Patent Application
20080154223
The present invention relates to disposable pants usable as both pants and a diaper.
As conventional disposable pants of this type, there is a technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-317356. The pants described in this gazette are provided with breaking lines on both left and right sides of a front section to allow the front section to be separated at the breaking lines as well as adhesive pieces bonded to bonding parts on the left and right sides of the front section and a rear section. When the front section is separated at the breaking lines, the front section and rear section are fastened by the left and right adhesive pieces.
However, with the aforementioned conventional technique, adhesive parts provided on the adhesive pieces may adhere to those places other than a specified position of the pants or places such as garments other than the pants, making them difficult to handle.
To solve the aforementioned problem, the present invention has an object to provide disposable pants capable of preventing adhesive pieces from undesirably adhering to those places other than a specified position when the adhesive pieces are not used.
In a first aspect of the present invention, disposable pants comprising a front abdominal section and a rear section joined almost annularly and a crotch section provided to be joined between the front abdominal section and rear section, the crotch section being provided with an absorber, left and right breaking parts for breaking the front abdominal section being provided on both left and right sides of an area of the front abdominal section to which the crotch section is joined, comprise: a first adhesive part provided in at least part of a central area positioned between the left and right breaking parts on an exterior side of the front abdominal section; left and right adhesive pieces bonded to laterally outward sides of the left and right breaking parts in the front abdominal section; and second adhesive parts provided on a skin-facing side of the left and right adhesive pieces to be attached/detached to/from the first adhesive part, wherein the left and right adhesive pieces are respectively provided with pleats for folding portions where the second adhesive parts are provided to the skin-facing side.
Further, according to a second aspect of the present invention, in the aforementioned first aspect, the left and right adhesive pieces are respectively provided with temporarily fixing parts for holding the adhesive pieces in a state folded at the pleats to the skin-facing side.
Further, according to a third aspect of the present invention, in the aforementioned second aspect, the temporarily fixing parts bond portions of the left and right adhesive pieces folded at the pleats to the skin-facing side with such a strength that they can be peeled.
Further, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the aforementioned first to third aspects, elastic stretchable means is provided in an area other than the central area of the front abdominal section and an area around the hips of the rear section.
According to the aforementioned first aspect, when the left and right adhesive pieces are not used, portions of the adhesive pieces where the second adhesive parts are provided can be folded at pleats to the skin-facing side. Therefore, when the left and right adhesive pieces are not used, the adhesive pieces can be prevented from undesirably adhering to those places other than a specified position of the disposable pants or adhering to garments and the like, which provides easy handling.
Further, according to the invention described in the aforementioned second aspect, when the adhesive pieces are not used, the temporarily fixing parts reliably allow the left and right adhesive pieces to be held in the state folded at the pleats to the skin-facing side.
Further, according to the invention described in the aforementioned third aspect, when the adhesive pieces are used, the temporarily fixing parts can easily be peeled to expand the adhesive pieces.
Further, according to the invention described in the aforementioned fourth aspect, since the waist area of the disposable pants can easily be stretched, the disposable pants can easily be raised/lowered with the left and right adhesive pieces adhering to the first adhesive part.
These and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention and accompanying drawings.
<General Description>
With reference to
The front abdominal section 2 and rear section 3 refer to portions of the disposable pants 1 that mainly face a front abdominal area and an area on the back of a wearer. Left and right edges of the front abdominal section 2 and left and right edges of the rear section 3 are bonded to each other, and the front abdominal section 2 and rear section 3 are thereby joined almost annularly. Accordingly, a left side bonding part 11a and a right side bonding part 11b for bonding the left and right edges of the front abdominal section 2 and left and right edges of the rear section 3 are formed on left and right edges of the disposable pants 1. Bonding at these side bonding parts 11a and 11b is created either by bonding with an adhesive such as a hot melt adhesive or ultrasonic welding (or heating welding), or by both of them in combination.
The crotch section 4 indicates a portion of the disposable pants 1 that mainly faces the crotch of a wearer, having a front crotch part 4a and a rear crotch part 4b joined to the front abdominal section 2 and rear section 3, respectively. In this embodiment, the front crotch part 4a and rear crotch part 4b of the crotch section 4 are joined to the front abdominal section 2 and rear section 3 by an adhesive such as a hot melt adhesive. As a variant, the crotch section 4 may be formed integrally by a member connected to one or both of the front abdominal section 2 and rear section 3.
A waist opening Q is formed by upper edges 12 and 13 of such front abdominal section 2 and rear section 3 joined almost annularly. A left leg opening Ra is formed by a lower edge 14a of a left front abdominal part 2a of the front abdominal section 2, a sloped edge 15a on the left lower side of the rear section 3 and a left edge 16a of the crotch section 4. A right leg hole Rb is formed by a lower edge 14b of a right front abdominal part 2b of the front abdominal section 2, a sloped edge 15b on the right lower side of the rear section 3 and a right edge 16b of the crotch section 4.
<Front Abdominal Section>
The front abdominal section 2 is, as shown in
Waist elastic members 19a and 19b are attached in a laterally stretched state to the upper edges 12a and 12b of the left front abdominal part 2a and right front abdominal part 2b. Leg elastic members 20a and 20b are attached in a laterally stretched state to the lower edges 14a, 14b of the left front abdominal part 2a and right front abdominal part 2b. Body elastic members 21a and 21b are attached in a laterally stretched state to areas of the left front abdominal part 2a and right front abdominal part 2b between the upper edges 12a and 12b and lower edges 14a and 14b of the left front abdominal part 2a and right front abdominal part 2b. Contraction and stretch of these elastic members 19a, 19b, 20a, 20b, 21a and 21b allows the front abdominal section 2 (particularly, left front abdominal part 2a and right front abdominal part 2b) to fit snugly about the abdominal area of a wearer.
Such front abdominal section 2 is formed by sandwiching the elastic members 19a, 19b, 20a, 20b, 21a and 21b between an interior-layer sheet 57 on the skin-facing side and an exterior-layer sheet 58 on the exterior side, as shown in
An almost sheet-like left adhesive piece 22a and a right adhesive piece 22b are bonded to the edges of the left front abdominal part 2a and right front abdominal part 2b on the exterior side and on the side of the central front abdominal part 2c with an adhesive such as a hot melt adhesive. These adhesive pieces 22a and 22b are used for securing the pants 1 when breaking the breaking parts 17a and 17b, and are provided to straddle the left and right breaking parts 17a and 17b on the exterior side of the front abdominal section 2. An adhesive part 23 corresponding to a first adhesive part to which the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b are to be attached is provided on the exterior side of the central front abdominal part 2c. This adhesive part 23 is formed continuously as a plane in a predetermined forming area A1. The lateral width W1 of this forming area A1 is set at or smaller than the distance D between the left and right breaking parts 17a and 17b (i.e., lateral dimension of central front abdominal part 2c) and the height W2 is set almost equal to the vertical dimension L1 of the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b.
The adhesive pieces 22a and 22b, as shown in
The respective projections 25 and 26 of the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b are provided with adhesive parts 27 and 28, respectively, on the surface (skin-facing side) facing the central front abdominal part 2c. These adhesive parts 27 and 28 correspond to second adhesive parts. These adhesive parts 27 and 28 are attached to the adhesive part 23 provided on the central front abdominal part 2c freely detachably.
Specific examples of the adhesive part 23 may include a loop member having a nonwoven fabric, a woven fabric, a knitted material or the like with a fine loop structure being densely formed on its surface. Specific examples of the adhesive parts 27 and 28 may include a hook member with a fine hook structure in freely detachable engagement with the loop member being densely formed on its surface. More specifically, as the adhesive part 23, a plastic film composite material having on its surface a nonwoven fabric, a woven fabric or the like which is suitably used as a loop member for a hook-and-loop fastener is used for example. As the adhesive parts 27 and 28, a plastic film having pins densely formed on its surface which is suitably used as a hook member for a hook-and-loop fastener is used. Alternatively, a loop member may not be attached to the central front abdominal part 2c as a separate member, but the exterior surface of the central front abdominal part 2c may be surface-treated to serve as a loop member (adhesive part 23).
Alternatively, another specific example of the adhesive part 23 may include a plastic film or the like, which is surface-treated so as to have repetitive removability from an adhesive. Another specific example of the adhesive parts 27 and 28 may include a reusable adhesive by using PEELOIL, for example.
In the above-described two specific examples of the aforementioned adhesive part 23 and those of the adhesive parts 27 and 28, the structure on the adhesive part 23 side and the structure on the adhesive parts 27 and 28 side may be replaced with each other.
Further, according to the present embodiment, as shown in
The disposable pants 1 are shipped from a factory with the projections 25 and 26 folded and temporarily fixed in this manner.
As the temporarily fixing parts 30, means such as adhesion by heating welding, ultrasonic welding or an adhesive (e.g., hot melt adhesive) is used, and bonds the adhesive pieces 22a, 22b and the central front abdominal part 2c with such a strength that they can be peeled. Further, a temporarily fixing part 30 may be formed as a plurality of spotted bonding parts extending in the vertical direction, or may be formed as a linear bonding part extending in the vertical direction. While the temporarily fixing parts 30 are provided for each of the projections 25 and 26 in two lines extending in the vertical direction in the present embodiment, a temporarily fixing part 30 may be provided in a single line.
Further, the tips of the respective projections 25 and 26 of the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b are tabs 31 (cf.
With such structure, the temporarily fixing parts 30 of the right adhesive piece 22b are peeled while holding the pleat 29 of the right adhesive piece 22b and pulling it outwardly to the right, the right breaking part 17b is broken as shown in
Similarly, the temporarily fixing parts 30 of the left adhesive piece 22a are peeled while holding the pleat 29 of the left adhesive piece 22a and pulling it outwardly to the left, the left breaking part 17a is broken as shown in
Accordingly, in the disposable pants 1, as shown in
Further, in the case where the disposable pants 1 are worn as pants and when an absorber 43 to be described later absorbs and contains bodily wastes, the temporarily fixing parts 30 of the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b may be peeled to break the breaking parts 17a and 17b, so that the pants 1 can easily be removed from the wearer. In this case, the pants 1 can be removed from the wearer without taking his/her garments off.
Further, after peeling the temporarily fixing parts 30 of the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b to break the breaking parts 17a, 17b and expand the front abdominal section 2 to see how the inside of the pants 1 gets soiled, the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b may be engaged with the adhesive part 23, to thereby return the pants 1 to its original state as pants. Further, when the pants 1 and an optional pad such as a urine pad are used in combination, the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b can be attached/detached to facilitate replacing such optional pad, and the like.
Further, the pants 1 may be used as a typical disposable diaper applying the pants, as expanded as shown in
<Crotch Section>
The crotch section 4, as shown in
The crotch section 4 is formed by sandwiching the absorber 43 between a liquid-permeable top sheet 41 and a liquid-impermeable backsheet 42. The absorber 43 has a predetermined width and extends in the front-to-rear direction in the form of strip with the central crotch part 4c set at the center. The both left and right sides of the absorber 43 on the interior side of the crotch section 4 are provided with standing parts 44a and 44b extending in the direction that the crotch section 4 extends.
For instance, the top sheet 41 is made of a liquid-permeable nonwoven fabric or the like, and the backsheet 42 is made of a water-repellant nonwoven fabric or the like. The absorber 43 is formed, for example, by covering a mass of a hydrophilic fiber assembly layer such as crushed pulp fibers or cellulose fibers mixed with a particulate gelling agent, with a covering sheet such as a sheet of paper like tissue paper, a liquid-permeable nonwoven sheet or the like, and is formed in a predetermined shape.
As to areas of the top sheet 41 and backsheet 42 that do not overlap the absorber 43, surfaces facing each other are bonded to each other with an adhesive such as a hot melt adhesive. More preferably, as shown in
Further, the both edges of the side sheets 45a and 45b in the front-to-rear direction are bonded to the both edges of the crotch section 4 in the front-to-rear direction with an adhesive 60 such as a hot melt adhesive. The laterally inside edges of the side sheets 45a and 45b are fixed by heating welding (or ultrasonic welding) or the like with sealing parts 47 so as to enclose elastic members 46 extending in the front-to-rear direction. The standing parts 44a and 44b have their laterally inside edges contracted by the contractive force of the elastic members 46, and are thereby raised in a direction to be pressed against the wearer's skin, as shown in
Furthermore, in the present embodiment, as shown in
These sloped edges 48a and 48b prevent the front crotch part 2a from being hitched to curl up, become bent or affect the wearer's skin when raising/lowering the disposable pants 1, which allows smooth raising/lowering.
Further, the contractive force of the rear section 3 generally tends to decrease in an area where the rear section 3 and crotch section 4 overlap. However, forming a trim area by the aforementioned sloped edges 49a and 49b gradually increases the area of the elastic part of the rear section 3 toward the top side of the rear section 3, which allows the rear section 3 to easily fit the wearer's back.
As an alternative structure of the crotch section 4, the absorber 43 may be adhered to the skin-facing side of the sheet 42, rather than sandwiching the absorber 43 between the sheets 41 and 42, and the sheet 41 may be omitted. Alternatively, the absorber 43 with sheets bonded to its front and rear edges may be used as the crotch section 4, or a large absorber 43 may be used as the crotch section 4 and the sheets 41 and 42 may be omitted.
<Rear Section>
The rear section 3, as shown in
Particularly, the hip zone 3b of the rear section 3 is formed to have a gradually tapered width downwardly and the leg elastic members 53a and 53b provided on the left and right sloped edges 15a and 15b. Therefore, the hip zone 3b easily fits the wearer's hips when the edges 15a and 15b are contracted by the contractive forces of the leg elastic members 53a and 53b.
The leg elastic members 53a and 53b are continuously attached to the hip zone 3b along the left and right sloped edges 15a and 15b and lower edge 15c of the hip zone 3b, and then, at least an area 54 overlapping the absorber 43 of the crotch section 4 (cf.
<Other Structure and Material for Respective Parts, etc.>
As to the left and right elastic members 19a, 19b, elastic members 20a, 20b, and elastic members 21a, 21b provided in the front abdominal section 2, similarly to the case of the aforementioned leg elastic members 53a and 53b, it is preferable that the elastic members 20a, 20b, 21a and 21b be provided laterally continuously in the front abdominal section 2 through the central front abdominal part 2c, and then portions of the elastic members 20a, 20b, 21a and 21b positioned in the central front abdominal part 2c be subjected to the weakening process.
Further, the material for the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b may be selected appropriately from nonwoven fabrics, woven fabrics, knitted fabrics and plastic materials. Among them, a nonwoven fabric manufactured by one or a combination of a plurality of processes among spun-bond process, air-through process, point-bond process, melt-blow process and air-laid process is preferable. Further, a nonwoven fabric manufactured by a spun-bond process or SMS process combining the spun-bond process and melt-blow process with a weight of 30 to 100 g/m2 is preferable in terms of strength. Most preferable is a nonwoven fabric manufactured by the spun-bond process with a weight of 50 to 85 g/m2. The material can be selected appropriately from among synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polyester, polyamide and the like and natural fibers such as pulp, silk and the like, but preferably, a synthetic fiber such as polypropylene, polyethylene or polyester can be used, and among them, one having a polypropylene or polyester fiber as its main component is strong and suitable. Most preferable one is a polyester fiber.
Further, for the elastic members 19a, 19b, 20a, 20b, 21a, 21b, 40a, 40b, 46, 53a and 53b, an elastic stretchable material (polyurethane thread, polyurethane film, natural rubber, etc.) typically used for disposable pants is employed, and is attached to a specified position of the pants 1 in a stretched state by adhering means such as a hot melt adhesive, heating welding, ultrasonic welding or the like.
As described above, the disposable pants 1 according to the present embodiment have functions of both pants and diaper, which are easy to raise/lower when putting them on.
Further, when the left and right adhesive pieces 22a and 22b are not used, holding the projections 25 and 26 of the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b in the folded state such as at the time of shipping from a factory can prevent the adhesive parts 27 and 28 of the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b from undesirably adhering to those places other than a specified position of the disposable pants 1 or adhering to garments and the like, which provides easy handling.
Further, when the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b are not used, the temporarily fixing parts 30 reliably allow the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b to be held in the state folded at the pleats 29 to the skin-facing side.
Further, when the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b are used, the temporarily fixing parts 30 can easily be peeled to expand the adhesive pieces 22a and 22b.
<Variant>
Variants of the present embodiment may include those shown in
In the variant shown in
Further, in the variant shown in
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-237235 | Aug 2004 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP05/14828 | 8/12/2005 | WO | 00 | 2/13/2007 |
