Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Title:
WAIST BELT FOR ABSORBENT GARMENT
Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a garment comprising an absorbent
section and a waist belt attached directly or indirectly
thereto, said waist belt having two belt portions extending
on either side of said absorbent section for securing to
each other around a wearer of the garment.
Background to the invention
Absorbent garments of the above mentioned type are well
known in the art.
The type of garment in question has a belt attached
integrally with the absorbent garment portion and requires
that, after fastening the belt around the waist with the
attached end at the back of the wearer, the end not
attached to the belt section should be passed through the
wearer's legs and attached by some means of releasable
attachment to the belt at the front. The means of
releasable attachment could be a hook and loop (also called
touch and close) type fastening means, for instance such as
sold under the name "VELCRO".
Published application WO-A-91/08725 discloses an example of
such a garment in one embodiment.
one of the problems recognised with such garments is the
problems of handling the belt portions which project from
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either side of the absorbent portion of the integrated
garment in such a way so as to be able to quickly and
accurately take hold of the belt portions and fasten them
together. However the belt material still needs to be cheap
since it is integrated with a garment which together with
the belt form a disposable unit.
Where the problem of incontinence is involved, it
will be appreciated that persons suffering from this problem
are often old and have physical handicaps of various types.
As a consequence, they have more difficulty fastening the
belt by themselves and often require the assistance of
personnel for fitting the garments.
Thus there is a need to find for a solution which
allows easy and correct fitting of the absorbent garment,
particularly in the case of handicapped persons.
Summarv of the Invention
The aforementioned problems of handling are solved
by the features of the belt according to the present
invention, as set forth herein and including various
optional features thereof.
An aspect of the invention provides a garment
comprising an absorbent section and a waist belt attached
directly or indirectly thereto, said waist belt having two
belt portions extending on either side of said absorbent
section for securing to each other around a wearer of the
garment, wherein said waist belt has a stiffness of
between 25 g and 90 g as measured by the modified version of
test ASTM D 4032-82 CIRCULAR BEND PROCEDURE.
The resultant belt of the garment is one which is
not prone to excessive wrinkling which could be painful for
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the wearer and not too stiff which causes problems of
cutting and abrasion itself. Additionally, a garment is
achieved with a belt which can be made cheaply and is
particularly suitable for adult incontinence applications.
The flexure-resistance of a material sample is
measured by its peak bending stiffness. Thus as defined in
claim 1 and as disclosed in the sample testing method of
EP-A-0 336
V
WO 94/26222 PCT/SE94/00426
3
578, said testing equipment, procedure and calculations
hereby being incorporated by reference, the peak bending
stiffness is determined by a test modelled after the ASTM
D 4032-82 CIRCULAR BEND PROCEDURE, the procedure being
considerably modified and performed as indicated in
EP-A-0 336 578.
The CIRCULAR BEND PROCEDURE is a simultaneous multi-
directional deformation of a material in which one face of
a specimen becomes concave and the other face becomes
convex. The CIRCULAR BEND PROCEDURE gives a force value
related to flexure-resistance, simultaneously averaging
stiffness in all directions.
The tests were carried out on the belt of the present
application using the apparatus from EP-A-0 336 578
necessary for the CIRCULAR BEND PROCEDURE which is a
modified Circular Bend Stiffness Tester, having the
following parts:
A smooth-polished steel plate platform which is 102.0 x
102.0 x 6.35 millimetres having an 18.75 millimetre
diameter orifice. The lap edge of the orifice should be at
a 45 degree angle to a depth of 4.75 millimetres.
A plunger having an overall length of 72.2 millimetres, a
diameter of 6.25 millimetres, a ball nose having a radius
of 2.97 millimetres and a needle-point extending 0.88
millimetre therefrom having a 0.33 millimetre base diameter
and a point having a radius of less than 0,5 millimetre,
the plunger being mounted concentrically with the orifice
and having equal clearance on all sides. It should be noted
that the needle point is merely to prevent lateral movement
of the test specimen during testing. Therefore, if the
needle-point significantly adversely affects the test
specimen (for example by puncturing an inflatable struc-
ture) , than the needle-point should not be used. The bottom
of the plunger should be set well above the top of the
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orifice plate. From this position, the downward stroke of
the ball nose is to the exact bottom of the plate orifice.
A force-measurement gauge and more specifically an Instron
inverted compression load cell. The load cell has a load
range of from 0.0 to 2000.0 grams. An actuator, and more
specifically the Instron Model No. 1122, having an inverted
compression load cell. The Instron 1122 is made by the
Instron Engineering Corporation, Canton, Massachusetts.
It should be noted that, whilst the term "absorbent
garment" has been used particularly in conjunction with
incontinence, and particularly adult incontinence, the
invention is not limited to this particular use or any
particular size or type of absorbent garment implied
thereby and it is clear for the skilled man that such belts
could be used with baby's or children's nappies (diapers)
for example, merely by adapting the dimensions appropriate-
ly.
Brief Description of the Drawings
The invention will now be explained in more detail with
reference to certain non-limiting embodiments and with
reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
Fig.1 depicts a garment including a belt according to the
invention, and
Fig.2 shows various attachment means used in accordance
with fastening the belt of the present invention.
Detailed descrit~tion of preferred embodiments
Fig. 1 shows a garment generally denoted 1 which consists
of an absorbent portion 2 and a belt portion generally
denoted 3.
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The belt could be either one continuous belt 3 attached to
' the absorbent portion 2 at one end 4 thereof or could be
two separate belt portions 7 and 8 each attached to a
° respective side of the end 4 (or 5). The manner of attach
5 ment per se is of no importance for the present applica
tion.
If it is desirable to impart elasticity to a belt made of
two separate belt portions, it is conceivable that the end
4 of the absorbent portion 2 be elasticized.
The general appearance of the garment in the figures is
known per se and thus no detailed explanation of all
elements will be entered into. At one end of one part 7 of
the belt 3 there is provided a flexible strip 6 of hook
elements, of the hook and loop type of fastening means,
which can either be secured to the belt part 8 (on the side
not shown) or to a loop strip arranged on the belt part 8.
Additional advantages, as explained below, will be obtained
by particular dimensions and orientation of this strip.
Whilst the belt is preferably substantially rectangular in
shape comprising two laterally spaced longitudinal edges 9
and 10, between which the strip 6 will be attached, other
shapes are conceivable. However, with a rectangular belt,
1
the width of the belt should lie between 70 mm and 160 mm
in adult incontinence applications.
Using such a belt, it is now possible to achieve good
handling characteristics of the belt parts 7 and 8 even
with the use of non-woven materials by selecting the range
of stiffness according to the ASTM D 4032 modified test to
lie between 25 g and 90 g. Below 25 g, the problem of
wrinkling arises and this, as previously explained, is
undesirable. Thus a free zone part.of the belt (e.g. in the
middle of one belt part 7) stiffness will lie in the stated
range.
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In particular according to the invention, the preferred
range of stiffness lies between 30 g and 55 g and the best ,
handling is obtained between 35 g and 50 g. Thus, in
particular with the range of belts used for adult inconti- ,.
nence applications, the inventors have succeeded in
achieving the optimum handling characteristics whilst still
preventing wrinkling or stiff regions which cause discom-
fort.
A non-woven material is preferably used for either one or
both sides of the belt, said non-woven material being of a
type to which the hook elements of the strip 6 can
releasable attach. By use of a non-woven material for the
releasable attachment surface of the belt it is possible to
achieve particularly favourable peel strength and shear
strength combinations, which give a peel strength down to
0.1 - 2.0 Ncnil, preferably as low as 0.2 - 0.8 Ncml, and a
shear strength greater than 1 Ncm2, though preferably
greater than 15 Nciri 2 and norma fly greater than 2 0 Ncn1 Z . The
use of non-woven material is of course advantageous since
it will be cheaper than woven material and thus more
suitable to disposable garments. Such values are also valid
for the attachment of strips 12 and 13 on end 5 of the
garment which are attached to the non-shown side of the
belt after fastening of the belt and passing through the
wearer's legs.
The optimal handling characteristics which have now been
achieved can of course thus be maintained even when using
an inner side material for the belt part which is of
absorbent material, preferably of non-woven sort, without
increasing the cost to greater than prior art solutions
z
using non-lined belts.
Since comfort of the wearer is a particularly important
consideration in this field and in particular to fitting of
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the belt, it has been shown advantageous to adopt a
' particular placement of the hook element strips for
fastening the belt together. Thus in order to reduce, to a
great extent the possibility of the hook element strips
contacting the wearer's waist due to incorrect fitting of
the belt, or for the case where the waist of the user
increases dimension, the hook element strip or strips are
made of such a length and width and are positioned with
such an orientation so as to avoid this.
As can be seen from Fig. 2, showing three possible strip
embodiments 15, 16 and 17, the distance between the outer
edges of the strips) is spaced at a distance from each
edge 9, 10 of the belt. In this way, when the belt is
fitted, if slightly angled or not correctly overlapped, the
hook elements will not project beyond the edge of the belt
and thus will not contact the wearer's body.
As can be seen, the strips are generally elongate, or in
the case of a series of strips 16 as in Fig. 2(b), the
series of strips is elongate. Preferably a ratio of greater
than 2:1 elongation is used and even more preferably an
elongation ration of over 3:1. Thus to achieve the afore-
mentioned advantages it is preferable to lay the strips
with their larger dimension across the belt width, as
depicted, and to give the strips a dimension such that the
larger dimension has a length of between 25 ~ and 75 ~ of
the width (z) of the main area of the belt. By width of the
belt, is hereby meant the width of the belt at the zone
where the strips) 15, 16 and 17 will attach. Thus in the
embodiment of Fig. 2(c), although the strip 17 extends
entirely across the reduced portion of the belt, the strip
still lies within the stated range. In particular it has
been found particularly advantageous to use a strip with a
length which is less than 60~ or even more preferable less
than 50%. Due to the shear strength which can be achieved
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by the use of non-woven materials as the belt attachment
surface, it is also easy to acquire adequate shear strength r
with only minimal attachment area.
Additionally, with the choice of belt stiffness as claimed
it is further also possible to avoid wrinkling occurring
from attachment strips even when using smaller strip
dimensions.
Whilst particular embodiments of the invention have been
described above, it is to be understood that these are in
no way limiting for the scope of the invention which is
defined by the claims appended hereto.
Additionally, it will be understood by the skilled man
that, whilst not preferred, the belt stiffness range can be
used for non-integral belt applications also, for example
where an absorbent chassis is fitted to the belt, by
releasably attachable means.
r
