process of manufacturing such tampon

The invention refers to a tampon, in particular to a hygienic tampon. In accordance with the International Patent Classification, such inventions belong to human necessities, namely to medical science and hygiene, in particular to menstrual tampons and accessories therefor.

By taking into consideration a tampon, which can be manufactured of the same raw materials, by means of the same machines and by means of essentially the same steps like the commercially attractive known tampons, the purpose of the invention is to improve capability of retaining the fluid when inserted into each vaginal cavity and to prevent migration of fluid in both directions, namely from the vaginal cavity and also from outside into said vaginal cavity, wherein simultaneously also the interconnection between the fibers and the withdrawal string should be improved, and disinfecting effect should be achieved. EP 0 292 831 Al proposes coating the fibrous band with an adhesive layer in the rear portion of the tampon before winding said fibrous band and obtaining a cylindrical blank for the purposes of compressing thereof into a final shape of a tampon, by which the interconnection between the withdrawal string and fibers should be improved at least by tampons before absorption i.e. before the use. However, said adhesive layer essentially cannot contribute to forming a barrier, and such tampon during absorption intensively expands and maintains its cylindrical shape, so that removing thereof from the vaginal cavity is difficult and due to weak interconnection between the withdrawal string and fibers also pretty risky. In addition to that, the presence of said adhesive layer might have certain impact to mucosa of the vaginal cavity.

A tampon is disclosed in EP 1 458 320 Bl, by which the structure of fibers in the front end portion and the rear end portion of the tampon are different, so that expansion of tampon in the area of its rear end portion is much more intensive than on the front end portion, which leads to reduction of leakage of the fluid absorbed in the tampon out from the vaginal cavity. However, in addition to much more complicated manufacturing of such tampon, removal such tampon from the vaginal cavity is difficult and risky, since the interconnection between the withdrawal string and fibrous material of the tampon is weak.

Still further, a tampon is proposed in EP 2 450 013, which is furnished with a means for preventing the tampon to expand in the area of its rear end portion. Said means is either an impregnating coating, in particular of a hydrophobic substance like natural or synthetic wax, vaseline or the like, or a ring or similar accessory placed onto the surface of the tampon. Placing a ring onto the surface of the tampon results in essentially more complicated manufacturing, by which there is also a risk that during absorption and expansion of the tampon, or even later until the tampon is maintained within the vaginal cavity, such ring is unintentionally removed from the tampon, which is then followed by absorption along the complete length of such tampon resulting expansion into usual cylindrical shape. Removal of such moisturized tampon from the vaginal cavity is difficult, and also the interconnection between the withdrawal string and the fibrous material of the tampon is weak, so that said removal is also risky, since upon separating said withdrawal string from the fibrous material, removal of the tampon from the vaginal cavity by means of said string becomes impossible. Also providing said barrier by coating the fibrous material can lead to risk due to essential difference between the state where the fibrous material is impregnated with said hydrophobic substance along its complete cross-section, and the state, where the fibrous material is coated with said hydrophobic substance only on the surface thereof. Simply coating only on the surface namely leads to the effect, which has been discussed in connection with EP 0 292 831 Al. By manufacturing tampons, applying of a hydrophobic substance onto soft fibrous material is pretty complicated and is difficult to be permanently controlled, and in particular, it is difficult to permanently control, whether the fibrous material is really impregnated across its complete cross-section or just coated on its surface. Of this reason, the reliability of performing such process in view of assuring sufficiently high and permanent quality appears to be insufficient.

The previously defined technical problem is solved by means of features, which are included in independent and dependent claims.

The invention will be described in more detail on the basis of embodiment, which is presented in the attached drawings, wherein Fig. 1 presents a tampon according to the invention prior to use;

Fig. 2 presents a tampon according to Fig. 1, in its expanded state due to absorption of each fluid after the use;

Fig. 3 presents a fibrous belt with compressed barrier during the process of manufacturing of said tampon;

Fig. 4 is a cross-section along the plane A - A according to Fig. 3; and

Fig. 1 schematically presents a step of producing said barrier by simultaneously impregnating thereof.

A tampon with improved capability of retaining a fluid according to the invention is schematically presented in Fig. 1. Such tampon generally consists of a radially compressed cylindrical blank which is formed of appropriately long fibrous band 1 having a pre-determined width and being wound along the longitudinal geometric axis 10 of the tampon, wherein said fibrous band 1 consists of cotton or viscose fibers or of appropriate mixture of cotton and viscose fibers, and wherein the density of said fibrous band 1 is approximately 0,6 g/cm ³ , by which a desired absorptiveness and capability of expanding during absorption of fluid are assured.

A front end portion 2 of such tampon is adjusted for inserting into a vaginal cavity and is in order to make inserting easier furnished with a gradually narrowed and rounded tip 21, while the rear end portion 3 of the tampon is furnished with a withdrawal string 3 serving for withdrawing the tampon together with each absorbed fluid from the vaginal cavity.

In accordance with the invention, the tampon is on its rear portion 3 furnished with a barrier 4 (Fig. 1), which prevents migration of fluid along the tampon, namely in one or another direction along the geometric axis 10 of the tampon, wherein said W

5 barrier 4 is formed by a highly compressed area of said fibrous band 1, which is located at a pre-determined distance L (Fig. 3) apart from the rear end portion 3 of the tampon and in which the density of fibers in said fibrous band 1 is at least approximately three times higher than the density of fibers in residual parts of said fibrous band 1 or tampon, namely at least approximately 2 g/cm ³ . The width T of said barrier 4 (Fig. 3) is 5 - 30% of the width B of the fibrous band 1 determining the overall length of the tampon. The distance L between said barrier 4 and the rear end portion 2 of the tampon is 0 - 50% of the width b of the fibrous band 1 determining the overall length of the tampon.

As known, absorptiveness of each tampon depends in the density of fibrous band 1, and each tampon is capable to receive certain quantity of fluid per unit of fibrous material. In addition to that, by absorbing each fluid the tampon is also expanding, and removal of such expanded tampon from the vaginal cavity is then much more difficult. Moreover, expansion of tampon in the area of the rear end portion 3 thereof leads to weakening of interconnection between the withdrawal string 31 and fibers in the fibrous band 1, and said withdrawal string 31 can be easily separated from fibers, upon which removal of tampon from the vaginal cavity by means of said withdrawal string 31 becomes impossible.

By forming said barrier 4 with previously mentioned properties and essentially more compressed fibers than in residual areas of the tampon, migration of fluid throughout said barrier 4 is prevented both in a direction out from the vaginal cavity and also in the opposite direction. Since the fluid cannot reach fibers in the area of said barrier 4, expansion in the area of the barrier 4 cannot occur. Consequently, said expansion occurs in the area of the front end portion 2 of the tampon, while expansion on the rear end portion 3 is minimized or does not occur at all. Said hindering of expansion leads to cone-shaped expansion of the tampon when absorbing the fluid during the use, which is less problematic in respect of removal the tampon from the vaginal cavity than a cylindrical shape, by which also a much more reliable interconnection between the withdrawal string 31 and the fibrous band 1 in the area of the rear end portion 3 of the tampon is maintained, so that also removal of the tampon from the vaginal cavity is much more reliable.

In one of possible embodiments, said highly compressed area of fibers in the fibrous band 1 is coated or impregnated with at least one natural or semi-synthetic hydrophobic additive, which is acceptable for vaginal use.

Said natural or semi-synthetic hydrophobic additive is selected from the group which includes bee products, in particular beeswax, honey and a mixture of beeswax and honey. Furthermore, said natural or semi-synthetic hydrophobic additive is selected from the group, which includes essential oils, in particular essential oil obtained from tea-tree {Melaleuca alternifolia) leaves in combination with coconut fat, aleuronic acid, essences from grapefruit kernel, extracts of marigold, hydrocotyle, chamomile, sage and garlic. Still further, said natural or semi-synthetic hydrophobic additive is selected from the group, which includes cotton wax, silicone, silicone oils or hard fat, namely semi-synthetic hydrogenated herbal glyceride. Still further, said natural or semi-synthetic hydrophobic additive is selected from the group, which includes fungicides, in particular preparations on the basis of horopito, in particular horopito originating from New Zealand forests. Still further, said natural or semi-synthetic hydrophobic additive is selected from the group, which includes antioxidants, in particular flavonoids taxifiolin and querctin. Still further, said natural or semi-synthetic hydrophobic additive is selected from the group, which includes means for adjusting pH of mucosa, in particular gels on the basis of vitamin C and aloe vera. Still further, said natural or semi-synthetic hydrophobic additive is selected from the group, which includes a combination of at least two previously mentioned additives, which is acceptable for vaginal use.

Consequently, application of said additive in the area of said barrier 4 means that simultaneously with forming said barrier 4 also some other effects can be achieved, in particular disinfecting and other preventive effects, which can facilitate menstrual troubles and/or prevent complications.

The invention also provides for a process of manufacturing a tampon with improved capacity of retaining a fluid, wherein

- a fibrous band 1 is formed of woven or non-woven fibers of viscose, or a mixture of cotton and viscose in weight ratio between 50 : 50 to 15 : 85, the pre-determined width B of which defines the overall length of the tampon, wherein the density of fibers in said fibrous band 1 is at least approximately 0,6 g/cm , by which a desired absorptiveness and expansion by absorbing each fluid is achieved;

- upon which a withdrawal string 31 is placed into the area of the rear end portion 3 and said band 1 is then helically wound around the longitudinal geometric axis 10 of the tampon;

-whereupon such wound cylindrical blank obtained from said fibrous band 1 is exposed to radial compression, by which a front portion 2 with a slightly rounded tip 21 as well as a cylindrical rear portion 3 with integrated withdrawal string 31 are formed.

Process of manufacturing of such tampon is performed in such manner, that immediately after forming said fibrous band 1 and prior to winding thereof around the longitudinal geometric axis 10 of the tampon a barrier 4 having the width T (Fig. 4) is produced at approximately constant distance apart from the rear end portion 3 of the tampon, namely in such manner that said fibrous band 1 is in said area exposed to intensive compression of fibers in such extent that the density of fibers in said area is at least three times greater than the density of fibers in the residual areas of said band 1 and in particular amounts at least approximately 2 g/cm , which is then followed by winding the band 1 around the longitudinal geometric axis 10 of the tampon and radial compression of the blank consisting of said wound fibrous band 1 for the purposes of providing each desired final shape of the tampon.

Such process is schematically presented in Fig. 5. The fibrous band 1 is with a predetermined velocity fed between a pair of pressing rollers 51, 52, which compress the fibrous material with a pre-determined force F, by which the fibers are locally, namely in the area of the barrier 4, compressed to the previously mentioned density. This is then optionally followed by winding the band 1 around the longitudinal geometric axis 10, or alternatively, by continuously coating or impregnating by an additive or by a combination of additives.

Alternatively, by producing such barrier 4 consisting of an area with the predetermined width T and comprising highly compressed fibers, which is located at appropriate distance L apart from the rear end portion 3 of the tampon, fibers of the fibrous band 1 can be optionally coated and/or impregnated in the area of said barrier 4 with at least one natural or semi-synthetic hydrophobic additive, which is selected from the previously mentioned additives, or with a combination of such additives, which is acceptable for vaginal use. Consequently, applying of two additives is presented in Fig. 5, wherein the first additive is stored in a container 61, and the second additive is stored in a container 62, which is heated by means of a heater 63. Said first additive is applied to the barrier 4 on the bans 1 from the container 61 via a transporting roller 70 and an application roller 71. The second additive is from the heated container 62 and via an application roller 72 applied onto said band 1 from the opposite direction with respect to the previously mentioned first additive.