DISPOSABLE ABSORBENT ARTICLE

• US 3,626,944 A
• Filed: 05/18/1970
• Issued: 12/14/1971
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Allsteel Incorporated (HNI Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Charles H. Schaar
• Inventors: Schaar, Charles H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rosenbaum, Charles F.
• Application Number:
  US05/038,324
• Time in Patent Office: 575 Days
• Field of Search: 128/284,286,287,288
• US Class Current: 604/372
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 13/49406 the edge leakage prevention means being at the crotch region

Abstract

A disposable absorbent article having a backing comprising a sheet of liquid and air impervious material with one or more sealed pockets, having a volume of air trapped therein, being formed on the periphery of the sheet.

Claims

1. A disposable absorbent article comprising an absorbent body having a fluid pervious surface on its front side and a fluid impervious surface on its back side, and at least one completely sealed pocket of supple, liquid and air impervious material disposed along at least a portion of the periphery of said article and a volume of air trapped within and inflating said pocket to provide surfaces which will readily conform to irregular surfaces over which said article is applied.

2. A disposable absorbent article as claimed in claim 1 wherein there is provided a sheet of supple liquid and air impervious material covering at least a portion of the back side of said absorbent body, and extending beyond said absorbent body over at least a portion of the periphery thereof, portions of said impervious material forming said completely sealed pocket.

3. The article of claim 2 wherein a portion of said sheet overlaps said absorbent body and a folded back portion of said overlapping portion of said sheet forms one side of said pocket.

4. The invention as claimed in claim 3 wherein said article is a diaper having back and front waistline portions joined by an intermediate crotch portion and having two of said pockets disposed along opposite edges of said crotch portion and extending from said back waistline portion to said front waistline portion.

5. The diaper of claim 4 having pinning areas adjacent said front and back waistline portions of said absorbent body, beyond the ends of said pockets, whereby puncture of said pinning areas by a securing pin will not result in a loss of trapped air from said pockets.

6. The diaper of claim 4 further folded into an end-to-end packaging configuration with one folded over end having longitudinal side folds reducing the width of said one folded over end to less than the width of the other end and less than the distance between the inner sides of said pockets in said other end, the areas of said pockets remote from the crease lines lying in side-by-side nonoverlapping relation, wherein the pockets are only partially inflated and the trapped air therein is largely in the nonoverlapping portions of said pockets in said folded packaging configuration to render the thickness of each diaper in a stack thereof more uniform throughout its overall extent.