Leg gasketing index for absorbent undergarments
AssigneeParagon Trade Brands, Inc.
InventorsLee W. Johnston, Kenneth John Molee, Stacy Jean Driskell, John D. Litvay
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An absorbent garment having standing leg gathers with improved leak containment capabilities, a method of making the absorbent garment, and a method of determining the leak containment capability of a standing leg gather are disclosed herein. In a first aspect, a method of determining a Leg Gasketing Index is disclosed herein and includes elongating a section of a standing leg gather and measuring the resulting elastic contractile force. In a second aspect, the present invention relates to an absorbent garment including standing leg gathers having a mean Total Leg Gasketing Index over three elongation cycles of at least about 4.75 kg*mm.
Claims79
A disposable absorbent garment comprising:
- a back sheet;
- a top sheet;
- an absorbent core at least partially disposed between the back sheet and the top sheet;
- at least one longitudinally extending, elasticized standing leg gather disposed laterally from a longitudinal centerline of the garment, the at least one standing leg gather including at least one elastic element for distributing elastic contractile forces;
- and
- wherein the at least one standing leg gather has a mean Total Leg Gasketing Index over three elongation cycles of at least about 4.75 kg*mm.
A disposable absorbent garment comprising:
- a back sheet;
- a top sheet;
- an absorbent core at least partially disposed between the back sheet and the top sheet;
- at least one longitudinally extending, elasticized standing leg gather disposed laterally from a longitudinal centerline of the garment, the at least one standing leg gather including at least one elastic element for distributing elastic contractile forces;
- and
- wherein the at least one standing leg gather has a mean Summation Leg Gasketing Index at 150% elongation for three cycles of at least about 15 kg/mm.
A disposable absorbent garment comprising:
- a back sheet;
- a top sheet;
- an absorbent core at least partially disposed between the back sheet and the top sheet;
- at least one longitudinally extending, elasticized standing leg gather disposed laterally from a longitudinal centerline of the garment, the at least one standing leg gather including at least one elastic element for distributing elastic contractile forces;
- and
- wherein the at least one standing leg gather has a mean first cycle partial Average Leg Gasketing Index of at least about 23 kg*mm.
A disposable absorbent garment comprising:
- a back sheet;
- a top sheet;
- an absorbent core at least partially disposed between the back sheet and the top sheet;
- at least one longitudinally extending, elasticized standing leg gather disposed laterally from a longitudinal centerline of the garment, the at least one standing leg gather including at least one elastic element for distributing elastic contractile forces;
- and
- wherein the at least one standing leg gather has a first cycle Leg Gasketing Index at 150% elongation of at least about 5.5 kg*mm.
An absorbent garment comprising:
- a back sheet;
- a top sheet;
- an absorbent core at least partially disposed between the back sheet and the top sheet;
- at least one longitudinally extending standing leg gather disposed laterally from a longitudinal centerline of the garment, the at least one leg gather including a first end portion, a middle portion, and a second end portion, and the at least one standing leg gather including at least one elastic element for distributing elastic contractile forces;
- wherein the first end portion, the middle portion, and the second end portion are secured to the top sheet along a first longitudinally extending bond region;
- wherein the first end portion is secured by a first end bond such that the first end portion is folded over onto itself;
- and
- wherein the second end portion is secured by a second end bond such that the second end portion is folded over onto itself;
- and
- wherein the at least one standing leg gather has a first cycle Leg Gasketing Index at 195% elongation of at least about 9.25 kg*mm.
A method for determining a Leg Gasketing Index of an elasticized standing leg gather, the method comprising:
- obtaining a section of the standing leg gather, the section having a height and an unloaded length;
- determining the height of the section of the standing leg gather;
- elongating the section of the standing leg gather from the unloaded length to a first elongation;
- determining a first elastic contractile force exhibited by the section of the standing leg gather at the first elongation;
- and
- calculating a first Leg Gasketing Index by multiplying the height of the section by the first elastic contractile force.
The method of claim 65, further comprising elongating the section of the standing leg gather to a second cycle elongation greater than the first elongation prior to relaxing the section.
A method of making an absorbent garment comprising:
- providing a top sheet material to a garment forming station;
- providing a back sheet material to a garment forming station;
- providing an absorbent core to a garment forming station;
- disposing the absorbent core between the top sheet material and the back sheet material at the garment forming station;
- and
- disposing on the top sheet material at least one longitudinally extending, elasticized standing leg gather laterally from a longitudinal centerline of the top sheet material, whereby the at least one standing leg gather includes at least one elastic element for distributing elastic contractile forces,
- wherein the at least one standing leg gather has a mean Total Leg Gasketing Index over three elongation cycles of at least about 4.75 kg*mm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.