Sanitary product system

Abstract

This invention is directed to a sanitary product attachment means comprising a connection member (3) having a flexible base carrier (4), whereas on one main surface of the connection member (3) an underwear connection means (5) is present which is configured to fix the connection member (3) to a piece of underwear (12) and on the opposing main surface of the connection member (3) an absorbent member connection means (6) is present which is configured to fix the connection member (3) to the underside of an absorbent member (2, 2a).

Claims

1. A sanitary product attachment means comprising a connection member having a flexible base carrier, wherein on one main surface of the connection member an underwear connection means is present which is configured to fix the connection member to a piece of underwear and on the opposing main surface of the connection member an absorbent member connection means is present which is configured to fix the connection member to the underside of an absorbent member, and wherein the underwear connection means comprises an adhesive coating and/or a hook element thereon; wherein the underwear connection means is disposed on a main surface of the flexible base carrier and the absorbent member connection means is disposed on an opposing main surface of the flexible base carrier, and further wherein the adhesion of the underwear connection means to a piece of underwear is higher than the adhesion of the absorbent member connection means to a major surface of an absorbent member.

2. The sanitary product according to claim 1, characterized in that absorbent member connection means comprises an adhesive coating.

3. The sanitary product according to claim 2, characterized in that the absorbent member connection means comprises further layers of the flexible base carrier arranged in a stack and provided with an adhesive coating on at least one of their main surfaces, whereas 1 to 8 further layers are present.

4. The sanitary product according to claim 3, characterized in that adjacent one edge of the flexible base carriers, a fingerlift area is defined on the major side of the base carrier coated with adhesive and which is free from the adhesive coating.

5. The sanitary product according to claim 3, characterized in that the flexible base carriers are arranged with a lateral offset preferably in a step-wise fashion towards the underwear connection means.

6. The sanitary product according to claim 3, characterized in that the further layers of the flexible base carrier are provided with the adhesive coating on at least a portion of their main surfaces, whereas the opposing main surface is modified to reduce tack.

7. The sanitary product according to claim 2, characterized in that the adhesive layer, the hook and/or the loop element is separated into two or more regions, in particular in the form of several stripes, squares, oval or round dots, grids, or combinations thereof.

8. The sanitary product according to claim 2, characterized in that, the outermost adhesive layers are covered by a release liner.

9. The sanitary product according to claim 1, characterized in that the absorbent member connection means comprises a hook element and the underwear connection means comprises an adhesive layer and/or a hook element provided thereon.

10. The sanitary product according to claim 1, characterized in that the absorbent member connection means comprises a loop element and the underwear connection means comprises a heat-activated adhesive coating, in particular a hot-melt adhesive coating, so that the combination of the connection member adhered to a piece of underwear is wash-resistant.

11. The sanitary product according to claim 1, characterized in that the material of the base carrier is chosen from paper, polymeric films or nonwovens.

12. The sanitary product according to claim 1, characterized in that the connection member comprises wings on opposing edges, which are provided with a hook element or an adhesive coating.

13. A sanitary product system comprising a sanitary product attachment means according to claim 1 and at least one absorbent member.

14. The sanitary product system according to claim 13, characterized in that the absorbent member is a diaper, a sanitary napkin or pad, panty liner, or an incontinence pad.

15. A method of fixing a sanitary product system according to claim 13 to a piece of underwear, the method comprising the steps of fixing the connection member to the underwear with the underwear connection means and fixing the absorbent member to the connection member with the absorbent member connection means.

16. A method of exchanging a used absorbent member of a sanitary product system according to claim 13 which has been fixed to the piece of underwear, the method comprising the steps of unfixing the used absorbent member from the connection member, in particular while leaving the connection member connected to the piece of underwear, and fixing a new absorbent member to the connection member.

17. A method of exchanging a used absorbent member of a sanitary product system according to claim 13 comprising the sanitary product attachment means in claim 3 which has been fixed to the piece of underwear, the method comprising the steps of peeling the used absorbent member together with the adjacent base carrier from the stack of base carriers, in particular by grabbing the fingerlift area of this base carrier, to reveal a fresh adhesive coating on the connection member and bonding a new absorbent member to the fresh adhesive coating.

18. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that the steps are repeated at least once.

19. The sanitary product of claim 1, wherein a thickness of each layer of the base carrier is in a range of 5 to 100 m.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) In Detail, the figures show:

(2) FIG. 1 is a first embodiment of the inventive sanitary product system with a stack-wise arrangement of the connection member in cross-sectional view;

(3) FIG. 2 is a second embodiment of an inventive sanitary product system in cross-sectional view;

(4) FIG. 3 is the embodiment of an inventive sanitary product system in top view;

(5) FIG. 4 is a modified version of the sanitary product system according to FIGS. 2 and 3 in top view;

(6) FIG. 5 is a modified version of the sanitary product system according to FIG. 2 in cross-sectional view;

(7) FIG. 6 is a second alternative of the sanitary product system according to FIG. 2 in cross-sectional view;

(8) FIG. 7 is a third alternative of a sanitary product system according to FIG. 2 in cross-sectional view; and

(9) FIG. 8 is a third embodiment of the inventive sanitary product system in cross-sectional view.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(10) In FIG. 1, a first embodiment of a sanitary product system 1 is illustrated in frontal sectional view. The sanitary product system 1 comprises one absorbent member 2 and a separate connection member 3, which are not displayed in FIG. 1 true to scale. The absorbent member 2 is an untreated sanitary napkin, i.e. the napkin is not provided with any adhesive or other mechanical fixation means.

(11) The connection member 3 comprises a plurality of flexible base carriers 4 made from a 50 m polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) foil from which the lower base carrier 4 is covered on one side with a high-tack pressure sensitive adhesive to represent an underwear connection means 5. Alternately, the underwear connection means 5 could be a hook fastener. The opposite main surface of each base carrier 4 is covered with a lower tack pressure sensitive adhesive which represents an absorbent member connection means 6. The opposing surface of each layer of the base carrier 4 is tack-reducing modified by a corona treatment, with the exception of the lower base carrier 4.

(12) The underwear connection means 5 is covered with a release liner 7 made from siliconized paper, which is removed prior to use. Also the outermost adhesive layer of the connection means 6 may be covered with a release liner 7.

(13) At an edge of each layer of the base carrier 4, an area is left free from the adhesive coating, thus forming a fingerlift area 8 in order to ease the removal of each of these layers.

(14) The layers of the base carrier 4 are arranged on top of each other in a stack-like manner in such a way that a layer of fresh adhesive 6 is exposed each time the top layer is removed until only the lower base carrier 4 is left.

(15) As recognizable in FIG. 1, the layers of the base carrier 4 may be arranged in the stack with a lateral offset in a step-wise fashion towards the underwear connection means 5 on the edge of the fingerlift area 8. This lateral offset ensures that during exchange of a used absorbent member 2 by a fresh one, only the adjacent base carrier 4 is removed from the top of the stack together with the used absorbent member 2.

(16) In FIG. 2, an alternative embodiment of the sanitary product system 11 of the current invention is shown in frontal sectional view. FIG. 3 displays the same embodiment in top view but with the absorbent member 2 removed to show the top of the connection member. The sanitary product system 11 comprises an absorbent member 2 in form of an adhesive-free sanitary napkin and a connection member 3.

(17) The absorbent member 2 is the same as set out above. The connection member 3 comprises a flexible base carrier 4 which is attached to a piece of underwear 12 by an underwear connection means 5, which consists of two stripes of a pressure sensitive adhesive. Alternately, the underwear connection means 5 can be one or more strips of a hook fastener. On the opposing main surface, the base carrier 4 is provided with an absorbent member connection means 6 in the form of two stripes of hook elements which interact with the surface of the absorbent member 2.

(18) The sizes and bond strength of the underwear connection means 5 and the absorbent member connection means 6 are matched to one another in such a way that during an exchange of the absorbent member 2 by pulling, only the bond between the absorbent member connection means 6 and the absorbent member 2 is breached.

(19) FIG. 4 shows an alternative set-up of the embodiment of FIG. 3 with three mostly parallel absorbent member connection means 6, from which the outer absorbent member connection means 6 are represented by two stripes of a pressure sensitive adhesive, between which a single strip of a hook element is present.

(20) In FIG. 5, a modification of the embodiment according to FIG. 2 is shown in frontal sectional view. The main difference to the embodiment of FIG. 2 is that the connection member 3 is provided on both its long sides with wings 13. Each of the wings 13 is provided with an adhesive coating 14 in order to fix the end of each wing 13 to the bottom side of the piece of underwear 12. Alternately, hook fasteners can be used in place of the adhesive coating on the wings.

(21) In FIG. 6, another alternative to the example as displayed in FIG. 2 is shown in frontal sectional view. According to this embodiment, the absorbent member connection means 6 is represented by stripes of a pressure sensitive adhesive coating. Alternately, both the absorbent member connection means 6 and the underwear connection means 5 could include one or more strips of hook fasteners instead of or in addition to the adhesive stripes. The adhesion strength of the underwear connection means 5 to a piece of underwear 12 is higher than the adhesion strength of the absorbent member connection means 6 to a major surface of the absorbent member 2, so that by applying a pull force to the absorbent member 2, the bond between the absorbent member connection means 6 and the absorbent member 2 is breached.

(22) FIG. 7 shows an alternative set-up of the sanitary product system 11 of FIG. 2 in frontal sectional view. In that embodiment, the absorbent member connection means 6 is a single continuous hook element patch.

(23) FIG. 8 illustrates a third embodiment of a sanitary product system 21 according to the current invention in frontal sectional view. In this embodiment the base carrier 4 of the connection member 3 is attached with a hot melt adhesive as underwear connection means 5 to the piece of underwear 12. This is achieved for example by ironing the connection member 3 to the piece of underwear 12.

(24) The absorbent member connection means 6 is represented in this case by a continuous loop element which may interact with a hook element 22 of an alternative absorbent member 2a. In other words, in this example the absorbent member 2a is provided with a part of an attachment means, namely a hook element.

(25) The hot melt adhesive of the sanitary product system 21 allows washing of the piece of underwear 12 in one piece with the connection member 3. The absorbent member connection means 6 in the form of a loop element ensures that during washing, neither the piece of underwear 12 nor other parts of clothing in the washing machine are damaged. Alternately, the connection member 3 may be sewn into the underwear 12 instead of using a hot-melt adhesive.