Nonwoven fabric, absorbent article comprising the same, and method of forming the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9340909-B2
Application number	US-201113824508-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2011
Priority date	Sep 30, 2010
Publication date	May 17, 2016
Grant date	May 17, 2016

Abstract

A nonwoven fabric that is easily deformed but resistant to collapse, and that has excellent air permeability in the planar direction. The nonwoven fabric comprises continuous fibers and bonded sections formed by bonding multiple fibers including the continuous fibers, wherein the nonwoven fabric comprises a first side and a second side on the side opposite the first side, the first side comprises a plurality of projections, each projection including at least one bonded section, a plurality of projections including no bonded section, and at least one recess, the second side comprises a plurality of recesses, each recess overlapping with at least a part of the projection of the first side, and the coefficient of variation of the diameters of the continuous fibers is at least 10%.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A nonwoven fabric comprising continuous fibers and bonded sections formed by bonding multiple fibers including the continuous fibers,
wherein the nonwoven fabric comprises a first side and a second side on the side opposite the first side,
the first side comprises a plurality of projections (V 11 ), each projection (V 11 ) including at least one bonded section, a plurality of projections (V 12 ) including no bonded section, and at least one recess (C 11 ),
the second side comprises a plurality of recesses (C 21 ), each recess (C 21 ) overlapping with at least a part of the projection (V 11 ) of the first side,
said projections (V 11 ; V 12 ) and said recesses (C 11 ; C 12 ) are formed by spraying a fluid onto the nonwoven fabric after the nonwoven fabric has been non-homogeneous stretched,
the nonwoven fabric has high-stretch regions and low-stretch regions formed by the non-homogeneous stretching wherein sections in which the fiber sizes are relatively thick and sections in which the fiber sizes are relatively thin are mixed among the continuous fibers in the nonwoven fabric, and the coefficient of variation of the diameters of the continuous fibers is at least 10%, and
the continuous fibers have a plurality of neck portions with partially narrowed diameters.

2. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the second side comprises no recess overlapping the projection (V 12 ) of the first side.

3. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the second side further comprises a plurality of projections (V 21 ) and a plurality of recesses (C 22 ) which do not overlap with the projections (V 11 ) of the first side.

4. The nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , the nonwoven fabric has one or more open holes that connect one or more recesses (C 11 ) of the first side and one or more recesses (C 22 ) of the second side.

5. An absorbent article comprising a liquid-permeable top sheet, a liquid-impermeable back sheet and an absorbent core between the liquid-permeable top sheet and liquid-impermeable back sheet, wherein
the liquid-permeable top sheet is a nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Mitsuno Satoshi
• Unicharm Corp

Inventors

• Mitsuno Satoshi

Classifications

• D04H3/018 Primary

  characterised by the shape · CPC title

• D04H5/08

  characterised by the method of forming fleeces or layers, e.g. reorientation of fibres or yarns · CPC title

• D04H3/16

  with bonds between thermoplastic filaments produced in association with filament formation, e.g. immediately following extrusion · CPC title

• D04H5/06

  strengthened or consolidated by welding-together thermoplastic fibres, filaments, or yarns · CPC title

• D04H3/11

  by fluid jet · CPC title