High flux liquid transport members comprising two different permeability regions
AssigneeThe Procter & Gamble Company
InventorsBruno Johannes Ehrnsperger, Mattias Schmidt, Karl Michael Schumann, Fred Naval Desai, Gary Dean Lavon, Gerald Alfred Young, Donald Carroll Roe
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Abstract
The present invention is a liquid transport member with significantly improved liquid handling capability, which has at least one bulk or inner region with a high average permeability, completely circumscribed by a wall region. The wall region further comprises at least one port region with a lower permeability than the inner region, and with a ratio of its permeability to its thickness of at least 10−7 m.
Claims60
Liquid transport member comprising at least one bulk region having an average permeability kb, and a wall region that completely circumscribes said bulk region, said wall region further comprising at least one port region having a thickness d and an average permeability kp throughout this thickness, characterized in that said bulk region has an average fluid permeability kb which is higher than the average fluid permeability kp of the port regions and that said port region has a ratio of fluid permeability to thickness in the direction of fluid transport, kp/dp of at least 10−7 m.
Method of making a liquid transport member comprising the steps of
- a) providing a bulk region material or a void space;
- b) providing a wall material comprising a port region;
- c) completely enclosing said bulk region material or said void space by said wall material;
- d) providing a transport enablement means selected from
- d1) vacuum;
- d2) partial or essentially complete liquid filling;
- d3) expandable elastics/springs.
Method of making a liquid transport member comprising the steps of a) wrapping a highly porous bulk material with a separate wall material that comprises at least one permeable port region to define a wall region, b) completely sealing the wall region, and c) evacuating the member essentially of air.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.