Hirotomo Mukai, Kagawa, Japan; and Takaya Arayama, Kagawa.
Assigned to Unicharm Corporation, Ehime, Japan.

Filed: 4/19/13
Issued: 10/16/18

An absorbent article having: a longitudinal direction extending to a body front side and a body rear side of a wearer; a widthwise direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction; an inner direction for facing a wearer; an outer direction which is opposite to the inner direction; a crotch region which is adapted to be in contact with a crotch of the wearer; a front waistline region which is disposed forward of the crotch region, and is adapted to be in contact with a waistline of the wearer; a rear waistline region which is disposed rearward of the crotch region, and is adapted to be in contact with the waistline of the wearer; side edges of the front and rear waistline regions are joined together at a joint unit, with the crotch region being located exclusively inwardly of the joint unit in the longitudinal direction; an absorber which is disposed at least at a center in a widthwise direction of the crotch region; an exterior body which is positioned at the outer direction side of the absorber, and is disposed on a surface at a non-skin contact side of the absorbent article; and leg opening units disposed along a leg-line of the wearer and formed in the crotch region, wherein the exterior body has edge parts which form a part of the leg opening units and is positioned outboard of the absorber in a widthwise direction, a rear end of the absorber is positioned in the crotch region, a waistline elastic member exclusively arranged in the rear waistline region that expands and contracts in the widthwise direction in the rear waistline region and a leg-holes elastic member to expand and contract along the leg opening units are disposed at the exterior body in the rear waistline region, the leg-holes elastic member has: one pair of first expanding and contracting units which is positioned inside in the longitudinal direction as the first expanding and contracting units go to a center in a widthwise direction, said first expanding and contracting units are positioned outboard of the absorber in the widthwise direction; and a second expanding and contracting unit which is positioned in an absorber disposition region in which the absorber is disposed between the first expanding and contracting units, the first expanding and contracting units extend from the outside toward the inside in the front-back direction as they progress from the outside toward the inside in the width direction, edge parts of the exterior body extend across the end of the absorber in the widthwise direction, each edge part extends from the outside toward the inside in the front-back direction as they progress from the outside toward the inside in the width direction, and a crotch elastic member arranged outside of the second expanding and contracting unit in the longitudinal direction that expands and contracts in the widthwise direction is arranged inside of the waistline elastic member in the longitudinal direction and is disposed in the crotch region, wherein an expansion stress of the crotch elastic member is lower than an expansion stress of the leg-holes elastic member and is lower than an expansion stress of the waistline elastic member, the absorber has a rear edge, and the rear edge of the absorber and the crotch elastic member are arranged between the waistline elastic member and the leg-holes elastic member.