Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

Anthony J Zoia

Leigh E Wood

Susan K Nestegard

William L Melbye

John A Miller

Roland R Midgley

Donald L Plaschko

A disposable garment or diaper including a laminate and a hook and loop fastener for fastening together portions of the laminate to secure the diaper to an individual. The fastener includes a loop fastener portion adjacent a first end of the laminate comprising a multiplicity of loops, a pair of flexible elongate polymeric tab assemblies having first end portions attached at opposite sides to the laminate adjacent a second end of the laminate and having distal end portions unattached to the laminate, and hook fastener portions at the distal end portions of the tab assemblies comprising a plurality of projecting hook members adapted to make releasable engagement with the loops. The tab assemblies include a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive on the distal end portions adjacent the hook fastener portion which can, after the diaper has been soiled and removed from the individual, be used for securing the soiled diaper in a rolled or folded condition surrounding the soiled portion of the diaper to facilitate its disposal by engagement of the layer of pressure sensitive adhesive with the laminate.

Disposable diaper with improved hook and loop fastener system

The back ears of a contoured disposable diaper are shirred to become stretchable and elastically retractable. Because of this, the diaper can be pulled snugly around the buttocks and the waist merely by applying ordinary fingertip pressure to the fastening tabs. The shirring can be provided by incorporating into the back ears of a flat diaper-forming blank a piece of heat-elasticizable material and then heating each diaper that is cut from the blank to shrink the piece. A preferred heat-elasticizable material comprises a substantially flat inelastic web to which is heat bonded a plurality of parallel elastomeric strands extended to at least about three times their relaxed length.

Disposable diaper having shirred ears

Growing community of inventors

North Oaks, MN, United States of America

Anthony J Zoia