Toshifumi Otsubo, Kagawa, Japan; Tatsuya Hashimoto, Kagawa, Japan; Mariko Yamashita, Kagawa, Japan; and Etsuko Kudo, Kagawa, Japan. Assigned to Unicharm Corporation, Ehime, Japan.

Filed: 8/31/10
Issued: 3/15/16

A disposable wearing article having a longitudinal axis extending in a longitudinal direction, a transverse axis orthogonal to said longitudinal axis and extending in a transverse direction, and comprising: a skin-facing side, a non-skin-facing side, a first waist region corresponding to one of front and rear waist regions, a second waist region corresponding to another of said front and rear waist regions, and a crotch region extending between said first and second waist regions, wherein at least one of said second and first waist regions as a whole, or in its part adjacent a waist-opening, is elasticized and formed of (i) an inner sheet defining said skin-facing side and (ii) an outer sheet defining said non-skin-facing side.

The non-skin-facing side of said outer sheet is formed substantially over its entire area with a plurality of thermocompression-bonded spots regularly and intermittently arranged at intervals, said outer sheet has non-thermocompressed regions surrounded by said plurality of thermocompression-bonded spots, said outer sheet includes a fibrous layer at least on said outer surface thereof and being formed of thermal adhesive crimped fibers, said crimped fibers are bonded together by thermocompression-bonding treatment in said thermocompression-bonded spots, the crimped fibers are free of being thermocompression-bonded with each other in the non-thermocompressed regions

The outer sheet and the inner sheet are bonded to each other by adhesive applied on at least one of respective opposite surfaces thereof, said inner sheet is elasticized and is bonded under tension in said transverse direction to the outer sheet by the adhesive, said inner sheet includes an elastic fibrous nonwoven fabric and is configured to directly contact a wearer’s skin when the disposable wearing article is worn on the wearer, said crimped fibers in said non-thermocompressed regions are arranged to protrude outward in a thickness direction of said outer sheet as said inner sheet contracts in said transverse direction, said inner sheet and said outer sheet are bonded to each other with said adhesive coated substantially evenly and intermittently in said transverse direction to define bonded regions including the thermocompression-bonded spots and said adhesive, and non-bonded regions including the non-thermocompressed regions and free of said adhesive, and wherein the crimped fibers in the outer sheet are neither fusion bonded nor interlaced with each other in the non-thermocompressed regions such that in said non-bonded regions  .

The outer sheet protrudes outward in the thickness direction of said outer sheet and is spaced from said inner sheet, to form voids between said outer sheet and said inner sheet, in response to contraction of said inner sheet in said transverse direction.