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EP-4351492-B1 - ABSORBENT ARTICLE INCLUDING A WAIST PANEL WITH A FRANGIBLE BOND

EP4351492B1EP 4351492 B1EP4351492 B1EP 4351492B1EP-4351492-B1

Inventors

  • RAYCHECK, JEROMY, THOMAS
  • LONG, MICHAEL, DEVIN
  • NAYLOR, Jason, Edward
  • STRASEMEIER, John, Andrew

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20220526

Claims (13)

  1. An absorbent article comprising: a front waist region (116), a back waist region (118), and a crotch region (119) disposed between the front and back waist regions (116, 118); a first waist edge (120), a second waist edge (122) longitudinally separated from the first waist edge (120), a first side edge (128); and a second side edge (130) laterally separated from the first side edge (128); a chassis (102) comprising a topsheet (138), a backsheet (134), and an absorbent core (140) positioned between the topsheet (138) and the backsheet (134); a first waist panel (158) comprising an inboard lateral edge (172), an outboard lateral edge (170), a first longitudinal edge (180), and a second longitudinal edge (182), wherein the first waist panel (158) is connected with the chassis (102) and positioned in the front waist region (116) or the back waist region (118); wherein a first region (174) of the first waist panel (158) is permanently bonded with the chassis (102), the first region (174) extending laterally adjacent the outboard lateral edge (170) of the first waist panel (158); wherein at least a portion of the inboard lateral edge (172) of the first waist panel (158) is unattached to the chassis (158); and wherein the first waist panel (158) is releasably bonded with the chassis (102) with a frangible bond (197) positioned on the inboard lateral edge (172) of the first waist panel (158) and/or longitudinally between the inboard lateral edge (172) of the first waist panel (158) and the first region (174); wherein the first waist panel (158) comprises an elastic material; wherein the absorbent article further comprises a first leg gasketing element (156) and a second leg gasketing element (156) extending from the front waist region (116) to the back waist region (118); and wherein the waist panel (158) is positioned on (i) a wearer facing surface (132) of the topsheet (138), or (ii) the wearer facing surfaces (132) of the topsheet (138) and the leg gasketing elements (156), or (iii) on the wearer facing surfaces (132) of the topsheet (138), and wherein laterally opposing end regions of the waist panel (158) are positioned between the leg gasketing elements (156) and the topsheet (138).
  2. The absorbent article of claim 1, the frangible bond (197) comprises an adhesive bond.
  3. The absorbent article of claim 1 or 2, wherein the frangible bond (197) comprises a first bond strength that decays to a second bond strength that is less than the first bond strength.
  4. The absorbent article of any of the preceding claims, further comprising a package containing the absorbent article, and wherein the frangible bond (197) breaks while the absorbent article is contained within the package.
  5. The absorbent article of any of the preceding claims, wherein the frangible bond (197) comprises a mechanical bond.
  6. The absorbent article of any of the preceding claims, wherein the frangible bond (197) defines a shape selected from the group consisting of: one or more substantially straight lines, an s-shape, a z-shape, a c-shape, a broken line, a T-shape, a cross-shape, a spiral-shape, an omega- shape, a circular-shape, an elliptical shape, a rectangular-shape, a square-shape, an irregular shape, a character, a symbol, and combinations thereof.
  7. The absorbent article of any of the preceding claims, wherein the first region (174) of the first waist panel (158) is bonded to the chassis (102) with a first adhesive comprising a first basis weight, wherein the frangible bond (197) comprises a second adhesive comprising a second basis weight, and wherein the first basis weight is greater than the second basis weight.
  8. The absorbent article of claim 7, wherein the first adhesive and the second adhesive are identical.
  9. The absorbent article of any of the preceding claims, wherein the first waist panel (158) comprises an elastic film bonded with a nonwoven in a stretched state.
  10. The absorbent article of any of the preceding claims, wherein the first waist panel (158) is positioned in the back waist region (118), and further comprising a second waist panel (158) connected with the chassis (102) and positioned in the front waist region (116).
  11. The absorbent article of any of the preceding claims, wherein a first lateral end region (184) of the first waist panel (158) is bonded with the first leg gasketing element (156), and a second lateral end region (186) of the first waist panel (158) is bonded with the second leg gasketing element (156).
  12. The absorbent article of any of the preceding claims, wherein the first lateral end region (184) is mechanically bonded with the first leg gasketing element (156) and wherein the second longitudinal region (186) is mechanically bonded with the second leg gasketing element (156).
  13. The absorbent article of any of the preceding claims, wherein the frangible bond (197) comprises a lotion.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present disclosure relates to absorbent articles including waist panels, and more particularly, to waist panels including frangible bonds. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Along an assembly line, various types of articles, such as for example, diapers and other absorbent articles, may be assembled by adding components to and/or otherwise modifying an advancing, continuous web of material. For example, in some processes, advancing webs of material are combined with other advancing webs of material. In other examples, individual components created from advancing webs of material are combined with advancing webs of material, which in turn, are then combined with other advancing webs of material. In some cases, individual components created from an advancing web or webs are combined with other individual components created from other advancing webs. Webs of material and component parts used to manufacture diapers may include: backsheets, topsheets, leg cuffs, waistbands, absorbent core components, front and/or back ears, fastening components, and various types of elastic webs and parts such as leg elastics, barrier leg cuff elastics, stretch side panels, and waist elastics. Once the desired component parts are assembled, the advancing web(s) and component parts are subjected to a final knife cut to separate the web(s) into discrete diapers or other absorbent articles. Some absorbent articles, such as diapers, have components that include waist panels, which may also be referred to as waistbands. In some configurations, waistbands may be provided as a single layer of elastic material, such as an elastic film. In some configurations, the waistbands may be provided as an elastic laminate that may include elastic material bonded to one or more substrates such as nonwovens, wherein the elastic material may include an elastic film and/or elastic strands. In some assembly operations, the waistbands are joined to an advancing carrier web, such as a continuous topsheet or backsheet web, while the waistbands are in a stretched condition. As such, when the waistbands relax, the carrier web gathers to form corrugations. The resulting laminate is stretchable to the extent that the corrugations allow the waistband to elongate. When manufacturing diapers, the waistband may be provided as a continuous length of waistband material that may be stretched; cut into discrete waistbands; and bonded with the advancing carrier web, such as a continuous topsheet or backsheet web, while the waistband is in a stretched state. With some diapers, it may be desirable to include a front waistband in a front waist region and a back waistband in an opposing back waist region. Some assembly operations may apply a piece of waistband material to the advancing carrier web that is subsequently cut into separate front and back waistbands when the advancing carrier web is subject to the final knife cut that separates the carrier web into discrete diapers. In turn, the front and back waistbands may be created from the same continuous length of waistband material. In some configurations, it may be desirable to provide diapers with front and/or rear waistbands having regions that are bonded with a topsheet, and one or more regions that are not bonded (unattached) with the topsheet, thereby forming a pocket between the waistband and the topsheet. Such a pocket may help contain bodily exudates and/or help prevent leaks from an absorbent article. In some configurations, the pocket may be formed by attaching a waistband to a topsheet along three edges of the waistband wherein a fourth edge of the waistband remains unattached to the topsheet. However, assembling absorbent articles with waistbands having unattached edges may create certain production challenges, which may be exacerbated at the high speed production rates of some absorbent article processes. For example, depending on a particular manufacturing configuration, the unattached edge of a waistband may be oriented so as define a leading edge of the waistband while advancing through various assembly operations. As such, in some instances, air may be forced into the pocket while the waistband is advancing through assembly operations, causing the waistband to act like a sail or parachute by repeatedly lifting and/or separating from the topsheet and/or otherwise deforming the waistband shape. Such repeated lifting and/or deformation may cause the waistband to be partially or whole torn away from the topsheet. In some instances, the unattached edge of the waistband may be forced into areas of the topsheet with freshly applied adhesive between the topsheet and the waistband, causing a portion of the unattached edge to be unintentionally bonded with topsheet. In some configurations, frictional forces acting on diaper components advancing along various assembly apparatuses, such as folding plows, may drag or pull on the unattached edge, in turn, causing permanent deformation and/or rem