Daio Paper issued US patent for pants-type disposable diaper cover that has renewable-type absorptive pad made removable

Nevin Barich

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia , June 6, 2013 (Journal of Engineering) – A patent by the inventor Saito, Tetsuhiro (Sakura, JP), filed on December 19, 2006, was published online on May 28, 2013, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews correspondents.

Patent number 8449515 is assigned to Daio Paper Corporation (Ehime, JP).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: "The present invention relates to a pants-type disposable diaper cover having a renewable type absorptive pad made removable.

"In the prior art, the disposable diaper is divided into the tape- or pants-type paper diaper, which is integrated with an absorbent so that it is discarded after a bodily liquid is absorbed one or several times, and the so-called 'diaper cover type', in which a renewable absorptive pad is made removable. The latter diaper cover type is advantageous in that the diaper cost can be lowered by renewing inexpensive absorptive pads.

"In the diaper cover, generally speaking, a male fastener is attached to the back side of an absorptive pad in order to fix the absorptive pad on the diaper cover so as not to displace the pad in wearing. On the other hand, a female fastener is attached to the inner face of the diaper cover so as to fix the absorptive pad. The absorptive pad is fixed for use on the diaper cover by bringing the face fastener of the absorptive pad and the face fastener of the shorts into engagement in a facing relationship.

"In recent years, moreover, there are proposed a variety of diaper covers which are intended to improve the wearing feel. In the following Patent Document 1, for example, there are proposed shorts (or a diaper cover), which are put on together with an absorptive pad having a face fastener with a male member, which is extensible at least vertically and in which a smooth region not engaged with the male member of the absorptive pad is formed on the inner faces at the front and/or the back.

"In the following Patent Document 2, moreover, there is proposed a diaper, which is put on to cover the crotch of a human body and the abdominal region and the buttocks positioned in front of and at the back of the crotch, thereby to receive the excrement due to an incontinence. The diaper comprises: an absorptive pad including an absorbent for receiving the excrement due to the incontinence, and having a shape for contacting sufficiently with the crotch of the human body and the abdominal region and the buttocks positioned in front of and at the back of the crotch and a water absorbing ability to absorb an average quantity of the excrement composed mainly of the urine due to the incontinence; and a holder (or a diaper cover) made separate of the above absorptive pad and holding the absorptive pad in a manner to wrap the absorptive pad entirely and the human body therearound. The absorptive pad includes a crotch abutting portion having a width corresponding to the crotch of the human body, a wide front abutment portion corresponding to the abdomen positioned in front of the crotch of the human body, and a wide back abutment portion corresponding to the buttocks positioned at the back of the crotch of the human body. Moreover, the holder includes a body formed of a three-dimensionally extensible material for wrapping the absorptive pad entirety and the human body therearound, a crotch portion positioned below the crotch of the human body, and leg passing portions for passing the legs of the human body. Patent Document 1: JP-A-2003-24385 Patent Document 2: JP-A-2001-29375"

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, VerticalNews journalists also obtained the inventor's summary information for this patent: "First of all, however, most of the diaper covers thus far provided in the prior art employs a single material, a blended material, a knitted material or a woven material of cotton, nylon, polyurethane, and polynosic as described in the Patent Documents 1 and 2. Therefore, the diaper covers are troubled by a problem that the production cost is high.

"On the other hand, the diaper cover is poor in the wearing operation of the absorptive pad and cannot prevent the positional displacement completely because it resorts to only mechanical joining means such as the face fastener. When the diaper cover is put off for re-wearing it or in a toilet, moreover, the absorptive pad and the diaper cover mismatch each other in their extensions, thus causing a problem that the face fasteners fixing the absorptive pad go out of engagement.

"Therefore, a main object of the invention is to provide a pants-type disposable diaper cover, which can be manufactured at a low cost, which can mount an absorptive pad easily, which can hold the mounted absorptive pad snugly without any positional displacement, and which can be prevented from having the absorptive pad disengaged when the diaper cover is put on again or when the wearer does his or her needs at a toilet.

"In order to solve the aforementioned problems, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a pants-type disposable diaper cover having a renewable type absorptive pad made removable,

"wherein the pants-type disposable diaper cover is constituted such that elastically extensible members are arranged between two nonwoven-fabric sheets, and such that a waist opening and a pair of right and left leg openings are formed when the diaper cover is folded at a diaper crotch portion and when a front and a back are joined at two side portions, characterized:

"in that a pad-fixing sheet having at least its front end portion and back end portion fixed is arranged in a diaper cover region corresponding to the mounting portion of the absorptive pad; and

"in that the diaper cover includes at least elastically extensible waist members arranged around the waist opening, and a plurality of curved elastically extensible members arranged to extend in a front and in a back from the body sides to the crotch side, to cross the arranged portions of the absorptive pad on the crotch side, and then to draw a plurality of loci extending from the crotch side to the body sides.

"In the first aspect of the invention, the diaper cover itself is constituted of a sheet material, in which the elastically extensible members are arranged between the two nonwoven-fabric sheets, so that the manufacturing cost can be low. Moreover, the pad-fixing sheet having at least its front end portion and back end portion fixed is arranged in the diaper cover region corresponding to the mounting portion of the absorptive pad. As will be described hereinafter, therefore, it is possible to improve the wearing efficiency of the absorptive pad, and the wearing feel, the close touch and the followability of the absorptive pad, and to prevent the absorptive pad from being disengaged for re-wearing the diaper cover or for doing his or her needs.

"Moreover, the elastically extensible members arranged in the diaper cover are constituted so as to include at least the elastically extensible waist members arranged around the waist opening, and the curved elastically extensible members arranged to extend in a front and in a back from the body sides to the crotch side, to cross the arranged portions of the absorptive pad on the crotch side, and then to draw a plurality of loci extending from the crotch side to the body sides. Especially the latter curved elastically extensible members form the extensible zones to touch the body closely on the side portions of the mounted portion of the absorptive pad so that the absorptive pad mounted can be snugly held without any positional displacement.

"According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a pants-type disposable diaper cover of the first aspect of the invention, wherein the absorptive pad is joined to the pad-fixing sheet by either a self-adhesive applied to the back of the absorptive pad or face fasteners disposed on the absorptive pad and the pad-fixing sheet.

"According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a pants-type disposable diaper cover according to the first or second aspect of the invention, further including a plurality of elastically extensible hip members arranged in the front and back at a vertical spacing along a horizontal direction.

"In the third aspect of the invention, for the diaper cover, not only the elastically extensible waist members and the curved elastically extensible members but also the elastically extensible hip members are provided so that a fitness can be given to the hip portion.

"According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided a pants-type disposable diaper cover according to any of the first to third aspects of the invention, wherein the curved elastically extensible members are arranged through a spacing without intersecting each other.

"In the fourth aspect of the invention, the curved elastically extensible members are arranged through the spacing without intersecting each other so that the elastic forces are not concentrated but homogeneously balanced so that the whole diaper cover can be made to touch the body closely.

"According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a pants-type disposable diaper cover according to any of the first to fourth aspects of the invention, wherein the curved elastically extensible members arranged in said front and back cross in the transverse portion of the crotch side either substantially straight along the transverse direction or in arcuate curve shapes bulging to the crotch side.

"The absorptive pad can be held in close touch on the body side by the pushing forces of the curved elastically extensible members crossing the crotch side.

"According to a sixth aspect of the invention, there is provided a pants-type disposable diaper cover according to any of the first to fifth aspects of the invention, wherein the curved elastically extensible members arranged in the back are directionally turned back in the crossing portion on the crotch side to the sides of the waist opening to draw a locus building to the sides of the waist opening at the substantially widthwise center and are then so turned back again that they cross in a locus of the shape of letter W substantially as a whole.

"The convex locus portion, as positioned at the center of the diaper cover, is deformed along the recess of the buttocks thereby to push the absorptive pad to the body side so that the structure can establish no clearance with the recess of the buttocks.

"According to a seventh aspect of the invention, there is provided a pants-type disposable diaper cover according to any of the first to sixth aspects of the invention, wherein the starting and terminating ends of the curved elastically extensible members are any or a combination of the joining edges to join the front and the back, the waist opening edge and the leg opening edges.

"According to the invention, as has been described in detail, it is possible to provide the pants-type disposable diaper cover, which can be manufactured at a low cost, which can mount the absorptive pad easily, which can hold the mounted absorptive pad snugly without any positional displacement, and which can be prevented from having the absorptive pad disengaged when the diaper cover is put on again or when the wearer does his or her needs at a toilet."

URL and more information on this patent, see: Saito, Tetsuhiro. Pants-Type Disposable Diaper Cover. U.S. Patent Number 8449515, filed December 19, 2006, and published online on May 28, 2013. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=84&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=4170&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=20130528.PD.&OS=ISD/20130528&RS=ISD/20130528

Keywords for this news article include: Urology, Gastroenterology, Daio Paper Corporation.

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