Diapers With Waistband Reinforcements Serving As After-use Face Wraps

Abstract

Disposable diapers are provided with an attached after-use front covering which before and during use lies in one or more pieces on the back side of the diaper but is hingeable around the diaper and may, as it lies on the back side, function as a multiple layer waistband reinforcement providing improved pin tear resistance.

Description

This invention relates to disposable absorbent articles for the collection of body excretions and exudates, such as diaper, sanitary pads, wound dressings and the like.

Such articles, in one of their disposable diaper forms, are fabricated from fluid pervious absorbent material which is unwoven, backed with a single thickness of impervious plastic sheet material. In order that the diaper will be pliable, readily conformable and soft, as well as to minimize costs, the plastic backing is very thin and it, together with the absorbent material, has a pinning strength that falls far short of that present in a conventional washable woven diaper. The disposable diapers are subject to tearing during or after the operation of inserting safety pins, thus permitting possible loosening of the diaper or causing points of possible leakage at the tears.

In my prior Pat. No. 3,369,545, I proposed the addition of a single extra ply of plastic material on the back side of the diaper and attached thereto along two or more sides of the absorbent body in order to provide a cavity therebetween into which the absorbent body, after use, could be inverted through an end opening communicating with the cavity to enclose soil deposited on the absorbent body. During use the marginal end portions of the extra ply did add some pin tear resistance in the waistline areas.

This invention is founded on my observation that there is available in a diaper having such an extra ply, sufficient material in the extra ply to provide a much strengthened waistband construction and that that material may be so disposed as to strengthen the waistband while preserving the main function of the extra back ply as a soil enclosing sheet after use. Thus, instead of disposing the back ply in single thickness over the back side of the diaper where it actually is superfluous initially and during use, as the absorbent body back sheet alone provides a fully adequate barrier against leakage, it can be gathered in multifold configuration if it is in one piece at one end of the diaper and if it is in two pieces at both ends of the diaper and provide a thickened and thereby strengthened pinning area where it is gathered, while still maintaining it available to cover the soiled front portion of the diaper after use by a hinging rather than an inverting action.

In accordance with this invention then, the extra back ply, if unitary, is permanently attached to the absorbent body along only one side of the absorbent body to thereby form a hinge line, the remainder of the extra ply being disposed in partially or fully folded overlying relation to the back side until after use, at which time the extra ply can be released except at the hinge line and then hinged about the hinge line for spreading in single thickness over the front face of the diaper.

Where the added ply is unitary and held all folded in accordion or other fashion near one end of the back side until after use, it affords multilayers materially increasing the pin tear strength at that end of the diaper in the waistband area over that afforded by only a single extra ply as in my aforesaid patent.

The back ply can be either a folded integral portion of the impervious back sheet of the absorbent body or can be a separate ply permanently adhered to the absorbent body along the hinge line. Moreover, when it is desired that the extra impervious back ply cover most or all of the back side of the diaper during use, the added back ply may have folds in the area of one or both waistband portions and then extend in single thickness over other or the remaining portions of the back side of the diaper. Suitable adhesives or other means can be used to form an inseparable joint at the hinge line but readily separable attachment of the folds one to another.

Alternatively, the extra back ply can be in two pieces, one hinged at one edge of the absorbent body and the other hinged to the opposite edge of the absorbent body, each being folded or rolled so that the entire waistband area of the diaper has extra pin tear resisting plies. Usually these pieces will be half-size compared to a unitary back ply.

The above features and various embodiments of the invention are shown more fully in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the invention in a general form corresponding to that which it attains when it is pinned upon the body of an infant.

FIG. 2 is a further view of the embodiment of FIG. 1 when it is laid out flat front side up prior to application to the infant;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to that of FIG. 2 after the diaper has been used and after the soil covering sheet has been hinged over and spread across the front of the diaper after use;

FIG. 4 is a view of a modified form of construction;

FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 are similar views of further modified forms of construction;

FIGS. 8 and 9 are back side views of the diaper of FIG. 6 illustrating certain features which may be incorporated into any embodiments of the invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the diaper is fabricated with an absorbent body which has a fluid pervious front face 10 and a fluid impervious back face 12 which may be constituted of a ply of fluid impervious plastic sheet material. When applied to an infant the composite includes a crotch portion 13 intermediate a back waist portion 14 and a front waist portion 16.

18 is an added ply of supple fluid impervious plastic material which, in the form shown in FIG. 1, is integral with the plastic sheet 12 and connected thereto along a top waistline fold line 20.

The material of the back ply 18 is rolled and flattened against the back side and held in the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 by adhesive interposed between the folds or in other manner until after use.

After use and detachment of the diaper from the infant, the folded gatherings of the ply 18 may be released and unfolded and, as shown in FIG. 3, hinged about the hinge line 20 until it lies in single thickness over the remainder of the diaper covering soil deposited in the crotch area. Alternatively, the ply 18 may be hinged only 180.degree. into extending position and then the soiled absorbent body may be folded over the soil and then over the ply 18 into which it is wrapped.

In FIG. 4 only a portion of the back sheet 18a is folded on itself in overlying accordion fashion at the waistband and the remainder 18b extends in single thickness over the remainder of the back side of the diaper. As shown, the folded portion includes three layers of the back sheet held by adhesive between the folds as in FIG. 1.

In FIG. 5, the end of sheet 18d opposite the hinge line is also folded into multiple layers 19 to add pin tear resisting layers at both the back and front waistline areas.

In FIG. 6 the back ply sheet 18 is not integral with the sheet 12 but is attached thereto with a single infold 22 by a permanent adhesive as at 24.

In FIG. 7 the extra ply, instead of being unitary as in FIGS. 1--6, is formed of two separate half pieces 26,28, (adhered to or unitary with the absorbent pad plastic ply), which are separately folded at opposite ends of the absorbent body and adhesively held in folded position until after use where they provide extra pin tear resistance throughout the entire waistline area of the diaper as in FIG. 5. When released after use of the diaper, these half pieces can be separately folded over the opposite ends of the diaper to cover the soil, it being understood that the separate pieces can be so dimensioned as to be slightly overlapping in the hinged-over covering position, if desired.

FIG. 8 illustrates tacking down the remainder of the extra back ply 18c with adhesive along the margins where it extends over the back area of the diaper. Lines of perforations 29 are then made inside of the adhered marginal portions of the back sheet 18c on all sides thereof except where the hinge line 20 is present. The central portion may then be lifted off the back by tearing the ply at the lines of perforation.

FIG. 9 illustrates how the separable fastening illustrated in FIG. 8 may be accomplished by readily rupturable spot adhesives in the areas 30.

It is to be understood that either of these same tack down means 29 or 30 may be used for back ply 18b or 18d, or a combination thereof can be used for any of the plies 18b, 18c or 18d. In FIG. 5, if perforations of FIG. 8 are used, they can be located inside of folds 19, so that folds 19 remain attached to absorbent body when sheet 18d is torn from the back for after-use hinging.

Obviously after the back sheet or sheets and absorbent body have been hinged into coil covering position, the entire diaper can be gathered together or folded and tied or otherwise fastened with the entire absorbent material and soil being wrapped in impervious material for disposal without spillage.

Claims

What I claim is:

1. A disposable diaper comprising

an absorbent body having a fluid pervious surface on its front side and a fluid impervious surface on its back side and having back and front waistline portions joined by an intermediate crotch portion,

a sheet of supple fluid impervious material covering at least a portion of the back side of said absorbent body,

said sheet being relatively inseparably attached to said absorbent body along one edge of said sheet forming a permanent hinge line for said covering sheet,

and the remainder of said covering sheet being separably held on the back side of said absorbent body for detachment therefrom after diaper use and relative hinging movement about said hinge line to extend over soil deposited on the fluid impervious surface of the crotch portion of said absorbent body.

2. A diaper as claimed in claim 1 wherein the absorbent body is rectangular in shape and said hinge line extends across one of said waistline portions of said diaper.

3. A diaper as claimed in claim 1 wherein said impervious surface is the surface of a fluid impervious sheet integrally connected to said covering sheet by a fold at said hinge line.

4. A diaper as claimed in claim 1 wherein said covering sheet is folded over at least one of said waistline portions at an end of the diaper to form a waistband portion for said diaper which includes at least two superimposed narrow layers of said covering sheet.

5. A diaper as claimed in claim 1 wherein the entire covering sheet is folded in accordion fashion to form a multiple layer strengthened waistband portion for said diaper which includes at least three superimposed narrow layers of said covering sheet.

6. A diaper as claimed in claim 1 having adhesive holding the said remainder of said covering sheet on the back side of said absorbent body.

7. A diaper as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said remainder of said covering sheet has a perforated tear line for permitting ready detachment of said remainder of said covering sheet from the back side of said absorbent body for hinging about said hinge line.

8. A diaper as claimed in claim 1 wherein said covering sheet extends over substantially the entire back side of said absorbent body in multiple folded thickness adjacent one waistline portion of the diaper and in single thickness over other portions of the back side of said absorbent body.

9. A diaper as claimed in claim 1 wherein said covering sheet extends over substantially the entire back side of said absorbent body, in multiple folded thickness adjacent both waistline areas of the diaper and in single thickness over the intermediate area of the back side of said absorbent body.

10. A disposable diaper as claimed in claim 1 wherein the covering sheet has an unfolded area which is less than the area of the back side of said absorbent body and said diaper has another covering sheet held on the back side of said absorbent body and hinged thereto along an opposite edge of said sheet for relative hinging movement about its hinge line to extend over a portion of the fluid impervious surface of the crotch portion of said absorbent body not covered by the first named covering sheet when hinged about its hinge line into covering relation over said fluid pervious surface.