Kimberly-clark Worldwide, Inc.

Other

Ning Wei

Xuedong Song

Kaiyuan Yang

Shawn Ray Feaster

Rosann Marie Kaylor

John Gavin MacDonald

Yanbin Huang

Thomas Gerard Shannon

Jason Lye

Ronnie Lee Phillips

Chibueze Obi Chidebelu-Eze

James M Takeuchi

Jeffrey Eldon Fish

Jaeho Kim

Stephanie Michelle Martin

Curtis Sayre

Zhiying Yu

Robert John Lyng

JunMo Gil

Monica Graciela Varriale

JinHo Ryu

Zdravko Savov Atanassov

Chibueze Obinna Chidebelu-Eze

Sridhar Ranganathan

Kevin Peter McGrath

Davis-Dang H Nhan

Lei Huang

David John Paulson

Shu-Ping Yang

Sharon Linda Greene

Rameshbabu Boga

Shiming Zhuang

RameshBabu Boga

Michael E Knotts

Julie M Villanueva

Jose Kollakompil Abraham

Karen Goeders

Enrico L Digiammarino

Samantha C Ackerly

Curt Sayre

Kimberly Nicole Struk

Jai Kyung

Karen Meloy Goeders

Jinho Ryu

Ronnie L Phillips

Curtis Neil Sayre

Disclosed are non-wood pulps having a fiber length greater than about 1.70 mm and a brightness of about 80% or greater. The relatively high degree of brightness is achieved without a loss fiber length or pulp yield. The high degree of brightness and relatively long fiber length makes the pulps well suited for the manufacture of wet-laid fibrous products, particularly wet-laid tissue products. The pulps may be prepared from plants of the family Asparagaceae by mechanical pulping and more preferably by a chemi-mechanical pulping using a sodium hydroxide alkaline peroxide solution where the primary pulp is cleaned to reduce debris prior to bleaching. Preferably the cleaned primary pulp has less than about 5% debris prior to bleaching.

High brightness non-wood pulp

Disclosed are non-wood pulps having a fiber length greater than about 1.70 mm and a brightness of about 80% or greater. The relatively high degree of brightness is achieved without a loss of fiber length or pulp yield. The high degree of brightness and relatively long fiber length make the pulps well suited for the manufacture of wet-laid fibrous products, particularly wet-laid tissue products. The pulps may be prepared from plants of the family Asparagaceae by mechanical pulping and more preferably by a chemi-mechanical pulping using a sodium hydroxide alkaline peroxide solution where the primary pulp is cleaned to reduce debris prior to bleaching. Preferably the cleaned primary pulp has less than about 5 wt % debris prior to bleaching.

Non-wood pulp having high brightness and low debris

A tissue sheet includes softwood fibers and treated non-wood fibers from plants in the Poaceae family, wherein the treated non-wood fibers have less than 15 percent hemicellulose. Also, a tissue sheet consists essentially of softwood fibers and treated non-wood fibers, wherein the treated non-wood fibers have less than 15 percent hemicellulose. Customizing the tensile index and Canadian standard freeness (CSF) of fibers in a tissue sheet includes treating non-wood fibers by removing a portion of hemicellulose from the non-wood fibers; forming a tissue sheet comprising softwood fibers and the treated non-wood fibers; and adjusting the portion of hemicellulose removed from the non-wood fibers to achieve a desired the tensile index and Canadian standard freeness (CSF) of the treated non-wood fibers.

Tailored hemicellulose in non-wood fibers for tissue products

A dryness indicator includes a wicking strip continuous between a reservoir end and an opposed open end; a liquid-impermeable top layer disposed on one side of the wicking strip; and a liquid-impermeable bottom layer disposed on the opposite side of the wicking strip, wherein the top layer is affixed to the bottom layer to at least partially enclose the wicking strip, and wherein the indicator is configured such that the open end of the wicking strip can be placed in liquid communication with an object or surface. The dryness indicator also includes a reservoir including an oil-based colorant with the potential to be in liquid communication with the reservoir end of the wicking strip, wherein the wicking strip is configured such that colorant wicking from the reservoir end and an unreacted water-based fluid wicking from the open end meet to define a timing line.

Dryness indicator for an absorbent article

A dehydration sensor having a stable, printable, buffered-ink composition that enables one to miniaturize the detection zone and permits both buffer and indicator dye to be applied in the same area of a detection zone, without need for a conventional, large buffer pad region.

Dehydration sensors having buffered inks

A wetness indicator material may be used on a substrate to form a wetness sensor. The sensor may show either the presence or absence of an aqueous-based fluid or water-containing medium, such as vaginal fluid or urine in a personal hygiene article. The wetness sensor may be incorporated into the article. The wetness indicator material includes a standard colorant that does not change color when wetted. The standard colorant increases the range of hues exhibited by the wetness indicator material.

Wetness indicator having varied hues

In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for quantitatively or semi-quantitatively determining the volume of a test sample of urine is provided. The method includes contacting the test sample with a fluidic medium of a lateral flow device having a volume indicator disposed thereon and determining the volume of urine in the test sample based on the distance traveled by the volume indicator along the fluidic medium, the distance traveled by the volume indicator corresponding to the volume of urine in the test sample.

Urine volume hydration test devices

An absorbent article includes a chassis including a bodyside liner, an outer cover having an interior surface and an exterior surface, and an absorbent structure positioned adjacent the interior surface of the outer cover, the chassis including an insult zone and a crotch region positioned in between a front region and a back region, the front region and the back region defining a waist region therebetween. The absorbent article also includes a sensor element disposed in or on the chassis, the sensor element extending from a proximal end in the waist region to at least the insult zone and in fluid communication with the insult zone, the sensor element including a multi-layer wicking material.

Sensor products using wicking materials

A wetness sensor for an absorbent article that is formed from an ink is provided. The ink includes a proton-accepting chromogen and a proton-donating agent (or color developer). Prior to use, the ink is generally dry and in a protonated form so that it has a visible color. However, upon contact with bodily fluids (e.g., urine, fecal matter, mucus, menses, vaginal fluid, etc.), water in the fluid can lead to deprotonation of the chromogen, thereby resulting in a shift of the absorption maxima of the chromogen towards either the red ('bathochromic shift') or blue end of the spectrum ('hypsochromic shift'). To increase the rate of the color change during use, the proton-donating agent is an aliphatic carboxylic acid that is highly soluble in the bodily fluid (e.g., urine), and therefore results in a color change that is very rapid and may be detected within a relatively short period of time.

Wetness sensor for use in an absorbent article

The invention describes a color-developing composition that contains at least three major components: (1) a leuco dye or a combination of leuco dyes, (2) an color-developer or a combination of color-developers that can form colored complexes with the leuco dyes, and (3) a desensitizer to temporarily remove the effect of the developer so the leuco dye appears in its colorless form. An optional binder may be included so that the composition may be applied to a substrate as an ink. The ink composition may be applied to synthetic polymeric substrates and other substrates that are incorporated into absorbent articles or personal care products.

Non-tacky wetness indicator composition for application on a polymeric substrate

The present disclosure relates to a color-changing composition and to a substrate having the color-changing compositions disposed thereon. The color-changing composition includes a leuco dye, a color-developer and a desensitizer. The color-changing composition changes from a colorless or largely colorless composition to color upon being wetted with an aqueous liquid. The color-changing composition remains colorless or largely colorless prior to exposure to high relative humidity conditions.

Color-changing composition and material

A dehydration sensor having a stable, printable, buffered-ink composition that enables one to miniaturize the detection zone and permits both buffer and indicator dye to be applied in the same area of a detection zone, without need for a conventional, large buffer pad region. The ink composition includes a weak polymeric base as its primary buffering agent.

Dehydration sensors having polymeric base-buffered inks

A lateral flow assay device for determining the relative ionic strength of urine is described. The device includes a buffering zone having a polyelectrolyte disposed therein, and an indicator zone having a pH indicator non-diffusively immobilized therein, the indicator zone being separate from the buffering zone and positioned adjacent to and in fluid communication with the buffering zone. A detection zone is part of the buffering zone, and has a buffering component comprising a weak polymeric acid and weak polymeric base with a pKa &#x2266;10, and a class of charged polymeric surfactants that are responsive to relative ion concentrations in a sample solution, and a charged pH indicator with a charge opposite to that of the charged polymeric surfactant. The charged polymeric surfactant is soluble in amounts of greater than or equal to about 1% by weight (&#x2267;1 wt. % solute) in water and aqueous solutions of low ionic concentration of &#x2266;0.1 wt. % salts, but insoluble (&#x3c;1 wt. % solute) in aqueous solution of high ionic concentrations of &#x3e;0.1 wt. % salts. The present invention also describes absorbent articles incorporating such an assay device and methods of monitoring dehydration or testing ion strength of a urine sample using such a test format.

Dehydration sensors with ion-responsive and charged polymeric surfactants

A lateral flow assay device includes a housing, and a test strip disposed within the housing having a membrane with a detection region and a collection region. A sample meter includes a first end for absorption of a test sample, and a storage section that receives and stores at least a component of the test sample. An opening in the housing is sized for insertion of the sample meter into the housing such that the storage section of the sample meter is disposed adjacent the collection region of the membrane. The test sample component is transferable from the storage section to the collection region for subsequent migration to the detection region. An activatable isolation mechanism is provided within the housing and is disposed so as to isolate portions of the sample meter storage section upon activation thereof such that a defined length of the storage section is presented to the collection region of the membrane.

Lateral flow assay device

Suitable dyes are used herein to indicate the presence of microbial contamination by spraying them onto surfaces in the form of an aqueous solution. The dye solution may also be allowed to dry, thus producing the dried residue of an aqueous solution. It's believed that these dyes change color in response to a change in polarity of the environment. Since water is a polar solvent and most bacteria are made from non-polar substances, the presence of bacteria changes the polarity of the environment, triggering a change visible by the unaided eye.

Microbial detection and quantification

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Roswell, GA, United States of America

Ning Wei