Waist belt for absorbent garment

(54) (56) (57)

INVENTOR INVENTOR

Mölnlycke AB, 405 03 Gothenburg SE Olle Carlbark, Kållered SE, Peter

Björn Larsson, Billdal SE

OMBUD Albihns Patentbyrå Göteborg AB

NAME Waist belt for absorbent garments

CALLED PUBLICATIONS:

Rönnberg, Mölndal SE,

WO A 9108725 (A61F 13/74), GB A 1 200 177 (A61F 13/64)

SUMMARY: The invention relates to a garment (1) comprising an absorbent member (2) and a waist belt (3) applied directly or indirectly thereto. The waist belt has two belt portions (7, 8) extending At each side from said absorbent portion for attachment to one another around a wearer of the garment. The special handling properties of the belt parts of the waist belt (3) have been substantially improved by making a belt stiffness between 25 g and 90 g as measured by the modified version of ASTM D 4032-82 CIRCULAR BENDING PROCEDURE.

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Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a garment comprising an absorbent portion and a waist belt applied directly or indirectly thereto, said belt having two belt portions extending each side from said absorbent portion for attachment to one another around a carrier of the garment, as defined in the descriptive part of claim 1.

Background of the invention

Absorbent garments of the above type are well known in the industry.

The garment in question has a belt fixedly attached to the absorbent garment portion and, after attaching the belt around the waist of the wearer with the attached garment end on the back side of the wearer, requires that the end not attached to the belt is inserted between the wearer's legs and applied with some kind of detachable adhesion to the belt on the front. The detachable adhesive device may be of the type of hooks and loops (also called Velcro straps), such as those marketed under the designation "VELCRO * '.

Published application WO-A-91/08725 shows an example of such an item in one embodiment.

One of the known problems with such garments is the problems of handling the belt parts which protrude from each side of the absorbent part of the composite garment so that the belt parts can be quickly and correctly obtained and fastened.

508 028 put them together. However, the belt material still needs to be inexpensive since it is attached to a garment which together with the belt constitutes a disposable article.

When it comes to incontinence problems, it is recognized that people who suffer from this are often old and have varying physical disabilities. Consequently, they have greater difficulty securing the belt themselves and often need help from health care professionals to fit the garments.

Thus, there is a need for a solution that allows easy and accurate fitting of the absorbent garment, especially for disabled people.

Summary of the Invention

The above-mentioned handling problems are solved with the characteristics of the belt according to claim 1.

The result is a belt on the garment that does not tend to wrinkle excessively which could be painful for the wearer, and not too stiff, which in itself could give rise to cuts and abrasions. In addition, there is provided a garment with a belt that can be manufactured at low cost and is particularly suitable for use in adult incontinence.

Preferred features of the belt are defined in the subclaims.

The bending resistance of a material sample is measured by its maximum bending stiffness. As defined in claim 1 and shown in the material testing method according to EP-A-0 336 578, wherein said test equipment, method and calculations are hereby incorporated by reference, the maximum bending stiffness is determined by a test modeled according to ASTM D 4032-82 CIRCULAR BENDING PROCEDURE, however, the method has been considerably modified and performed as shown in EP-A-0 336 578.

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The CIRCULAR BENDING PROCEDURE is a simultaneous deformation in several directions of a material in which one of the sides of the sample becomes concave and the other becomes convex. The CIRCULAR BENDING PROCEDURE provides a force value that relates to bending resistance, while also averaging stiffness in all directions.

The tests were carried out on the belt of the present application using the necessary equipment from EP-A-0 336 578 to perform the CIRCULAR BENDING PROCEDURE, which is a modified Circular Bending Stiffness Tester, having the following parts:

A smooth polished steel plate measuring 102.0 x 102.0 x 6.35 mm having a nozzle with a diameter of 18.75 mm. The bevelled edge of the nozzle shall be 45 degrees to a depth of 4.75 mm. A plunge with a total length of 72.2 mm, a diameter of

6.25 mm, a ball-shaped end with a radius of 2.97 mm and a sharp needle tip protruding 0.88 mm from it and having a base diameter of 0.33 mm and a tip with a radius less than 0.5 mm , whereby the plunger is mounted concentrically with the nozzle and has equal play in all directions. It should be noted that the needle tip only serves to prevent lateral movement of the specimen during the specimen. Therefore, if the needle tip has a noticeable negative effect on the specimen (for example, by punching holes on an inflatable structure), then the needle tip should not be used. The bottom of the plunger 25 should be positioned well over the plate with the nozzle. From this position, the downward stroke of the ball-shaped tip is so far that it just reaches the bottom of the plate nozzle.

A power transducer, and more specifically an Instron load cell for inverted compression. The load cell has a measuring range of 0.0 to 2000.0 grams.

An actuator, and more specifically the Instron Model No. 1122 type, provided with an inverted compression load cell, Instron 1122 is manufactured by Instron Engineering Corporation, Canton, Massachusetts.

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It should be noted that although the term absorbent garment has been used specifically in connection with incontinence, and especially adult incontinence, the invention is not limited to this particular purpose or to any particular size or type of absorbent garment included therein and it is readily apparent to those skilled in the art would be able to use such belts, for example, for baby or baby diapers by simply adjusting the dimensions accordingly.

Short figure description

The invention will now be explained in more detail with reference to certain non-limiting embodiments and to the accompanying drawings, in which

Fig. 1 shows a garment comprising a belt according to the invention, and

Fig. 2 shows various fasteners used in connection with the belt fastening according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Fig. 1 shows a garment generally designated 1 consisting of an absorbent portion 2 and a belt portion generally designated 3. The belt could be either an entire belt 3 attached to the absorbent portion 2 at one end thereof 4, or consist of of two separate belt portions 7 and 8 attached to each side of the end 4 (or 5). The method of attachment as such is of no significance to the present application.

If it is desirable to provide elasticity to a belt made of two separate parts, it is conceivable that the end 4 of the absorbent portion be made elastic.

The general appearance as such of the garment in the figures

508 028 is known and therefore no detailed explanation of all components is given. At one end 7 of the belt 3 is provided a flexible belt 6 with hook elements included in Velcro strap fasteners, which can either be attached to the belt part 8 (on the side not shown) or to a belt with loops arranged on the belt part 8. Further advantages are obtained , as explained below, by special dimensions and locations of this band. Although the belt is preferably substantially rectangular in shape and has two laterally offset edges 9 and 10 between which the belt 6 is attached, other shapes can be envisaged. However, in the case of a rectangular belt, its width should be between 70 mm and 160 mm for use in adult incontinence.

When such a belt is used, it is now possible to achieve good handling properties of the belt portions 7 and 8 even when using non-woven (non-woven) material, by choosing a stiffness range according to the modified ASTM D 4032 sample which is between 25 and 90 g. Under 25 g crease problems arise, which as previously explained is not desirable. Thus, the stiffness of a free part of the belt (eg in the middle of part 7) will lie in said area.

Particularly desirable according to the invention, a stiffness range is between 30 g and 55 g and the best handling is achieved between 35 g and 50 g. The inventors have thus, especially with the belt program used for adult incontinence, managed to achieve optimal handling properties while preventing wrinkling or stiff areas. which causes discomfort.

A nonwoven material is preferably used for either one or both sides of the belt, said nonwoven material being of a type to which

508 The 028 hook elements on the belt 6 can be detachably attached. By using a nonwoven material for the belt surface for detachable adhesion, it is possible to provide particularly advantageous combinations of tear force and shear strength, which give tear forces down to 0.1 - 2.0 Ncm.¹, preferably down to as low as 0.2 - 0.8 Ncm¹, and a shear hole strength greater than 1 Ncm², preferably greater than 15 Ncm² and normally greater than 20 Ncm². Of course, using nonwoven material is advantageous as it becomes cheaper than woven material and thus more suitable for disposable garments. Such values ​​also apply to the attachment of the straps 12 and 13 to the end 5 of the garment, which are attached to the unseen side of the belt after the belt is fastened and the garment is inserted between the wearer's legs.

The optimum handling properties thus achieved can, of course, be maintained even if the belt part uses an absorbent-type material on its inside, preferably then of the nonwoven type, without the cost increasing to be greater than in previous known solutions using unlined belts.

Since the wearer's comfort is a particularly important factor to take into account in this area and especially with regard to the fit of the belt, it has proved advantageous to choose a certain positioning of the hook element straps to hold the belt together. Thus, to a large extent, reduce the possibility that the hook element bands come into contact with the waist of the wearer by improper fitting of the belt or by increasing the waist of the wearer, the hook element bands have been designed with such length and width, and are positioned in such a way. , that this is avoided.

As shown in Fig. 2 which shows three embodiments of hook element strips 15, 16 and 17, the outer edges of the strip (s) are

508 028 located at a distance to each belt edge 9, 10. In this way, the hook elements will not protrude outside the belt edge if the attached belt is slightly angled or incorrectly overlapped in the joint, and thus does not come into contact with the wearer's body.

As can be seen, the bands are usually elongated, or, in the case of multiple bands 10 as in Fig. 2 (b), the band group is elongated. Preferably, a length / width ratio greater than 2: 1 is used and more preferably greater than 3: 1. Thus, in order to achieve the aforementioned advantages, it is advantageous to position the belts with their larger dimension across the width of the belt, as shown, and to give the belts such dimensions that their greatest length is between 25% and 75% of the width (z) of the head body of the belt. . By the width of the belt in this case is meant the width of the belt in the area where the straps 15, 16, and 17 will be attached. Thus, in the embodiment of Fig. 2 (c), the belt is still within the said range, although the belt 17 extends over the entire width of the narrow belt portion. It has been found particularly suitable to use a belt having a length below 60% or more preferably below 50%. Because of the shear strength that can be achieved by using nonwoven materials as the adhesive surface of the belt, it is also easy to obtain sufficient shear strength with only minimal attachment surface.

In addition, using the belt stiffness according to the claims, it is also possible to avoid the wrinkling caused by the fastening straps, even when smaller strap dimensions are used.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described above, we would like to emphasize that these are in no way limiting the scope of the invention, which is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

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Incidentally, those skilled in the art will readily recognize that, although not preferred, the belt stiffness range described may also be used for non-integrated belt applications, for example, where an absorbent chassis is provided on the belt with a detachable adhesive device.

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