Thermo-Sensitive Gel Wipe Structure for Reliable Composition Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wipes products lack reliability in delivering a composition to a target surface, with users uncertain about transfer success due to insufficient saturation or dryness, and there is a need for a structure that maintains integrity while acting as a reservoir for a liquid that changes phase at human body temperature.
Innovation Solution
A composite structure with a hydrophobic support layer and a hydrophilic reservoir layer, where the reservoir layer contains a composition that is liquid below 30-35°C and changes to a hydrogel at 37°C, ensuring effective transfer and sensory cues for user assurance, using fibers like cellulose and thermoplastic polymers with phase change polymers like poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and poloxamers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the wipe is saturated with aqueous liquid composition, then the composition can be transferred to the target surface, but the wipe may dry out over time and lose effectiveness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a thermo-sensitive gel that changes its physical state based on temperature. The gel is liquid at storage temperature (below 30-35°C) allowing saturation of the wipe, and transitions to gel state at body temperature (37°C) providing sensory feedback and controlling transfer. This parameter change resolves the contradiction by maintaining reliability through temperature-dependent state changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention exploits the phase transition of the thermo-sensitive gel from liquid to gel state at body temperature. This phase change provides a sensory cue to users that the composition has been successfully transferred, while also controlling the transfer process itself. The phase transition ensures reliable delivery without premature drying.
2Reliability
If the aqueous composition is formulated to transfer to the skin, then the desired outcome occurs, but users cannot confirm whether transfer actually happened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates a color change indicator into the thermo-sensitive gel composition. When the gel transitions from liquid to gel state at body temperature, the color changes, providing visual feedback to users that transfer has occurred. This resolves the information loss by making the transfer process observable.
Solution Approach 2:
The phase transition from liquid to gel provides tactile and visual sensory feedback. Users can feel the gel state change and observe the resulting texture modification on the skin, confirming successful transfer without needing additional indicators.
3Ease of manufacture
If the wipe uses a uniform fibrous structure, then manufacturing is simple, but the wipe cannot simultaneously maintain structural integrity and provide controlled composition release
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the wipe into multiple functional layers: a hydrophobic support layer for structural integrity and a hydrophilic reservoir layer for composition containment and controlled release. This segmentation allows each layer to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall manufacturing simplicity through layer-by-layer construction.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses composite material structure combining hydrophobic and hydrophilic layers with different fiber compositions and properties. The hydrophobic layer provides structural support while the hydrophilic layer enables controlled composition release. This composite approach maintains ease of manufacture through standard lamination processes while achieving superior functional performance.
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
The composite structure reliably delivers the composition to the target surface, providing a sensory cue for successful transfer and maintaining structural integrity, with the hydrophobic support layer preventing premature phase change and the hydrophilic reservoir layer ensuring effective hydrogel formation at body temperature.
Implementation Method 1
a composition that is liquid at temperatures below 30-35 degrees Celsius and that changes to a hydrogel at temperatures above 30-35 degrees Celsius
Implementation Method 2
The hydrophobic support layer acts as a thermal insulating layer to prevent premature phase change of the composition
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure is directed to a composite structure that is generally planar in shape. The composite structure has one or more layers; at least one of the layers includes one or more types of fibers. In one aspect, the present disclosure is directed to a composite structure including a hydrophobic support layer and a hydrophilic reservoir layer. The hydrophilic reservoir layer includes a composition that is liquid at temperatures below 30-35 degrees Celsius and that is a hydrogel at temperatures above 30-35 degrees Celsius. In order to better control the phase change of the composition and, therefore, to insulate the hydrophilic reservoir layer from warmth, the hydrophobic support layer may have a thermal conductivity that is 5 to 30 times less, in watts per meter kelvin, than water.