Activatable Web Substrate for Self-Registered Color Deformation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing manufacturing processes for absorbent articles face challenges in cost-effectively incorporating colored regions that coincide with mechanically deformed regions without requiring additional printing or registration capabilities, leading to increased capital costs and complexity.
Innovation Solution
Web substrates with activatable colorants that change color in response to external stimuli, such as ultraviolet light and heat induced by mechanical deformation, allowing for the formation of colored regions that coincide with deformed regions without the need for additional printing or registration capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If printing capability is added to the manufacturing process to highlight deformed regions, then visual appeal and functionality are improved, but capital cost and manufacturing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the coloring function with the existing web substrate material itself, rather than adding a separate printing system. The activatable colorant is incorporated into the web substrate layers, allowing the substrate to provide both structural and visual functions through a single integrated component.
Solution Approach 2:
The web substrate with activatable colorant automatically provides visual highlighting in response to mechanical deformation during normal operation. The color change occurs self-activatingly when the substrate is deformed, eliminating the need for external printing equipment or registration systems to apply visual markers.
2Manufacturing precision
If printing equipment is added to register colored regions with deformed regions, then colored regions coincide with deformed regions, but capital cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The activatable colorant system automatically registers with deformed regions through the mechanical deformation process itself. When the web substrate is deformed during manufacturing or use, the colorant activates only in the deformed areas, providing self-registration without requiring external printing equipment or alignment systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses changes in physical parameters (mechanical deformation, temperature, light exposure) to activate the colorant in specific regions. This allows precise spatial registration of colored regions with deformed regions through the inherent response of the colorant to local environmental conditions rather than through mechanical positioning systems.
3Ease of manufacture
If additional printing and registration capabilities are added to the manufacturing line, then colored regions can highlight deformed regions, but manufacturing complexity and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The web substrate serves multiple functions: it provides the structural base material, contains the activatable colorant for visual highlighting, and responds to mechanical deformation to activate the colorant in appropriate regions. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate printing and registration equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The manufacturing process itself activates the colorant through the mechanical deformation operations already performed on the web substrate. The substrate automatically highlights deformed regions through the colorant's response to strain, temperature, or light changes during normal manufacturing operations, without requiring additional processing steps or equipment.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the cost-effective production of absorbent articles with colored regions that match mechanically deformed regions, enhancing visual appeal and functionality while reducing manufacturing complexity and costs.
Implementation Method 1
The activatable colorant can have both photoreactive and thermochromic material properties such that it first changes color to a first color upon exposure to electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light
Implementation Method 2
The activatable colorant can have both photoreactive and thermochromic material properties such that it first changes color to a first color upon exposure to electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light and then changes to a second color upon exposure to heat. The heat can be induced by strain associated with mechanical deformation during formation of the deformed regions.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a web substrate comprising an activatable colorant and at least one deformed region. A first activated color region is produced in the web substrate upon exposure to a first external stimulus and a second activated color region is produced within the first activated color region upon exposure to a second external stimulus. The second activated color region coincides with the deformed region.