Patent Application
20080294134
The present invention is directed to absorbent articles, and more particularly to absorbent articles with wetness indicators.
Absorbent articles, for example, diapers or training pants, are commonly used to contain the incontinence of young children. While diapers are traditionally drawn up between the legs and fastened about the waist, training pants are designed to give the appearance of underwear or apparel. Such training pants are often used to promote effective toilet training of children.
The toilet training of a young child typically includes a wide variety of training techniques and training aids that may be used by parents and caregivers. One technique of toilet training is to have the young child or caregiver recognize that the training pants are wet and in need of changing. This is best done by providing some form of graphical feedback to the child or caregiver to indicate that the training pants are wet. Accordingly, training pants are typically provided with readily visually perceptible wetness indicator graphics for specifically this purpose.
One of the problems with training pants and their associated wetness indicator graphics, however, is that they have the appearance of a diaper. Because of this, older children that are going through the toilet training process are often not amenable to or are uncomfortable wearing training pants reasoning that they are too old to wear diapers.
Such a reaction by a child can retard the toilet training process because the child may refuse to wear training pants altogether, and thus end up having “accidents” in their clothing.
In order to address the aforementioned problems, the present invention provides an absorbent article, such as a diaper or training pants, that greater resembles the appearance of regular underwear or apparel while having a “hidden” wetness indicating graphic.
The purpose of the invention is to provide graphics for ornamental decoration of the absorbent article that do not noticeably appear to be a wetness indicator. The indication of wetness becomes noticeable after the article is soiled and results in a change in appearance of the graphics.
The absorbent article of the present invention improves significantly over the prior art absorbent articles by improving the appearance thereof to more closely resemble that of children's underwear. Specifically, the absorbent article of the present invention includes an outer cover having an interior surface and an opposite exterior surface, an absorbent core positioned adjacent the interior surface of the outer cover, and a wetness indicator graphic located between the outer cover and the absorbent core. The wetness indicator graphic has a permanent graphic defining at least one non-printed area, and a changing graphic located within the at least one non-printed area of the permanent graphic such that the permanent graphic and the changing graphic together give the appearance of a uniform graphic while the changing graphic is in a non-activated state. In other words, the changing graphic is hidden until such time as the article becomes soiled by the wearer.
The permanent graphic is preferably printed over a substantial portion of the outer cover using a permanent ink that does not change when in contact with moisture. The changing graphic is preferably printed within the non-printed areas defined by the permanent graphic using a suitable urine- or water-soluble ink and is configured to appear over time as the soluble ink fades when exposed to liquid. In addition to a moisture sensitive ink, the changing graphic can alternatively be printed using an ink that changes in response to time intervals, temperature levels, humidity, pH, oxygen levels, or the like, and any combinations thereof.
In the preferred embodiment, the permanent graphic and the hidden or changing graphic are printed in the same pattern and in the same color such that the permanent graphic and the changing graphic together, and prior to moisture contact, give the appearance of a uniform graphic. With such a construction, the absorbent article provides an overall appearance similar to that of actual children's underwear or apparel.
In addition to the wetness indicator graphic, the absorbent article preferably has a character graphic provided on the outer cover. To provide an overall theme to the absorbent article, it is preferred that the character graphic is be related to the design of the changing graphic (i.e., the shape of the non-printed area of the permanent graphic). Alternatively, the character graphic can also be unrelated to the design of the changing graphic (i.e., the shape of the non-printed area of the permanent graphic). As used herein the term “related to” refers to items, images or other indicia that are related by a common story line, related in subject matter, related by a common theme, complimentary images, or the same or a comparable image of different or similar size. For example, a character graphic of a dog would be related to a dog bone shape of the non-printed area of the permanent graphic.
In addition to the wetness indicator graphic and the character graphic, it is also preferred that the absorbent article include a seam pattern or other design on the outer cover as part of the permanent design. The seam pattern preferably has at least a portion thereof related to the wetness indicator graphic and/or the character graphic and can be gender specific or gender related.
Also disclosed is a method of manufacturing an absorbent article by providing an outer cover having an interior surface and an opposite exterior surface; disposing an absorbent core adjacent the interior surface of the outer cover; applying a barrier film having a printed permanent graphic on the outer cover, the permanent graphic defining at least one non-printed area; and printing a changing graphic within the at least one non-printed area of the permanent graphic such that the permanent graphic and the changing graphic are printed in complimentary patterns that together give the appearance of a uniform graphic.
For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings a form which is presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangement shown, wherein:
The present invention is directed to an absorbent article, such as a diaper or training pant, that is equipped with a wetness indicator graphic. Preferably, the absorbent article manufactured in accordance with the present invention is a disposable absorbent article in that the article is designed to be discarded after a limited use rather than being laundered or otherwise restored for reuse. The wetness indicator graphic of the present invention is a pattern, shape, etc. that either disappears or appears with moisture contact.
Referring now to the drawings,
As shown in
The absorbent article is also preferably provided with elasticized barrier cuffs 12 on opposed lateral sides of the absorbent core 6. The barrier cuffs 12 are typically bonded to the topsheet 8. The barrier cuffs 12 assist in preventing leakage of exudates from the leg opening portions of the absorbent article 1.
Leg elastics or leg gathers 14 are also preferably provided in the leg opening portions of the absorbent article 1. The leg elastics 14 assist in securing the absorbent article 1 around the legs of the wearer and also serve as a second containment structure beyond the barrier cuffs 12 to assist in preventing leakage through the leg opening portions of the absorbent article 1.
While
In accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention shown in
The wetness indicator graphic 16 includes a permanent graphic portion 18 defining at least one non-printed area 20, and a changing graphic portion 22 located within the at least one non-printed area 20. The permanent graphic 18 is preferably printed over a substantial portion of the outer cover 2 using a permanent ink that does not change when in contact with moisture. In the preferred embodiment shown in
The changing graphic 22 is preferably printed within the non-printed areas 20 defined by the permanent graphic 18 using a suitable urine- or water-soluble ink so as to disappear over time due to exposure to liquid. Such inks are available from a variety of commercial vendors, such as Sun Chemical Corp. of Philadelphia, Pa., USA under the trade designation AQUA DESTRUCT™. In addition to a moisture sensitive ink, the changing graphic can alternatively be printed using an ink that changes in response to time intervals, temperature levels, humidity, oxygen levels, or the like, and any combinations thereof.
In the preferred embodiment, the permanent graphic 18 and the hidden or changing graphic 22 are printed in the same pattern and in the same color such that the permanent graphic 18 and the changing graphic 22 together, and prior to moisture contact, give the appearance of a uniform graphic as shown in
When the configuration of the permanent graphic 18 and the changing graphic 22 shown in
Alternately, the changing graphic 22 can be printed with an ink that appears when contacted with moisture. In such an alteration, the absorbent article will display the shapes of the non-printed areas 20 before contact with moisture as shown for example in
In addition to the wetness indicator graphic 16, the absorbent article preferably has a character graphic 24 provided on the outer cover 2. The character graphic 24 can be provided on the outer cover 2 as a separately attached component, or can be printed directly on the outer cover 2.
To provide a theme to the absorbent article, it is preferred that the character graphic 24 is related to the design of the changing graphic (i.e., the shape of the non-printed areas 20 of the permanent graphic 18), as shown in
In addition to the wetness indicator graphic 16 and the character graphic 24, it is also preferred that the absorbent article include a seam pattern 26 or other design on the outer cover 2. Similar to the wetness indicator graphic 16, it is preferred that the seam pattern 26 or other design be printed on the barrier layer 4 of the outer cover 2.
As shown in
Referring now to
Preferably, the permanent graphic and the changing graphic are printed in the same pattern and in the same color such that the permanent graphic and the changing graphic together, and prior to moisture contact, give the appearance of a uniform graphic so as to provide the absorbent article with an overall appearance similar to that of actual child underwear.
Moreover, the seam pattern shown in
Similar to the first embodiment, a changing graphic (not-shown) is printed within the non-printed areas of the permanent graphic. Preferably, the permanent graphic and the changing graphic are printed in the same pattern and in the same color such that the permanent graphic and the changing graphic together, and prior to moisture contact, give the appearance of a uniform graphic.
Although the drawings herein show specific character graphics, non-printed area shapes and seam graphic combinations, there are a relatively unlimited number of possible combinations, the choice of which being left to the imagination of the designer of the absorbent article.
The present invention has been described in connection with the preferred embodiments. These embodiments, however, are merely examples and the invention is not restricted thereto. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that other variations and modifications can easily be made while remaining within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
