Kimberly-clark Worldwide, Inc.

Raymond Jeffrey May

James Russell Fitts, Jr

Charles John Morell

Mark Michael Mleziva

Peiguang Zhou

Howard Martin Welch

Lavada Campbell Boggs

Kenneth Michael Salter

Michael Tod Morman

Christopher Peter Olson

Thomas Harold Roessler

Cristian M Neculescu

Susan Elaine Shawver

Wing-Chak Ng

Michael Charles Cook

James Marcus Carr

John A Brewer

Bryon Paul Day

Hannong Rhim

Matthew Boyd Lake

Prasad Shrikrishna Potnis

David Michael Matela

Gregory K Hall

Gregory Todd Sudduth

Steven R Stopper

Robert David Wright

Ronald H Wideman

Leslie Warren Collier, Iv

Randall James Palmer

Richard Harry Thiessen

Donald V Willitts

Marion C Morris

Monica Graciela Varriale

Braulio Arturo Polanco

Leslie D Dobbins

Adrian Roy Eggen

Joerg Hendrix

Bryan James Stadelman

Peter Michelovich Kobylivker

Rasha Wafik Zaki Guirguis

Bryon P Day

Greg Nicholas Geiser

Victor Charles Lang

Jr James R Fitts

Michael C Cook

Kenneth M Salter

James Russell Fitts Jr

A disposable garment includes a chassis defining one or more openings for the legs, arms, waist or the like on a wearer. An apparent elastic band is located in the vicinity of at least one of the openings. The apparent elastic band looks and functions like an elastic band, but is not an elastic band, and is less expensive to implement than an elastic band.

Garment having an apparent elastic band

An elastic laminate capable of being rolled for storage and unwound from a roll when needed for use, includes an elastic layer selected from the group consisting of an array of continuous filament strands, an array of continuous filament strands with meltblown deposited on the continuous filament strands, and a film; a gatherable facing layer bonded to only one side of the elastic layer; and either an adhesive that demonstrates a relatively short open time deposited between the elastic layer and facing layer, or such adhesive and a postbonding adhesive or nonblocking agent, or a nonblocking agent layer deposited on the elastic layer on a side opposite to the facing layer.

Single sided stretch bonded laminates, and methods of making same

Stretchable film laminates including a layer of elastomeric openwork, such as a plurality of elastic strands or an elastomeric mesh structure. The stretchable film laminates may include a film layer bonded to the layer of elastomeric openwork, with the film layer having cross-directional stretch and the laminate having a multi-phase stretchability profile. The stretchable film laminates may be made by extruding a film from a die, stretching the film, forming and stretching a layer of elastomeric openwork, conveying the stretched elastomeric openwork onto the film while the film is stretched, and passing the film and the elastomeric openwork through a nip. The invention also includes a machine capable of producing machine-direction, cross-direction, and biaxial stretch materials. The machine includes at least one extruder, at least one filament die and at least one film die both attached to the extruder(s), and at least one nip downstream of the extruder(s).

Stretchable film laminates and methods and apparatus for making stretchable film laminates

In the invention, a method is provided for producing a composite nonwoven fabric. A polymer is extruded into heated continuous filaments, possibly elastic, from the die head to a first chilled roller, wherein the extruder is configured to provide the continuous filaments to the chilled roller in a canted direction that is at a tangent or angle to the surface of the first chilled roller. The filaments are conveyed in a downward direction by way of chilled rollers to a nip. In a next step, the nonwoven web is sprayed with an adhesive and is laminated on the continuous filaments in the nip to form a composite nonwoven fabric. The continuous filaments move vertically downward approximately in line with the lamination process, facilitating automatic re-threading of filaments when they are broken or interrupted in their travel downward onto the chilled rolls.

Method and apparatus for producing laminated articles

A targeted elastic laminate material is provided having at least one low tension zone with first filaments having a first basis weight and at least one high tension zone having second filaments with a second basis weight greater than the first basis weight. The second basis weight is greater due to increased average thickness of the second filaments and/or increased frequency of second filaments relative to the first filaments. Methods and modifications of those methods are provided to produce a targeted elastic laminate material according to the preferred embodiments of this invention.

Targeted elastic laminate having zones of different basis weights

Growing community of inventors

Norcross, GA, United States of America

Raymond Jeffrey May