Compact Folded Personal Care Article With Wrap Layer
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional absorbent personal care articles, such as feminine care pads, experience deformation during wear, leading to undesired shapes, irritation, and discomfort due to their flexibility and thinness, and their storage configurations do not provide adequate discretion, convenience, or ease of use.
Innovation Solution
A personal care article with a liquid-permeable topsheet and backsheet, folded about supplemental-fold-regions and a composite-fold-region, using a wrap member with a wrap retainer mechanism to maintain a compact, discreet, and easily usable form, while minimizing skin irritation from garment-attachment mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the absorbent article is made with greater flexibility and thinness, then comfort and discretion are improved, but the article undergoes deformation during wear causing undesired shapes and skin irritation
Solution Approach 1:
The absorbent article is divided into multiple sections with different fold configurations - the first and second portions are folded in opposite directions while the intermediate portion remains unfolded or folded differently. This segmentation allows each section to independently manage deformation, preventing overall shape instability while maintaining flexibility and comfort.
2Volume of moving object
If the absorbent article is folded or rolled for storage, then the size is reduced for portable storage, but the storage configuration increases occurrences of undesired deformations
Solution Approach 1:
The article is pre-folded into a specific configuration with first and second portions folded in opposite directions before storage. This preliminary folding action creates a stable, compact form that resists further deformation during storage and transport, while still allowing easy unfolding for use.
3Ease of manufacture
If conventional storage configurations are used, then manufacturing is simple, but the articles do not provide desired discretion, convenience, or ease of use
Solution Approach 1:
The fold configuration is designed to be dynamic - the first and second portions are folded in opposite directions to create a balanced, flexible structure that adapts when removed from storage. This dynamic configuration maintains manufacturing simplicity while providing improved discretion and ease of use through its compact yet adaptable form.
Data Source
AI summary
A personal care article (20) has a longitudinal-direction (22), a relatively shorter, lateral cross-direction (24), a first end-section (72), a second end-section (72a), and an intermediate-section (76). The article has been operatively connected in facing relation with a wrap member (98), and the article has been folded about a first, laterally extending supplemental-fold-region (64). The article and a corresponding section of the wrap member have been folded about a second, laterally extending supplemental-fold-region (66). A preliminary-folded article (82) and a corresponding, preliminary-folded wrap member have been provided after the article has been folded about both the first and second supplemental-fold-regions. The preliminary-folded article and wrap member have also been folded along a laterally extending, composite-fold-region (96a) of both the preliminary-folded article and wrap member, to provide a composite-folded, wrapped article (114).