Absorbent article having a fastening system

A folded absorbent article comprising:

• an absorbent assembly including longitudinally opposite ends, transversely opposite sides, a liquid permeable inner layer for facing a wearer, an outer layer for facing away from the wearer, an absorbent body disposed between the inner layer and the outer layer, a front waist region, a back waist region, and a crotch region extending longitudinally between and interconnecting the front and back waist regions, a back waist edge, a front waist edge, the absorbent body having a pair of longitudinally extending sides and a pair of transversely extending ends;
• a pair of ears extending transversely outward from the opposite sides of the absorbent assembly in the back waist region;
• a fastening system comprising a pair of spaced apart hook fasteners disposed on the front waist region and a pair of loop fasteners, one of the loop fasteners being disposed on one of the ears and the other loop fastener being disposed on the opposite ear;
• and
• a lateral foldline, the lateral foldline being positioned to bring the back waist edge in generally alignment with the front waist edge and thereby completely enclose the hook fasteners within the folded absorbent article,
• wherein an outboard-most longitudinal edge of each of the hook fasteners is spaced apart from a respective one of the transversely opposite sides, and wherein an inboard-most longitudinal edge of each of the hook fasteners is spaced apart from a respective longitudinally extending side of the absorbent body in the front waist region at least a distance equal to a predetermined process range such that each of the hook fastening components are folded over and are disposed inboard of a corresponding longitudinally extending side of the folded absorbent article.

A plurality of folded and stacked absorbent articles, each absorbent article of the plurality of stacked absorbent articles comprising:

• a central absorbent assembly comprising a liquid permeable inner layer for facing the wearer, an outer layer for facing away from the wearer, an absorbent body disposed therebetween, a front waist region, a back waist region, and a crotch region extending longitudinally between and interconnecting the front and back waist regions, a liquid permeable inner layer for facing a wearer, an outer layer for facing away from the wearer, an absorbent body disposed between the inner and outer layers, at least one of the inner layer and outer layer defining the longitudinally opposite ends and transversely opposite sides of the absorbent assembly;
• a pair of longitudinally extending foldlines disposed in the front waist region of the absorbent assembly;
• and
• a fastening system configured to attach the back waist region to the front region to define a wear configuration of the absorbent article, the fastening system comprising a primary fastening system and a secondary fastening system separate from the primary fastening system,
• wherein the primary fastening system comprises a plurality of primary first fastening components and at least one primary second fastening component, each of the first fastening components being attached to the back waist region and configured to engage the at least one primary second fastening component provided on the front waist region when the absorbent article is in the wear configuration,
• wherein the secondary fastening system comprises a plurality of secondary first fastening components and a plurality of secondary second fastening components, each of the secondary first fastening components being disposed on the front waist region and configured to engage one of the secondary second fastening components disposed on the back waist region when the absorbent article is in the wear configuration, and
• wherein an outboard-most longitudinal edge of each of the secondary first fastening components is spaced apart from a respective one of the transversely opposite sides, and wherein an inboard-most longitudinal edge of each of the secondary first fastening components is spaced apart from a respective longitudinally extending foldline at least a distance equal to a predetermined process range such that each of the secondary first fastening components are folded over and are disposed inboard of a corresponding longitudinally extending side of the folded absorbent article.

A folded absorbent article comprising:

• an absorbent assembly including longitudinally opposite ends, transversely opposite sides, a front waist region, a back waist region, and a crotch region extending longitudinally between and interconnecting the front and back waist regions, a liquid permeable inner layer for facing a wearer, an outer layer for facing away from the wearer, an absorbent body disposed between the inner and outer layers, at least one of the inner layer and outer layer defining the longitudinally opposite ends and transversely opposite sides of the absorbent assembly, the absorbent body having a pair of longitudinally extending sides and a pair of transversely extending ends, each of the longitudinally extending sides of the absorbent body being spaced inward from a respective one of the transversely opposite sides of the absorbent assembly;
• a pair of ears extending transversely outward from the opposite sides of the absorbent assembly in the back waist region, each of the ears comprising a loop fastening component;
• a pair of spaced-apart hook fastening components disposed on the outer layer in the front waist region of the absorbent assembly, each of the hook fastening components being selectively engageable with a respective one of the loop fastening components in a wear configuration of the article;
• and
• a pair of longitudinally extending foldlines disposed in the front waist region of the absorbent assembly,
• wherein each of the transversely opposite sides of the absorbent assembly are disposed from a longitudinally extending center line of the absorbent assembly an opposite side distance at the front waist region (“A”),
• wherein each of the longitudinally extending foldlines are disposed from a longitudinally extending center line of the absorbent assembly a foldline distance (“C”),
• wherein the absorbent body has a thickness in a direction perpendicular to both the longitudinal and transverse directions (“t”),
• wherein the absorbent article is constructed with a predetermined process range (“PR”), and
• wherein an inboard-most longitudinal edge of each of the pair of hook fastening components is spaced from the center line between a first distance (“H”) and a second distance (“J”), wherein H is at least equal to C+PR, and wherein J<A.