US Patent No.: 8,303,559 B2
Inventor(s): Hironao Minato, Kagawa, Japan; Kaiyo Nakajima, Kagawa, Japan; and Naoko Takada, Kagawa, Japan.
Company: Uni-Charm Corporation, Ehime, Japan.
Filed: 2/18/08
Issued: 11/6/12

A disposable diaper comprising: a crotch region having a back-and-forth direction and a transverse direction perpendicular to the back-and-forth direction; a front waist region extending forward from said crotch region in the back-and-forth direction; a rear waist region extending rearward from said crotch region in the back-and-forth direction; a body fluid absorbent core sandwiched between a liquid-pervious sheet and a liquid-impervious sheet in said crotch region in a thickness direction of the crotch region; a skin-contactable sheet piece arranged above said liquid-pervious sheet and extending in said back-and-forth direction, wherein said skin-contactable sheet piece includes an opening allowing body waste to pass therethrough and opposite front and rear end zones as viewed in said back-and-forth direction fixed to said front waist region and said rear waist region, respectively, so that a peripheral zone of the skin-contactable sheet piece surrounding said opening is spaced upward from said liquid-pervious sheet to prevent said liquid-pervious sheet from coming in contact with a wearer’s skin in said peripheral zone surrounding said opening, wherein said opening of said skin-contactable sheet piece includes a U-shaped front opening extending from said crotch region toward said front waist region and a U-shaped rear opening extending from said crotch region toward said rear waist region; said skin-contactable sheet piece further includes a pair of lateral zones extending in said back-and-forth direction on both sides of said openings as viewed in said transverse direction, an intermediate zone between said front opening and said rear opening and connecting said lateral zones, and a pair of elastic members attached under tension to said skin-contactable sheet piece and extending along outer peripheries of said openings in the back-and-forth direction without intersecting each other; said disposable diaper further comprises transversely opposite leak-barriers attached to said skin-contactable sheet piece and extending in said back-and-forth direction, each of said leak-barriers includes a fixed proximal edge extending in said back-and-forth direction, an elastically deformable free edge extending along said fixed proximal edge and including an elastic member extending in said back-and-forth direction and attached under tension thereto and front and rear fixed ends opposed in said back-and-forth direction, and each of said lateral zones of said skin-contactable sheet piece is directly bonded to associated said leak-barrier in a bonding region defined between said proximal edge and said free edge, said skin-contactable sheet piece is directly bonded to the liquid-pervious sheet at the front and rear end zones in the bonding region defined between said proximal edge and said free edge, and said skin-contactable sheet piece is not directly bonded to the liquid-pervious sheet between the front and rear end zones in the lateral zones so as to form a pocket between the liquid-pervious sheet and the skin-contactable sheet piece and between the front end zone and the rear end zone for receiving body waste.