Absorbent Article with a Slitted Absorbent Core

A method of making a disposable absorbent article having a front waist region, a back waist region spaced longitudinally from the front waist region, a pair of side margins extending longitudinally from the front waist region to the back waist region and a crotch region located between the side margins and between the front and back waist regions, said method comprising:

• providing a fluid impervious back sheet;
• forming an absorbent core containing superabsorbent material;
• and
• connecting the absorbent core to said back sheet;
• and
• providing a cover layer over the absorbent core, thereby defining, at least partly, the front waist region, the back waist region spaced longitudinally from the front waist region, and the crotch region located generally centrally between said front and back waist regions and between longitudinally extending side margins;
• and
• wherein said forming the absorbent core includes
• providing a nonwoven substrate,
• distributing superabsorbent particles on the nonwoven substrate, whereby a layer of superabsorbent material is supported on the nonwoven substrate, and
• slitting at least a portion of said layer of superabsorbent material to provide slits positioned to generally correspond with the crotch region such that said absorbent core having said slits has greater flexibility relative to said absorbent core without said slits.

A method of making an absorbent core for incorporation into a disposable absorbent article having a front waist region, a back waist region, a pair of longitudinally extending side margins extending between said front and back regions, and a crotch region positioned generally centrally between said front and back waist regions and between said side margins, said method comprising:

• providing an absorbent layer containing superabsorbent material including providing a non-woven substrate and distributing superabsorbent particles thereon, whereby the superabsorbent particles are intermixed with microfibrillated cellulose and embedded into pores of the nonwoven substrate;
• and
• slitting said absorbent layer at a plurality of locations corresponding to the crotch region to define slits penetrating downward through a surface of a layer of the superabsorbent particles, thereby increasing the liquid intake and flexibility of the absorbent layer;
• and
• wherein the absorbent layer provides an absorbent core having about 61% to about 97% by weight of the superabsorbent material, from about 3% to about 39% by weight of non-absorbent nonwoven resilient fibers, and 0% by weight of absorbent hydrophilic fibers, wherein the superabsorbent material comprises particles and the non-absorbent nonwoven resilient fibers form a low-density layer and a high-density layer.