Unicharm Corporation

Kenichi Akaki

Yoshihiko Matsumoto

Tatsuya Hashimoto

Hirotomo Mukai

Tomoko Tsuji

Satoshi Mitsuno

Shinichi Ishikawa

A method of producing a stretchable sheet that involves: passing a nonwoven fabric including a plurality of types of fibers through a gap between a pair of gear rolls and that rotate while a plurality of teeth and formed on an outer circumferential surface and of each of the pair of gear rolls and engage with one another; and drawing the nonwoven fabric in a circumferential direction of the gear rolls and by the teeth. A circumferential velocity S of the gear rolls and is within a range of 50 to 300 m/min. A maximum value of distortion per unit time applied to the nonwoven fabric in the gap between the pair of gear rolls and is within a range of 5 to 100 sec.

Method of manufacturing stretchable sheet

A composite sheet which has a low basis weight, can be prevented from breaking during the production of an absorbent article or in use, and is good to the touch. The composite sheet is a sheet formed by bonding a stretch nonwoven fabric to a nonstretch nonwoven fabric with an adhesive. The stretch nonwoven fabric is bonded in a stretched state to the nonstretch sheet. The stretch nonwoven fabric has, on each side, strip-form sparse regions and strip-form dense regions alternately formed. The sparse regions and dense regions on one side are alternately formed in a second direction so that the dense regions on this side do not overlie the dense regions on the other side. The composite sheet has a maximum breaking strength of 20 N/50 mm or higher.

Composite sheet and absorbent article comprising composite sheet

A stretchable sheet having a large stretch amount is produced by increasing a drawing amount given to the nonwoven fabric. A method for producing the stretchable sheet from a nonwoven fabric containing a plurality of types of fibers, that is the nonwoven fabric having a longitudinal direction, a width direction and a thickness direction. The method includes a first drawing step of drawing the nonwoven fabric in the longitudinal direction by applying a tension in the longitudinal direction of the nonwoven fabric, and a second drawing step of drawing, in the longitudinal direction, the nonwoven fabric that has been drawn in the first drawing step with a plurality of teeth formed on outer circumferential faces of each of a pair of gear rolls, the drawing being performed by passing the nonwoven fabric through a gap between the gear rolls that rotate while the teeth are being engaged with one another.

Method for producing stretchable sheet

A stretching apparatus for thermoplastic synthetic resin improved so as to ensure that a web can be easily stretched over its entire width. The stretching apparatusfor a thermoplastic synthetic resin webcomprises a plurality of first stretching members L arranged in a circumferential direction on a peripheral surface of a drumrotating in a machine direction M. The drumis provided around its rotating shaftwith rotatable membersadapted to rotate in synchronization with the drumin the direction in which the drumrotates. The rotatable membersare respectively provided with a plurality of second stretching members U operatively associated with the first stretching members U. Surfaces of the first and second stretching members L, U associated with each other are defined by convex portionsand concave portionsextending in parallel to the shaftand alternately arranged in the circumferential direction of the drumin a complementary fashion to each other so that these surfaces of the first and second stretching members L, U configured in this manner may be engaged with and disengaged from each other. At least one of the first stretching member L and the second stretching member U is movable in the radial direction of the drum

Stretching apparatus for web of thermoplastic synthetic resin

A composite sheet that has a low basis weight and can inhibit adhesives from flowing out is provided. The composite sheetaccording to the present invention is formed by bonding a stretchable nonwoven fabricand a non-stretchable nonwoven fabricto each other with adhesives. The stretchable nonwoven fabricin an extended state is bonded to the non-stretchable sheet. The stretchable nonwoven fabrichas a plurality of strip-shaped non-dense regionsand a plurality of strip-shaped dense regionsformed on both its surfaces alternately and alternately in the transverse direction such that the dense regionson one of the surfaces and the dense regionson the other surface are not overlapped with each other. The stretchable nonwoven fabricincludes thermoplastic fibers that have been stretched at least partially and elastomer fibers.

Growing community of inventors

Kagawa, Japan

Kenichi Akaki