PERSONAL HYGIENE WIPE

This invention relates to a personal hygiene wipe or cloth used to cleanse various parts of the body. More particularly, the invention relates to a personal hygiene wipe or cloth that is temperature controlled to give increased comfort and utility.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Personal hygiene wipes are often used by persons when they are away from their home and do not have access to a shower or bath. They are also used when the part of the person that is to be cleaned is small, and a shower or bath consumes too much time.

In order to be effective, however, personal hygiene wipes need to be warmed or heating in order to more effectively clean the hands or other parts of the user's anatomy. At the present time, warm wipes are only attainable by the use of an external source of hot water, or by inserting the wipes into a microwave or other heating device. This presents a danger as the degree of heating may vary, and it is possible to have excessive heat applied to the skin.

It has been suggested that some form of exothermic reaction could be used to generate heat in these products. One such suggestion is to employ a supercooled liquid in a container that can be disturbed by the user at the appropriate time, thus causing an exothermic reaction as the liquid crystallizes. However, because personal hygiene wipes are carried in various purses, brief cases, and other containers, and because they may be subject to forces that are not anticipated, early crystallization of the supercooled liquid causes the wipes to be hot at a time when that is not needed.

Another major drawback of the use of an exothermic reaction to generate heat upon demand is that the various components have to be kept totally separated from each other until they are combined, and when combined need to react quickly and over a reasonable surface area. If the reaction only takes place at one location, excessive heat will be generated. If the reaction

components are spread out, there has not been any way to combine them from the dispersed locations to generate uniform exothermic reaction.

Yet another drawback to chemical generation of heat is that at times it is possible for the heat to be too extreme and potentially cause burns or at least discomfort.

It would be a great advantage if a way of heating personal hygiene wipes could be developed that have a controlled release of heat that is well within acceptable safety limits.

Another advantage would be to provide a way of heating personal hygiene wipes that is controlled and requires a specific action by the user such that the action is not one experienced by the wipes when carried about prior to use.

Yet another advantage would be to provide a way to generate heat by an exothermic reaction over a personal hygiene wipe sized area quickly, without having to wait for an activation agent to make its way to all the reaction components.

Still another advantage would be to provide a way to regulate the heat generated by an exothermic reaction over a personal hygiene wipe sized area to provide for initial storage of some of the heat.

Other advantages will appear hereinafter.

SUMMARY OF THT, TNVFNTTON

It has now been discovered that the above and other objects of the present invention may be accomplished in the following manner. The unique aspect of this invention is that a controlled, dispersed exothermic reaction can be used to warm one or more personal hygiene wipes quickly and effectively.

In it's simplest form the invention comprises a package holding one or more personal hygiene wipes. Also inside the package is a system for generating warming heat over substantially all the surface of the wipe or wipes. In one embodiment, also inside is an internal vacuum sufficient to pull an activation agent into contact with the heat generating agent upon opening said seal. In another embodiment, also inside the package is a heat sink, positioned proximate the heating component or system, for absorbing the initially generated heat and allowing that heat to be controlled as it passes to the wipe or wipes.

The system inside the package includes an actuatable heat source in contact with the hygiene wipe or wipes that has an inner pouch and an outer pouch. The inner pouch includes an actuation agent that is isolated until need, and some form of seal that can be broken or opened upon demand. A frangible seal is preferred. The outer pouch contains heat generating materials therein, where the heat generating materials are adapted to generate heat upon activation by the actuation agent. The outer pouch optionally may have an internal vacuum sufficient to pull the activation agent into said outer pouch upon opening said seal and/or a heat sink for controlling the heat being released upon activation.

The outer pouch also has a heat sink for absorbing the initial heat generated in the pouches when they are actuated. Preferred as a heat sink is a cloth, preferably wet, with a most

preferred heat sink being a nonwoven material such as spunlace. Spunlace is made from synthetic fibers such as polypropylene fibers, though a wide range of fibers may be used.

In the preferred embodiment, the heat generating materials are crystals that exotherm when contacted with a liquid actuating agent. The preferred actuation agent is water and the preferred heat generating material is a crystalline mixture of calcium oxide and citric acid. The weight of the heat generating crystalline material to the volume of actuation agent ranges from about 1 :2 to about 1: 1. By spreading the crystals throughout the outer pouch, heat generating reactions take place in a large number of locations to heat the wipes uniformly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the invention, reference is hereby made to the drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURES 3a, 3b and 3c illustrate one preferred embodiment of this invention forming the inner portion of the device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As shown in Fig. 1, the device of this invention, 10 generally, comprises a package 1 1 containing one or more personal hygiene wipes 13 of conventional design, shown in Fig. 2 after the peal back closure 15 has been opened. Preferred are those wipes made of spun lace fabric, such as those from rayon and polyester fibers. The number of wipes is a matter of choice. If five or less wipes are in the package, only one peal back closure 15 is needed. If more, such as eight or ten wipes are in the package, a peal back closure 15 can be placed on both sides of the package 11.

Also enclosed in package 11 is an outer pouch 17 made of a fluid impervious material such as a plastic. Pouch 17 contains the heat generating materials 19 that exotherm when contacted by an actuating agent as described below. Heat generating materials 19 are preferably in crystal or granular form so that they can be spread throughout the inside of pouch 17, thus, when activated, providing exotherm heat over the whole wipes 13.

Preferred is an outer pouch 17 made from Aclar®, which is a polychlorotrifluoroethylene (PCTFE) material manufactured and sold by Honeywell International Inc. Aclar film is crystal clear, biochemically inert, chemical-resistant, nonflammable, and plasticizer- and stabilizer-free. Aclar laminates provide a wide range of gauges and thus barrier levels to allow flexibility in selecting the optimum barrier level for the chemical system chosen. Other similar pouch materials may be used as well. All that is required is that the material have a functional moisture and vapor barrier for the other components of the invention.

As seen in Figs. 1 and 2, the package includes an inner pouch 21 positioned inside the outer pouch 17. The inner pouch 21 contains an activation agent 23 that combines with the heat

generating materials 19 when the seal 25 in pouch 21 is opened. Preferably, seal 25 is a frangible seal that can be broken by flexing it. Preferred is an inner pouch 21 made from a heat stamp foil.

Inner pouch 21 is wrapped with a heat sink element 31, shown in Figs. 3a, 3b and 3c being wrapped before it is inserted over outer pouch 17. Heat sink element 31 is preferably a fabric or cloth, and most preferably is made from a material known as spunlace. The fibers are subjected to hydroentanglement, but impacting a fiber web with high pressure fine streams of water to tangle the fibers into an interlocked web. Many fibers can be used to make spunlace fabric, such as polypropylene and other poly olefins, rayon, nylon and others, Heat sink element 31 serves as a heat sink and a safety net against possible breaking of the heater once activated. Although the heater is wrapped for protection, it is not dangerous to the touch and is environmentally friendly. Wrapping the heater with a heat sink protects the product of the wipes since the end user is not exposed to the heater pouch itself.

Pouch 21 has a frangible seal 25 that is preferably broken at the appropriate time by flexing or bending the package 11 to cause the activating agent 23 to mix with the heat generating material 19 and exotherm at the many locations inside outer pouch 17.

There are a number of combinations of heat generating materials and activating agents that are suitable for use in the present invention. The selection of specific components is to be based upon cost, compatibility, ease of control of the exotherm, and other factors.

The preferred activating material of this invention is water. This is plentiful and safe, and reacts with a number of materials to produce an exothermic reaction.

The preferred heat generating material is a crystal formed from several components that, when free from moisture, are stable for up to three to five years or more, and which react when moisture is present to generate heat. The preferred crystal is made from a crystalline mixture of calcium oxide and citric acid. The weight of the heat generating material to the volume of actuation agent ranges from about 1:2 to about 1: 1, and preferably about 3:4. In the most preferred mixture of the heat generating material is a mixture of calcium oxide and citric acid with the further addition of a zeolite powder. Preferred is a ratio of calcium oxide to citric acid to powdered zeolite is from about 14 to 20 for calcium oxide, from about 1 to 2 for citric acid, and from about 7 to 10 for powdered zeolite. Most preferred is a ratio of calcium oxide to citric acid to powdered zeolite is 17:1.5:8.5 and the ratio of the solids to the volume of water is about 3:4.

More than 150 zeolite types have been synthesized and 48 naturally occurring zeolites are known. They are basically hydrated alumino-silicate minerals with an "open" structure that can accommodate a wide variety of positive ions, such as Na+, K+, Ca ₂ +, Mg ₂ + and others.

These positive ions are rather loosely held and can readily be exchanged for others in a contact solution. Some of the more common mineral zeolites are: analcime, chabazite, heulandite, natrolite, phillipsite, and stilbite. An example mineral formula is: Na ₂ Al ₂ Si ₃ Oi ₀ - 16H ₂ O.

The heat generation material most preferred, using the above components includes a calcined calcium oxide. This material is available as a small article size, with a diameter less than about 0.2 mm, and as a particle of somewhere between 0.2 and 0.8 mm. Larger particles are ground and smaller ones sieved, and the calcium oxide is then calcined. It has been found to be effective to calcine for at least 60 to 120 minutes, and preferably about 90 minutes, at

temperatures above 500° C, and most preferably at about 550° C for that period of time. The calcined calcium oxide is, of course, desiccated to prevent any contamination by moisture. Laboratory grade citric acid and powdered zeolite are mixed with the calcium oxide in moisture free conditions, in an appropriate reaction ratio to provide the exothermic reaction upon contact by the activating agent water.

In a preferred embodiment, the heat generating mixture 19 is spread throughout the inside of outer pouch 17 and covers parts of inner pouch 21, obviously separated from the activating agent 23 inside pouch 21. The vacuum is then pulled inside pouch 17 to assist in dispersing the activating agent. This combination of pouches is placed with the desired quantity of personal hygiene wipes 15 inside package 11 and sealed for distribution and sale.

In a series of tests of the preferred embodiment as described above, 100% of the activations by bending the packages resulted in warm personal hygiene wipes. Then a similar set of packages were prepared, with the only change being no vacuum inside the outer pouch, only 30% of the wipes achieved the desired temperature, In both cases, heat sink element 31 maintained a uniform dispersion of the generated heat without allowing the tissue wipes to be exposed to excessive heat.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it is not intended to limit the invention to any specific embodiment. The description of the invention is not intended to limit the invention.