This invention relates to a sanitary napkin for absorption and containment of menstruation discharge.
There have been made various attempts to improve fitting of a sanitary napkin to the wearer""s skin by shaping the liquid-absorbent core to be convex in its transversely middle region.
However, adoption of the convex core is accompanied with considerable labor and time, for example, to shape such convex core and then to place the liquid-pervious topsheet closely upon such convex core. In addition, the napkin adopting such convex core becomes bulky in its convex middle region and it is difficult to stack a plurality of napkins into a compact package. Furthermore, the convex region is resistant against a force intending to fold this region and makes it difficult to fold up the napkin as a whole into a conveniently small size.
An object of this invention is to provide a sanitary napkin adapted to ensure the same advantageous properties inclusive of a good fitting as the known napkin adopting the convex core can achieve and, in addition, improved to eliminate the problems peculiar to such napkin adopting the convex core.
According to this invention, there is provided a sanitary napkin having a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction intersecting said longitudinal direction, the napkin comprising a liquid-pervious topsheet, a liquid-impervious backsheet and a liquid-absorbent core disposed between the topsheet and the backsheet, a middle region of said napkin in the transverse direction has a rigidity lower than a rigidity of both lateral regions lying adjacent the middle region.
According to one embodiment of this invention, the middle region has a width of 10xcx9c30 mm and extends between longitudinally opposite ends of the absorbent core.
According to another embodiment of this invention, the absorbent core is formed on a lower surface of the middle region with a groove of inverted U- or V-shaped cross-section.
According to still another embodiment of this invention, the absorbent core is bonded to an inner surface of the backsheet over portions of the backsheet underlying the both lateral regions, leaving a portion of the backsheet underlying the middle region free.
According to further another embodiment of this invention, a lower surface of the absorbent core is bonded to the inner surface of the backsheet by means of a plurality of adhesive applied spots extending transversely of the napkin and arranged intermittently in a longitudinal direction thereof.
According to an additional embodiment of this invention, an outer surface of the backsheet except a portion thereof underlying the middle region of the absorbent core is adapted to be adhesively fastened to an undergarment.