Sanitary Napkin And Method And Means Of Producing

Abstract

A sanitary napkin which has a fluff layer sandwiched between carrier layers, the sandwich being C-folded to provide a lined channel on one side of the sandwich which encourages more even, rapid, and complete dispersion of body fluids.

Description

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF INVENTION

Although dispersion means have been employed in the past in sanitary napkins--for the purpose of orienting dispersion along the napkin length, rather than saturating one central area--, these not only have failed to achieve the foregoing objectives, but also have been difficult to produce continuously at high speed and of uniform quality. Through the idea of providing a channel, as by C-folding the fluff, we have achieved the foregoing objectives.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

The invention is described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view partially broken away of a sanitary napkin produced according to the teachings of this invention; and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view also broken away to illustrate the type of diaper insert produceable according to the invention.

In the illustration given, and with reference to FIG. 1, the numeral 10 designates generally a sanitary napkin produced and constructed according to the teachings of this invention. It will be noted that the core of the napkin is a fluff layer 11 which has been folded on itself into a C configuration. Adjacent the bight portion 12 of the C configuration is positioned a barrier sheet 13, advantageously polyethylene. The width of the barrier sheet 13 is less than that of the unfolded fluff layer 11. The fluff layer 11 and barrier sheet 13 are enclosed within a carrier web 14 which, before C-folding, makes up a sandwich with the carrier web 14 providing the external layers and the fluff 11 providing the inner player. It will be noted by reference to FIG. 1 that the carrier web is overlapped on itself as at 15. Lastly, the C-folded sandwich is positioned within an enveloping outer wrap 16. This is overlapped on itself and longitudinally sealed together as at 17.

Thus we provide a single ply cellulose fluff pad overwrapped completely with a porous tissue carrier web. The narrower strip of polyethylene 13 introduced next to the fluff under the carrier web flaps acts as a barrier sheet on the finished napkin. The entire pad and carrier web are C-folded to form a modified two-ply construction with a longitudinally extending center channel. The entire C-folded fluff pad and carrier web are overwrapped, as at 16, advantageously with non-woven material or wet strength tissue, and longitudinally sealed, as at 17, with a hot melt adhesive seam.

In operation, the C-fold construction with internal dispersion layers, i.e., the internal carrier webs, as at 14a and 14b, encourages more even, rapid, and complete dispersion of body fluids. The C-fold channel Ch (still referring to FIG. 1) orients the body fluid dispersion path along the length of the napkin, and discourages over-saturation in one central area, Thus, the non-woven overwrap 16 in contact with the body tends to remain drier. Further, the construction depicted resists "strike through" better than conventional two-ply napkins. By virtue of the C-fold construction, there is a compression of the various layers along the longitudinal edges which inhibits lateral leakage.

In FIG. 2, we provide an outer wrap 116 which envelops the carrier web 114, which in turn sandwiches the fluff layer 111.

Claims

We claim:

1. A sanitary napkin comprising a plurality of elongated layers of flexible material arranged to lay flat including upper and lower exterior layers constructed of non-woven material and serving to confine a plurality of interior layers, two interior layers constructed of soft absorbable material and being relatively thicker than the other layers, said two interior layers being united along the longitudinal edges thereof with one of the interior layers having an access space along the longitudinal median whereby said two interior layers have essentially a C configuration in transverse section to provide a channel for dispersion of fluid, a pair of intermediate layers of absorbent material, one of the intermediate layers being interposed between the upper exterior layer and one of the interior layers and the other intermediate layer being interposed between the other interior layer and the lower exterior layer, and a pair of inner layers of absorbent material interposed between the two interior layers.

2. A sanitary napkin comprising an elongated pad of soft moisture-absorbent material, a carrier web of moisture-absorbent material surrounding the pad, the pad and the carrier web being folded into a C-shape along a pair of spaced-apart parallel longitudinally extending lines to provide a lower pad portion and a pair of upper pad portions superposed on the lower pad portion to form a longitudinally extending channel, the upper pad portions and the lower portion being of approximately the same thickness, the upper pad portions being separated from the lower pad portion by a double thickness of the carrier web, and an outer wrap surrounding the C-folded pad and carrier web and extending across said channel.

3. The napkin of claim 11 in which each of the upper pad portions includes a longitudinally extending inwardly facing longitudinal edge spaced from the longitudinal edge of the other pad portion to provide a relatively narrow longitudinally extending access slot for the channel.

4. The napkin of claim 3 in which the width of said slot is substantially smaller than the width of each of said upper pad portions.