| US 7,534,928 B2 | ||
| Topsheet for absorbent article | ||
| Noriko Sakamoto, Tochigi (Japan); Hiroko Sugiura, Tochigi (Japan); Yasuo Toyoshima, Tochigi (Japan); Shoichi Taneichi, Tochigi (Japan); and Wataru Saka, Tochigi (Japan) | ||
| Assigned to Kao Corporation, Tokyo (Japan) | ||
| Filed on Aug. 09, 2002, as Appl. No. 10/214,719. | ||
| Claims priority of application No. 2001-244776 (JP), filed on Aug. 10, 2001. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2003/0050615 A1, Mar. 13, 2003 | ||
| Int. Cl. A61F 13/15 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 604—378 [604/379; 604/380; 604/383] | 7 Claims |
| 1. A topsheet for absorbent articles used on the side of an absorbent article to be brought into contact with a wearer's body,
which has an air permeability of 100 to 500 ml/cm2·sec or more in the horizontal direction under a pressure of 10 cN/cm2, with a ratio of the air permeability under 10 cN/cm2 in the machine direction to that in the cross direction being 0.6 to 1.7, and which has a first fiber layer and a second fiber
layer both comprising a fiber aggregate, said second fiber layer comprising thermally shrinkable fiber, said first fiber layer
and said second fiber layer being partially thermally fusion-bonded together to form fusion-bonded joints in a prescribed
pattern and a large number of the fusion-bonded joints are almost equally spaced in a regular configuration with the fusion-bonded
joints having a thickness t of 0.1 to 0.5 mm,
said first fiber layer forming protrusions in portions other than said fusion-bonded joints by the heat shrinkage of said
thermally shrinkable fiber of said second fiber layer wherein each protrusion is dome-shaped and filled with the fibers making
the first fiber layer, the portions of said protrusions adjoining said fusion-bonded joints being denser and stiffer than
other portions of said protrusions, and the first fiber layer bulging upward in areas that are surrounded by fusion-bonded
joints to form a great number of the protrusions,
said second fiber layer being substantially flat in portions other than said fusion-bonded joints, and
wherein a ratio of the substantial thickness T′ of the protrusions to the thickness t of the fusion-bonded joints (T′/t) is
5 to 50.
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