Absorbent pad

• US 20060069371A1
• Filed: 09/26/2005
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unicharm Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unicharm Corporation
• Inventors: Kamiyama, Ryuichi, Ohashi, Naoto, Kawakami, Hikari, Oku, Tomomi
• Granted Patent: US 7,547,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 604/385.10
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 13/4704 having preferential bending zones, e.g. fold lines or grooves
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 13/4752 the means being an upstanding barrier
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 13/4756 the means consisting of grooves, e.g. channels, depressions or embossments, resulting in a heterogeneous surface level
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 13/476 characterised by encircling the crotch region of the undergarment
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 13/533 having discontinuous areas of compression
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 13/536 having discontinuous areas of compression

Abstract

A disposable absorbent pad includes an absorbent fibrous structure (10) having a longitudinal axis (11), a transverse axis (12), and front and rear regions (15a, 15b) aligned with each other in a direction along the longitudinal axis wherein a flexibility of the front region is higher than that of the rear region.

Claims

1. An absorbent pad comprising:

an absorbent fibrous structure having a longitudinal axis, a transverse axis, a first surface, a second surface opposite to said first surface and front and rear regions aligned with each other in a direction along said longitudinal axis, and

a flexibility of said front region being higher than that of said rear region.

2. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 1, wherein a first flexible pivot region extending along said longitudinal axis and paired second and third flexible pivot regions extending in the direction along said longitudinal axis exclusively are laid in said front region.

3. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 2, wherein said paired second and third flexible pivot regions extend substantially in parallel to said first flexible pivot region.

4. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 2, wherein said paired second and third flexible pivot regions describe circular arcs which are convex toward said first flexible pivot region.

5. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 2, wherein said first flexible pivot region comprises a linear through-hole and said second and third flexible pivot regions comprise grooves.

6. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 2, wherein said second flexible pivot region and third flexible pivot region are spaced from each other by a dimension in a range of 60 to 90 mm.

7. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 5, wherein said absorbent fibrous structure has a thickness dimension of 1 to 10 mm and said linear through-hole has a width dimension in a range of 5 to 25 mm as measured in a direction defined by said transverse axis.

8. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 5, wherein said linear through-hole has a length dimension as measured in the direction along said longitudinal axis corresponds to a range of 10 to 60% of a length dimension of said absorbent fibrous structure as measured in the direction along said longitudinal axis.

9. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 5, wherein each of said grooves has a length dimension as measured in the direction along said longitudinal axis corresponds to a range of 10 to 50% of the length dimension of said absorbent fibrous structure as measured in the direction along said longitudinal axis.

10. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 5, wherein said grooves are depressed from said second surface.

11. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 5, wherein said grooves are depressed from both said first and second surfaces and the grooves depressed from said first surface have a depth dimension which is the same as or less than a depth dimension of the grooves depressed from said second surface.

12. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 1, wherein said absorbent fibrous structure is a multilayered structure.

13. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 5, wherein the length dimension of said linear through-hole extending in said first surface is different from the length dimension of said linear through-hole extending in said second surface and the width dimension of said linear through-hole extending in said first surface is different from the width dimension of said linear through-hole extending in said second surface.

14. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 1, wherein said first surface is defined by a liquid-permeable sheet.

15. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 1, wherein said second surface is hydrophobic.

16. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 1, wherein said second surface is defined by a hydrophobic sheet.

17. The absorbent pad as defined by claim 1, wherein said absorbent fibrous structure comprises the liquid-permeable sheet laid so as to define said first surface, the hydrophobic sheet laid so as to define said second surface and a liquid-absorbent core interposed between these two sheets.