Non-woven fabric for liquid-permeable sheet of absorbent article, and absorbent article which includes said non-woven fabric as liquid-permeable sheet

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11529267-B2
Application number	US-201616067083-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 17, 2016
Priority date	Dec 28, 2015
Publication date	Dec 20, 2022
Grant date	Dec 20, 2022

Abstract

This non-woven fabric comprises the following configuration. In this non-woven fabric for a liquid-permeable sheet of an absorbent article, said non-woven fabric comprising a thickness direction, a planar direction, a first face, and a second face: the non-woven fabric includes thermoplastic resin fibers, and cellulosic fibers, at least a portion whereof configures a plurality of fiber masses; the non-woven fabric further comprises a plurality of spaces which are adjacent to first regions of each of the plurality of fiber masses, said first regions facing the first face; and each of the plurality of fiber masses is not bonded to the thermoplastic resin fibers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A nonwoven fabric to be used for a liquid permeable sheet of an absorbent article, which includes a thickness direction, a plane direction, a first surface, and a second surface, the nonwoven fabric comprising:
thermoplastic resin fibers; and
cellulose based fibers a portion of which configures a plurality of separate fiber masses,
wherein
the nonwoven fabric comprises a plurality of gap portions which are adjacent to a first region that faces the first surface in each of the plurality of separate fiber masses,
each of the plurality of separate fiber masses is not joined to the thermoplastic resin fibers,
the nonwoven fabric comprises a matrix configured by the thermoplastic resin fibers and the cellulose based fibers, and
the plurality of separate fiber masses are dispersed in the matrix.

2. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein
an outer edge in the plane direction of the plurality of gap portions is present on an outer side than an outer edge in the plane direction of the plurality of separate fiber masses.

3. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , further comprising a gap portion which is adjacent to a second region which faces the second surface in at least a portion of the plurality of separate fiber masses.

4. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein
the thermoplastic resin fibers are joined to each other.

5. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein
the nonwoven fabric includes the cellulose based fibers with a proportion of 3 to 35% by mass.

6. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein
the cellulose based fibers have a shorter average fiber length than the thermoplastic resin fibers.

7. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein
the cellulose based fibers include organic cotton.

8. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein
the cellulose based fibers include Gossypium hirsutum cotton.

9. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein
the nonwoven fabric has a multiple-layer structure which includes a skin side layer having a skin contact surface, and
the nonwoven fabric includes the plurality of separate fiber masses in a layer other than the skin side layer.

10. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein
the nonwoven fabric further comprises:
a plurality of protruded portions which protrude in a direction from the first surface to the second surface, in the second surface; and
a plurality of dented portions which are dented in a direction from the second surface to the first surface, in the first surface, wherein
each of the plurality of protruded portions and each of the plurality of dented portions are overlapped with each other in the thickness direction.

11. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 10 , wherein
each of the plurality of protruded portions configures a ridge portion which extends in one direction, and
the nonwoven fabric further comprises a plurality of groove portions each of which is present between adjacent ridge portions and includes a groove bottom portion, wherein
each of the plurality of groove portions includes, in the groove bottom portion, a plurality of recessed portions which are disposed intermittently in the one direction and are recessed in the direction from the first surface to the second surface, each of the plurality of recessed portions including a bottom portion.

12. An absorbent article which includes a liquid permeable sheet, a liquid impermeable sheet, and an absorbent body that is present between the liquid permeable sheet and the liquid impermeable sheet, wherein
the liquid permeable sheet is the nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 .

13. The absorbent article according to claim 12 , wherein
the second surface of the nonwoven fabric configures a skin contact surface of the liquid permeable sheet.

14. The absorbent article according to claim 12 , wherein
the liquid impermeable sheet has a moisture permeability.

Assignees

• Unicharm Corp

Inventors

• Miyama Takuya
• Sakaguchi Satoru
• Uda Masashi

Classifications

• A61F13/51121 Primary

  characterised by the material · CPC title

• D04H1/541

  Composite fibres, e.g. sheath-core, sea-island or side-by-side; Mixed fibres · CPC title

• D04H1/4326

  Condensation or reaction polymers · CPC title

• A61F2013/51026

  being in thermoplastic material · CPC title

• D04H1/42

  characterised by the use of certain kinds of fibres insofar as this use has no preponderant influence on the consolidation of the fleece · CPC title