of example how the end edge is attached
along the outline of the garments;
Figs. 3A through 3C are sectional views taken along a
line x-Y in Fig. 2 and illustrate by way of example manners
of said edge attaching;
Fig. 4 is a perspective view illustrating, partially in
a section, an example of overlap attaching of the end edge;
Figs. 5 ar~d 6 are a perspective view and a perspective
view partially in section taken along a line Z-Z in Fig. 5,
respectively, illustrating another embodiment of the
invention; and
Figs. 7 and F3 are a perspective view and a fragmentary
plan view illustrating still another embodiment of the
invention.
PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
The invention will be described more in detail with
reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be
understood that each disposable dial>er of the embodiment is
laterally symmetric with respect to a center line extending
longitudinally thereof.
4
f
[Embodiment 1]
Fig. 1 is a perspective view o:E so-called pants type
disposable diaper 1 constructed as a specific embodiment of
the invention and Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same diaper 1
as being longitudinally stretched and developed to a flat
position with its inner side facing upwards. Since the
diaper 1 is laterally symmetric with respect to the
center line extending longitudinally, as has previously been
mentioned, only the left half of the diaper as viewed in
Fig. 2 will be described in detail.
deferring to Fig. 1, the diaper 1 comprises a basic
assembly constructed of a water-permeable topsheet 2, a
water-impermeable back~heet 3 and an absorbent core 4
sandwiched therebetween, a pair of waist-hole surrounding
elastic bands 7 connecting a front body 5 to a rear body 6
in said basic assembly, and a pair of leg-hole surrounding
flaps 8. Each of the waist-hole surrounding elastic bands
has a plurality of rubber strips 20 and each of the leg-hole
surrounding flaps 8 also has a plurality of rubber strips
21, both being made in the form of elastic gathers. Both
the waist-hole surrounding elastic band 7 and the leg-hole
surrounding flap 8 comprise water-impermeable materials and,
more preferably, air-permeable but water-impermeable
materials such as nonwoven fabric formed from suitable
hydrophobic fibres.
~~~p~U~.U
Now referring to Fig. 2, the leg-hole surrounding '
narrow flaps 8 extend along opposite side edges of the
diaper 1, respectively, each of said flaps 8 having its
outer side edge attached to the topsheet 2 or the backsheet
3 of the basic assembly along a bonding line 11C and its
inner side edge opposed to the outer side edge of the
associated waist-hole surrounding elastic band 7. The flap
8 has its longitudinally opposite ends 8A, 8B attached to
the topsheet 2 or the backsheet 3 along respective attaching
lines 11A, 11B and, similarly, the elastic band 7 has its
longitudinally opposite ends 7A, 7B attached thereto along
respective attaching lines lOA, 108, said attaching lines
11A, 10A and 118, 10B extending slang respective outlines
14A, 14B of the basic assembly, as will be described later
more in detail. The attaching line; 10A, 10B, 11A, 11B and
11C are formed by well known means ~;uch as adhesion and hot
melt welding, of which at least the lines 11A through 11C
are respectively required to be continuous to prevent
leakage of body exudate possib7.y occurring around the user's
legs. Thus, a pocket 30 opened towe~rds the center line X-X
is cooperatively defined. Additionally, it i~ preferred
that the respectively adjacent lines 10A, 11A and 108, 11B
are continuous into respective single lines in order to
achieve a neat appearance of area accompanied by, these
lines.
6
The lines 10A, 11A are provided. along a straight sine
14A corresponding to an outline traversing a longitudinal
end edge 12A and a side edge 13A of the basic assembly while
the lines 10B, 11B are provided along a straight line 14B
corresponding to an outline section traversing the other end
edge 12B and said side edge 13A. In this manner, the waist'
hole surrounding elastic band 7 is adapted to have a natural
fitness around the associated side of the wearer's waist
(not shown), as will be apparent from Fig. 1.
Referring to Fig. 2A, there is illustrated another
embodiment of the above-mentioned a~ttachi,ng, in which said
straight line 14A corresponds to an outline connecting an
intersecting point of the end edge 12A and the
longitudinally extending center line X-X to the side edge
13A. In this embodiment, the opposite end edges of the
basic assembly are substantially defined by the points 12A,
12B, respectively, and such configuration also is covered by
the scope of the present invention.
Fig. 2B illustrates still another embodiment of the
above-mentioned attaching, in which said straight line 14A
corresponding to said outline is replaced by a curved line.
Such configuration also is covered by the scope of the
present invention.
Fig. 2C illustrates further another cash in which said
straight line 14A corresponding to said outline is formed by
7
folding a corner zone defined between the end edge 12A and
the side edge 18A back inwards. In this case the topsheet 2
can be fixed in face-to-face relationship by means of
adhesion in order to avoid any undesirable displacement
thereof. The waist-hole surrounding elastic band 7 and the
leg-hole surrounding flap 8 are respectively attached to
the backsheet 3 at said folded corner zone by the attaching
lines 1nA, 11A extending along the straight 1?ne 14A.
Figs. 3A through 3C and Figs. 4A and 4B illustrate
further various variations of the above-mentioned attaching.
Figs. 3A, 3B and 3C schematically illustrate how the flap 8
is attached along the side edge thereof to the basic
assembly of the diaper 1 in a sectional view as taken
between arrows Y-Y in Fig. 2 and viewed in the direction of
these arrows. Specifically, Fig. 3A illustrates a case in
which the flap 8 is attached to the topsheet 2 by means of
hot melt adhesive 12, Fig. 3B illustrates a case in which
the flap 8 is attached to the backsheet 8 extending out~ards
from~the outer side edge of the topsheet 2, and Fig. 3C
illustrates a case in which the said backsheet 3 extending
outwards from the side edge of the topsheet 2 in Fig. 3B is
folded back inwards and the flap 8 is attached aver this
folded edge. The manners of attaching as illustrated by
Figs. 3B and 3C are advantageous in that a body exudate
having permeated through the water-permeable topsheet 2 is
8
having permeated through the water-permeable topsheet 2 is
dammed up within the pocket 80 and effectively prevented
from exuding through the side edges of the diaper 1.
Attaching may be effected along the opposite side edges
and the respective outlines of the basic assembly in the
manners as have been described above to form the diaper 1
illustrated by Fig. 2. The rubber strips 20 associated with
the waist-hole surrounding elastic band 7 and the rubber
strips 21 associated with the leg-hole surrounding flap 8
have previously been bonded under their stretched conditions
to said elastic band 7 and said flap 8, respectively so
that, when the diaper 1 is free from any external force
exerted thereon, respective said .rubber strips contract to
form gathers in the elastic band 7 and the flap 8 while the
inner side edge of said flap 8 mare or less tends to rise
and to form the pocket 30 in cooperation with the topsheet
2.
While this specific embodiment has been illustrated as
including the absorbent core ~, the absorbent core 9 is not
essential to the present invention.
[Embodiment 2]
Fig. 4 illustrates another embodiment of the invention
partially in a transverse section. This embodiment is
similar to Embodiment 1 except that the waist-hole
surrounding elastic band 7 overlaps the associated leg-hole
9
surrounding flap 8 so that the elastic band 7 is partially
interposed between the flap 8 and,the topsheet 2. In this
embodiment, the attaching Line 10A for the elastic band 7
and the attaching line 11A for the flap 8 both extending
along the straight line 14A corresponding to an outline of
the Ioasic assembly substantially define together a single
continuous bonding line. With such arrangement, the elastic
band 7 underlying the flap 8 li-fts the flap 8 off from the
topsheet 2 around the lines 10A, 11A as _a.. user widely
separates the elastic band 7 and the associated flap 8 to
wear the diaper 1, and thereby the pocket 30 is widely
opened.
As will be readily understood from Fig. ~, the rubber
strips 20, 21 are covered with respective backing sheets 18
so that a wearer's skin is protected against direct contact
with these rubber strips 20, 21.
[Embodiment 3]
Fig. 5 illustrates a specific embodiment in which the
waist-hole surrounding elastic band 7 and the associated
leg-hole surrounding flap 8 are integral with each other. A
water-impermeable, preferably air-permeable but water-
impermeable sheet member 15 is attached to the topsheet 2
along each of the opposite side edges thereof by an
attaching line 16 made of hot melt adhesive 12 and.. said
attaching line 16 extends to the opposite end edges of, the
diaper 1 so as to attach opposite end edges 15A, 15B of said
sheet member 15 also to the topsheet 2. The sheet member 15
is formed with a slit 17 extending longitudinally thereof so
that said slit 17 divides the sheet member 15 into the
waist-hole surrounding elastic band 7 on the side of said
center line X-X extending longitudinally of the diaper 1 and
the leg-hole surrounding flap 8 on the side of the side edge
13A, said elastic band 7 and flap 8 being integral with each
other at apposite ends of said slit 17.
Fig. 6 illustrates a section taken along a line 2-~ in
Fig. 5. As illustrated, the elastic band 7 is incorporated
with the rubber strips 20 and the flap 8 is incorporated
with the rubber strips 21. It is not critical for the
present invention whether 'the rubber strips 20, 21 are same
or not in their material, configuration, number ar amount,
elongation percentage and the other factors.
[Embodiment 4]
Fig. 7 illustrates a case in which each of the waist-
hole elastic bands 7 provides a shoulder strap 35.
Fig. 8 i2lustrates the diaper 1 as stretched and
developed to its flat position. As seen in Fig. 8, the
waist-hole elastic band 7 is provided with a longitudinal
slit 23 so that a narrow portion of the elastic band 7
defined between the inner side edge 'thereof and the slit 23
can be used as a shoulder strap 35. The shoulder strap 35
11
may be incorporated with appropriate number of rubber strips
22 as indicated by broken lines, if desired, and these
rubber strips 22 may be bonded to the shoulder strap 35
simultaneously when the rubber strips 20 are bonded to the
elastic band 7. It is not critical for the invention
whether the rubber strips 20, 22 are similar or not.
12
