US3307550A - Diaper - Google Patents

Description

March 7, 1967 A. w. NIEMER ETAI. 3,307,550

DIAPER Filed Jan. '7, '1964 INVL'NTORS` ARTHUR W, NIEMER RICHARD V. PUTNAM Y United States Patent O 3,307,550 DIAPER Arthur W. Niemer and Richard V. Putnam, Spartanburg,

S.C., assignors to Deering Miiliken Research Corporation, Spartanburg, S.C., a corporation of Delaware Filed Jan. 7, 1964, Ser. No. 336,174 1 Claim. (Cl. 12S-284) This invention relates to a new improved stretch diaper and more particularly to a knitted absorbent stretch diaper.

K-nit diapers prior to this invention have been known but their commercial success has not been good due to the porosity of the knit material which allowed the secretion and urine from the baby -to pa-ss therethrough and soil anything or anyone that came in contact with the diaper. In an attempt to correct this situation various methods of folding and plying the knit diaper have been attempted in order to increase the amount of material between the baby and the exterior of the diaper in order rto provide a more absorptive diaper. Such attempts were only partially successful since it was found that to provide a knit diaper of equivalent absorption properties to that of a gauze diaper it was necessary to increase the selling price of such diaper to such an extent that it was no longer competitive with the gauze type diaper.

Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an efiicient knit diaper which is competitive in price.

A second object of the invention is to provide a knit dia-per which has increased absorption qualities.

Another object of the invention is to provide a stretch knit diaper which will fi-t many sized babies and will stretch to fit the baby as the baby grows.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a stretch knit diaper which has increased absorption qualities due to superior adsorption properties of the knit material.

A fifth object of the invention is to provide a weft knitted absorbent stretch diaper which has good restoring properties as well as improved absorption qualities.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an inexpensive knit stretch diaper with improved absorption properties.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become clearly apparent as the specification proceeds to describe the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a blown up View of the knit diaper material;

FIGURE 2 is a partial view of the preferred form of the diaper;

FIGURE 3 is a partial view of the diaper shown in FIGURE 2 prior to completion;

FIGURE 4 is a modification of the dia-per shown in FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 5 is a further modification of the diaper shown in FIGURE 2.

Looking at FIGURE 1 the numeral 10 represents a cot-ton knit fabric of good quality with the alternate courses shaded black to aid in tracing the passage of the course from front to back. The knit fabric is essentially formed of two rib fabrics interlinked together so -that the wales of one fabric lie between the wales of the other fabric on both the face and back resulting in a cloth alike on both sides. This construction results in a knit fabric in which adjacent surfaces of the yIa-rn are much closer together creating a cellular effect which increases the adsorptive effect of the cloth. In other words, the overlapping wale construction of the fabric reduces 3,307,550 Patented Mar. 7, 1967 the open area between adjacent yarn surfaces and any moisture applied to the fabric tends to bridge the area between the -adjacent yarn surfaces rather than pass through as in prior diaper knit fabrics. As a comparison the number of open areas between adjacent yarn surfaces of the interlinked knit diaper for the same overall fabric area will be twice the number of open areas in a normal rib knit fabric. Each of the open areas between adjacent yarn surfaces in the interlinked knit diaper, therefore, will be approximately one-half the area of the openings between adjacent yarn surfaces of the conventional rib knit diaper, thereby greatly enhancing the absorptive properties of the fabric which results in greater overall absorption efciency of the diaper.

Knit fabric constructed as above presents much smoother surfaces than rib cloths and may be stretched to considerable width. When employed in a diaper it has been found that the diaper can be stretched to at least of its width and at the same time has very good restoring properties after repeated washings.

Preferably the above knit fabric is knit on a circular knitting machine in order to provide a tubular configuration 16. In the preferred form of the invention the tubular configuration is formed into a Z or S shape 18 at the center of the diaper to provide a four-ply construction in the are-a of the diaper which receives the greatest amount of secretion and urine from the user. Then the diaper is sewn along ` lines 20 and 22 to secure the diaper together and properly position the four-ply construction. Suitable edge binding (not shown) is placed on the exposed edges 24 of the diaper to complete the diaper.

As an example of the above construction a tubular knit fabric of 13 inches was folded in the manner described and provides a diaper of 9 inches in width. This diaper can then be stretched to a width of 18 inches to 20 inches, if necessary, in order to conform to the contour of various sized users. At the same time the diaper will restore to its -original 9 inch width after washing. This is of particular advantage to the parents who have more than one child in diapers since this new and improved diaper will fit various sized children and it will therefore be unnecessary to purchase various sized diapers.

Looking now to FIGURE 4, a modified form of the diaper is shown. As in FIGURES 2 and 3 the interconnected knit diaper material 10 is knit into a tubular form 16. The tubular knit member 16 is then folded to form an upper tubular portion 26. The tubular member 16 is then sewn, in any suitable manner at 30 along the full length of the diaper to form the two separate tubular members 26 and 28. Then the diaper is again sewn along lines 32 and 34 to form a four-ply area in the center of the diaper. The edges 24 are then bound to prevent unraveling of the diaper material. This provides a diaper functionally equivalent to that of FIGURES 2 and 3.

The further modification of FIGURE 5 also provides a four-ply effect in the area in the center of the diaper which receives the largest amount of secretion and urine. The modification of FIGURE 5 is similar to that of FIG- URE 4 except the tubular members 26 and 28 of FIG- URE 4 |are knit as separate tubular members 36 and 38. As in the diapers of FIGURES 2-4 the tubular members 36 and 38 are sewn together along lines 40 and 42 and bound on the edges 24 to prevent unraveling.

The herein disclosed diaper offers many obvious advantages over those shown in the prior art. The close knit cellular construction provides superior adsorption of the moisture resulting in superior absorption properties. Furthermore, this new and novel knit diaper can be stretched to at least 100% of its width and will be restored to its original width after washing, thereby eliminating the necessity of having to purchase a large number of various sized diapers as the baby grows or when a family has two or more babies in diapers. Also, the disclosed diaper provides a smooth surface adjacent the body of the user which will not chafe or harm the users skin. This diaper further provides additional thickness of the knit material in the area which receives the largest and most direct stream of moisture. The herein disclosed diaper is also inexpensive to manufacture and will therefore be competitive with diapers with lesser absorption properties and of harsher material which will irritate the skin of 4the consumer.

Although We have described in detail the preferred embodiments of our invention, we contemplate that many changes may be made without departing from the scope or spirit of our invention, and we desire to be limited only by the claim.

That which is claimed is:

A stretch diaper comprising a tubular knit material being two rib knit fabrics inter-linked so that the wales of one knit fabric -lie between the wales of the other rib knit fabric on both the face and back of said diaper, a portion of said tubular knit material being folded under another portion of said tubular knit material to form -a four-ply section centrally of said diaper and means connecting said folded portion of said tubular knit material to 'another portion of said tubular knit material to provide a diaper with a reinforced central portion.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,811,813 6/1931 Wagner 66-200 X 2,062,594 12/1936 McNair 12S-284 2,568,595 9/1951 Rohrer 66--177 2,845,069 7/1958 arnison et al. 128-284 2,991,786 7/1961 Sullivan 128-284 3,030,956 4/1962 Nichols 128-284 3,063,452 11/1962 Del Guercio 128-284 3,072,124 1/1963 Jamison 12S-284 3,109,428 11/1963 Jamison 12S-284 3,113,570 12/1963 Holliday 12S- 284 3,177,873 4/1965 Jamison 12S-284 3,183,909 5/1965 Roehr 12S- 290 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,165,801 10/1958 France.

OTHER REFERENCES Press, Man-Made Textile Encyclopedia, Interscience Pub., N.Y., 1959, TS 1548.5 M28.C2, pp. 418-419.

Reichman, Principle of Knitted Outerwear Fabrics and Garments, National Knitted Outerwear Association, 1961, NY., TT682RY, pp. 15-16, and 960119.

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner.

DONALD W. PARKER, Examiner.

R. FELDMAN, Assistant Examiner.

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