CN111035504B

CN111035504B - Tampon applicator and tampon

Info

Publication number: CN111035504B
Application number: CN201911334574.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 华莉云; 戴灵; 黄翠玉
Original assignee: Hengan Fujian Holding Group Co Ltd; Fujian Hengan Household Life Article Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hengan Fujian Holding Group Co Ltd; Fujian Hengan Household Life Article Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-12-23
Filing date: 2019-12-23
Publication date: 2021-06-15
Anticipated expiration: 2039-12-23
Also published as: CN111035504A

Abstract

The invention provides a tampon applicator and a tampon for putting the tampon into vagina, which comprises an outer tube, a guide sleeve and an inner tube, wherein the insertion end of the outer tube consists of 3-6 arc-shaped pieces, the other axial end of the outer tube is a gripping area, a first annular retaining wall and a second annular retaining wall which are protruded to the radial outer side are arranged on the outer side wall of the outer tube in the gripping area, and 2-4 guide grooves are formed in the tube wall of the outer tube; the guide sleeve is provided with guide blocks which extend to the radial outer side and correspond to the number of the guide grooves, the inner guide sleeve is sleeved on the inner side of the outer tube and enables the guide blocks to be clamped in the corresponding guide grooves in a sliding mode respectively, and the circumferential side wall of the guide sleeve is provided with a telescopic groove which extends partially or completely along the axial direction; the inner end of the inner pipe is arranged on the radial inner side of the guide sleeve and extends towards the insertion end part to form an extension part, 3-6 ribbed plates protruding towards the radial outer side are arranged on the radial outer side of the inner pipe, and the radial outer side edge of each ribbed plate is in clearance fit with the radial inner side of the guide sleeve.

Description

Tampon applicator and tampon

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of articles of daily use, and in particular to a tampon applicator for mounting a tampon into a woman's vagina for absorption of menstrual fluid.

Background

The known sanitary cotton strip is made of common cotton fiber and other synthetic fiber raw materials, and is placed in the vagina to absorb menstrual blood discharged from the uterus during the menstrual period of a woman. Chinese patent application ZL201780037499.5, published for example at 26.4.2019, discloses a tampon comprising a substantially cylindrical absorbent body which is compressed peripherally and contained in a package or applicator, the absorbent body being formed by a rolled rectangular strip of absorbent material and comprising: a front end in the insertion direction of the tampon, a rear end from which the removal string extends, and side surfaces, the entire outer surface of the absorbent body, corresponding to the front end, the rear end, and the side surfaces, being formed by the absorbent nonwoven surface layer. Aiming at the discomfort caused by the fact that the tampon is difficult to take out when the amount of menstrual blood is small or the tampon rubs against the vagina, the technical scheme can avoid the discomfort caused by the fact that the absorbent fibers are adhered to the inner wall of the vagina by arranging the layer of the absorbent non-woven fabric on the outer side, and the absorbent non-woven fabric can be removed more smoothly.

At the same time, tampon applicators for placing tampons into the female vagina have also been developed, for example chinese patent ZL200680049347.9, published 6, 12, 2013, discloses a tampon applicator having a grip area providing a better grip for the user, which solution is to provide the tampon applicator with two ridges on the outer tube of the applicator, the area between the two ridges being the grip area, which may be a raised pattern of raised distance between about 0.10mm and about 0.75mm, while the petals at the outer end form a non-linear gap. The technical scheme mainly solves the problems in two aspects, firstly, the finger is prevented from contacting the vaginal opening in the use process of the tampon, which is not only beneficial to sanitation, but also can avoid scratching the skin; secondly, the petal structure of the opening at the end part of the outer tube adopts the nonlinear design, so that discomfort caused by clamping the inner wall of the vagina by the end part of the petal is avoided.

In the existing tampon applicators, for a new hand who just uses the applicator, the insertion depth of the applicator is not easy to grasp, or the applicator is inserted too deeply by exerting too much force and carelessness during use, the vaginal opening can be scratched by the finger nails grasping the applicator, or the vagina or uterus can be injured due to too deep insertion, and the like. Based on a plurality of factors such as the insertion angle of the outer tube of the applicator, the force application direction of the inner tube, the proficiency of an applicator, the lubrication degree of the vagina during application, and the like, a plurality of bad experiences exist for a new user of the tampon when using the tampon, for example, the tampon is put in failure, the foreign body sensation after being put in is strong, the friction in the putting-in process is obvious, the tampon is dry and painful when being taken out, and the like, the experience of the tampon in the previous period is very unfriendly caused by the series of factors, so that the enthusiasm of a consumer who continuously compensates for using the tampon can be seriously stricke: by the end of 2018, the market share of the tampon in China does not exceed 5%. In addition to the introduction of consumer concept, there is a continuing need for improvements and compensation in terms of tampon ease of use and convenience to improve the market share of tampons.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the defects in the prior art, the invention provides a tampon applicator and a tampon, which mainly solve the defects in the process of putting the tampon in order to facilitate the simple and smooth application of the tampon by an applicator.

In order to solve the technical problem, the technical scheme adopted by the invention is as follows:

a tampon applicator comprising an outer tube, a guide sleeve, and an inner tube, wherein:

the outer pipe is of a hollow cylindrical structure, the outer pipe is defined to have an axial direction along the length direction and a radial direction perpendicular to the axial direction, one axial end of the outer pipe is defined as an insertion end, the insertion end is composed of 3-6 arc-shaped pieces, one end of each arc-shaped piece is connected with the outer pipe through a weak connection portion, the other end of each arc-shaped piece extends in an arc shape to form a free end, the free end of each arc-shaped piece integrally forms a semi-spherical surface so that the outer pipe can be inserted conveniently, the other axial end of the outer pipe is a gripping area, a first annular retaining wall and a second annular retaining wall protruding towards the outer side in the radial direction are arranged on the outer side wall of the outer pipe in the gripping area, the distance between the first annular retaining wall and the second annular retaining wall is 10-20 mm along the axial direction of the outer pipe, and 2;

the guide sleeve is of a hollow cylindrical structure, the guide sleeve is defined to be provided with an inner guide sleeve close to the insertion end of the outer tube and an outer guide sleeve far away from the insertion end of the outer tube, guide blocks which extend to the radial outer side and correspond to the number of the guide grooves are arranged at the axial end part of the inner guide sleeve, the inner guide sleeve is sleeved at the inner side of the outer tube, and the guide blocks are respectively clamped in the corresponding guide grooves in a sliding mode, a clamping ring which extends to the radial outer side is arranged at the axial end part of the outer guide sleeve, and a telescopic groove which extends along the axial part or all is arranged on;

the inner tube is hollow cylindrical structure, and the definition inner tube has and is close to the inner that the outer tube inserted the end and keeps away from the outer end that the outer tube inserted the end, the guide pin bushing radial inboard is located and to inserting the end part extension formation extension in the inner of inner tube, the extension external diameter is greater than the guide pin bushing internal diameter, the outer end of inner tube extends to the outer guide pin bushing axial tip outside and partially extends and forms the application of force position that the free end was used for the finger, the radial outside of inner tube is equipped with 3 ~ 6 to the bellied floor in radial outside, each the radial outside of floor is along setting up with the radial inboard clearance fit of guide pin bushing, the radial outside of outer end is equipped with the fender ring, the external diameter of fender ring is greater than the internal diameter of snap ring, sets up the area.

The further improvement is that: in the tampon applicator, the number of the guide grooves in the outer tube is 4, the guide grooves are uniformly arranged in an array along the circumferential direction, and the number of the guide blocks is 4, and the guide blocks are respectively arranged in the corresponding guide grooves.

The further improvement is that: in the tampon applicator, the number of the ribbed plates on the inner tube is 4, and the ribbed plates are uniformly arranged in an array along the circumferential direction.

The further improvement is that: the insertion end of the tampon applicator is comprised of 5 arcuate segments, each of which is integrally formed into a conical configuration with a curvature.

The further improvement is that: the first annular retaining wall and the second annular retaining wall of the tampon applicator are 13-16 mm apart from each other along the axial direction of the outer tube.

The further improvement is that: the tampon applicator is characterized in that the axial end part of the inner end of the inner tube of the tampon applicator is provided with discontinuous convex parts and concave parts, and the gaps between two adjacent ribbed plates of the inner tube are communicated with the concave parts.

Based on the same inventive concept, the invention provides a sanitary component, which comprises the above-mentioned tampon applicator structure and a tampon arranged in the applicator, wherein the core body of the tampon is made by winding pure cotton non-woven fabrics, and the middle part of one side of the tampon positioned at the insertion end of the outer tube is provided with a concave part which is concave towards the direction far away from the insertion end of the outer tube.

In a further improvement, the grammage of the pure cotton non-woven fabric of the tampon is 150gsm to 250 gsm.

In a further improvement, the depth of the concave part of the tampon along the axial direction of the outer tube is 5 mm-10 mm, and the width of the concave part along the radial direction of the outer tube is 1 mm-5 mm.

By adopting the technical scheme, the invention has the beneficial effects that:

in the application process of the tampon, for the problems that the product is not known, the menstrual rule of the tampon itself cannot be understood, the tension to the strange environment of the body is not realized, the uncertainty to the foreign matter entering the body is caused, and the body state during the application can cause the vaginal muscle group to be in a tensioned state, at the moment, the difficulty in smoothly applying the tampon is increased, which is shown in the condition that the insertion end of the outer tube is difficult to insert into the vagina or causes strong discomfort or pain although the insertion end is inserted, but the subsequent work is more experimented for an applicator, namely, the tampon is pushed to the deep part of the vagina by pushing the inner tube, because the outer tube is inserted into the vagina to cause the discomfort or the pain, the vaginal muscle group is already in the tensioned state, at the moment, the tampon is applied into the vagina from the outer tube, the tampon is a material, and the tampon itself can absorb the secretion which plays a lubricating, the stressed mind of the applicator makes the inner tube difficult to keep consistent with the axial direction of the outer tube when applying force, and the known applicator can make the applicator face the situation of difficult advancing and retreating at the moment, the technical proposal of the invention can smoothly push the inner tube to the insertion end of the outer tube to release the tampon into the vagina of the applicator when the applicator presses the inner tube regardless of the uniform force application, and the technical effect is mainly obtained by the following two aspects:

1. the inner tube moves earlier stage: the guide sleeve and the outer tube relatively do not move or move to an utmost extent, the inner tube axially moves relative to the outer tube, and the guiding between the inner tube and the outer tube is realized by the clearance fit of the rib plates and the inner side wall of the guide sleeve, so that the position of the inner tube at least close to the axial middle part is subjected to the radial guiding effect, the inner tube does not generate radial deviation when axially moving, or the friction force of the inner tube axially moving cannot be obviously increased even if the deviation is generated, and the axial force applied by the inner tube to the tampon is not influenced;

2. the later stage of moving the inner pipe: when the retaining ring of inner tube touches the snap ring of outer tube, inner tube and guide pin bushing synchronous motion, at this moment, the axial displacement of inner tube shows that the guide pin bushing is for outer tube axial displacement, the guide block axial displacement in the guide slot of outer tube of guide pin bushing this moment, based on the existence of flexible groove on the guide pin bushing, it not only makes the frictional force of guide pin bushing and outer tube inside wall controlled, more show that the frictional force of guide pin bushing and outer tube is the frictional force between guide block and the guide slot, thereby make the application in-process of tampon, whether accurate putting into that can both accomplish the tampon smoothly of the person's application of force direction of no management, make the frictional force that discharges the in-process obviously reduce simultaneously and controlled.

3. The more important point of the invention is that the contact area of the inner pipe and the guide sleeve is set to be not more than one fourth of the contact area of the guide sleeve and the outer pipe, and the obvious difference of the contact areas is an important factor for obtaining the smooth guiding of the inner pipe without generating clamping stagnation.

The invention is further improved in that the axial end part of the inner end of the inner tube is provided with discontinuous convex parts and concave parts, and the gaps between two adjacent ribbed plates of the inner tube are communicated with the concave parts, so that an air exhaust channel is constructed, when the tampon is inserted, air in the vagina forms an air exhaust channel through the gaps of the arc-shaped sheets, the inner side wall of the tampon and the outer tube, the concave parts of the inner tube and the gaps between two adjacent ribbed plates, and simultaneously, the outer sides of the arc-shaped sheets, the guide grooves, the concave parts of the inner tube and the gaps between two adjacent ribbed plates also form an air exhaust channel, so that the application of the tampon is smoother in some cases.

Based on the same inventive concept, the tampon provided by the invention has the beneficial effects in the technology because the applicator is used, and the fuzzing phenomenon of the tampon is greatly reduced because the tampon adopts pure cotton non-woven fabrics, so that the irritation to an applicator in the application and use processes is obviously reduced. A further improvement is to provide a depression in the front end of the tampon, which is more conducive to directing body fluid into the tampon interior and to retaining blood clots, which helps prevent side leakage and expedite absorption.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a tampon applicator according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic view of the tampon structure in the applicator in an example embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the cross-sectional structure A-A in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the cross-sectional structure B-B in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the cross-sectional structure C-C of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a portion I of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a portion J of FIG. 1;

Detailed Description

The following detailed description will be provided for the embodiments of the present invention with reference to specific embodiments, so that how to apply the technical means to solve the technical problems and achieve the technical effects can be fully understood and implemented.

Unless otherwise indicated, the technical means used in the examples are conventional means well known to those skilled in the art, and the materials and products used are also commercially available. The source, trade name and if necessary the constituents of the reagents used are indicated at the first appearance.

Referring to fig. 2, an embodiment of the present invention includes a tampon and an applicator using the tampon, wherein, the tampon comprises a tampon core 1 and a removal thread 2, one end of the removal thread 2 is fixedly arranged inside the tampon body 1, the other end of the removal thread 2 extends to the outer end of the inner tube of the applicator and further extends outwards, the tampon core is made by winding pure cotton non-woven fabric by a known process, the gram weight of the adopted pure cotton non-woven fabric is between 150gsm and 250gsm, the pure cotton non-woven fabric of 200gsm is adopted in the embodiment, the central part of the tampon core 1 at the side of the outer tube insertion end is provided with a concave part 11 which is concave towards the direction far away from the outer tube insertion end, the depth of depressed part 11 along outer tube axial direction is 7mm, the width of depressed part 11 along the outer tube radial direction is 4mm, and whole depressed part 11 is curved basin column structure.

With reference to fig. 1 to 7, the embodiment discloses an applicator for applying the aforementioned tampon, comprising an outer tube 3, a guide sleeve 4 and an inner tube 5, wherein:

the outer tube 3 is a hollow cylindrical structure, the outer tube 3 is defined to have an axial direction along a length direction and a radial direction perpendicular to the axial direction, one axial end of the outer tube 3 is defined as an insertion end 31, the insertion end 31 is composed of five arc-shaped pieces 32, each arc-shaped piece 32 integrally forms a conical structure with a radian, one end of each arc-shaped piece 32 is connected with the outer tube 3 through a weak connection part, and the weak connection part is realized by: namely, the arc-shaped pieces 32 are made of the same material as the outer tube 3, and a groove (not shown in the figure) is formed on the radial inner side of the connecting portion of each arc-shaped piece 32 and the outer tube 3, so that the radial inner side of each arc-shaped piece 32 can be easily turned to the radial outer side when being stressed based on the existence of the groove, more preferably, the groove is partially broken along the circumferential direction, that is, only part of each arc-shaped piece is connected with the insertion end 31 through a weak connection portion, the other end of each arc-shaped piece 32 extends in an arc shape to form a free end, the free end of each arc-shaped piece 32 is integrally formed into a semi-spherical surface so that the outer tube can be inserted into the vagina, the axial other end of the outer tube 3 is a gripping area a, a first annular retaining wall 33 and a second annular retaining wall 34 protruding to the radial outer side are formed on the outer side wall of the outer tube 3 at a distance of 15, set up four guide slots 35 that extend along the axial part on the pipe wall of outer tube 3, four guide slots 35 are along the even array of circumferencial direction of outer tube 3, the part is extended to mean guide slot 35 extends to the place that borders with arc piece 32 from two 34 right sides of annular barricade to the insert end 31 of outer tube 3, the length of guide slot 35 also can be the axial length of guide pin bushing 4, the radial height of annular barricade one 33 or annular barricade two 34 is 2 mm.

The guide sleeve 4 is a hollow cylindrical structure, and is defined as that the guide sleeve 4 is provided with an inner guide sleeve 41 close to the insertion end 31 of the outer tube 3 and an outer guide sleeve 42 far away from the insertion end 31 of the outer tube 3, the axial end of the inner guide sleeve 41 is provided with four guide blocks 43 extending radially outwards, the inner guide sleeve 41 is arranged inside the outer tube 3, and each guide block 43 is slidably clamped in each corresponding guide slot 35 in a clearance fit manner (refer to fig. 3 and 6), the axial end of the outer guide sleeve 42 is provided with a snap ring 44 extending radially outwards, the circumferential side wall of the guide sleeve 4 is provided with a telescopic groove 45 extending axially, the telescopic groove 45 is used for facilitating clamping connection with the outer tube 3 when the guide sleeve 4 is assembled, more importantly, the telescopic groove 45 provides a structure with controlled friction force between the guide sleeve 4 and the outer tube 3, and based on the telescopic groove 45, the guide groove 35 and the guide block 43 are arranged in a clearance fit mode.

Said inner tube 5 is of a hollow cylindrical structure, defining an inner end 51 of said inner tube 5 close to the insertion end 31 of said outer tube 3 and an outer end 52 far from said insertion end 31 of said outer tube, said inner end 51 of said inner tube 5 being arranged radially inside said guide sleeve 4 and partially extending towards the insertion end 31 forming an extension 511 (see fig. 7), said extension 511 having an outer diameter slightly greater than the inner diameter of said guide sleeve 4, i.e. such that the inner tube can be inserted into the guide sleeve during assembly without slipping out of the guide sleeve, and therefore said extension is of a size order greater or slightly greater than, and referred to as less than, 0.5mm, where the extension is of a tapered configuration having a thickness slightly greater than, and mainly based on double considerations of assembly and use, said extension 511 being provided with non-continuous protrusions and recesses (i.e. with undulated surfaces that facilitate the passage of air over its surface), the gap between two adjacent ribs 54 of said, this creates an air passage between the inside of the vagina and the outside of the body (i.e. from the inside of the vagina, the arcuate blade 32, the gap between the tampon and the outer tube 3, the recess of the extension 511, the gap between the two ribs 54 to the outside of the body), which further facilitates the expulsion of air from the inside of the vagina during insertion of the applicator. The outer end 52 of the inner tube 5 extends to the outer side of the axial end part of the outer guide sleeve 44 and partially extends to form a free end for a force application part of a finger, four rib plates 54 protruding towards the radial outer side are arranged on the radial outer side of the inner tube 5, the radial outer side edge of each rib plate 54 is arranged in clearance fit with the radial inner side of the guide sleeve 4, each rib plate 54 is uniformly arranged along the circumferential direction of the inner tube 5, a retaining ring 55 is arranged on the radial outer side of the outer end 52, and the outer diameter of each retaining ring 55 is larger than the inner diameter of the clamping ring 44. It is also important to set the contact area between the inner tube 5 and the guide sleeve 4 to be about one fifth of the contact area between the guide sleeve 4 and the outer tube 3, in this embodiment, the contact area refers to the potential contact area, that is, the potential contact area between the inner tube 5 and the guide sleeve 4 refers to the area of the radial outer side surface of each rib 54, and the potential contact area between the guide sleeve 4 and the outer tube 3 refers to the area of the circumferential outer side wall of the guide sleeve 4 plus the area of the circumferential two side surfaces of each guide block 43.

In the above embodiment, the number of the guide grooves 35 on the outer tube may be two to four, each guide groove is uniformly arranged in an array along the circumferential direction, the number of the guide blocks on the guide sleeve corresponds to the number of the guide grooves, the guide blocks are respectively clamped in the corresponding guide grooves and are relatively arranged in a sliding manner along the axial direction, the number of the ribbed plates on the inner tube 5 may be three to six, each ribbed plate is uniformly arranged in an array along the circumferential direction, the arc-shaped piece 32 of the insertion end 31 may be any one of three to six, the object of the present invention can be achieved, the distance between the first annular retaining wall 33 and the second annular retaining wall 34 along the axial direction of the outer tube is 10mm to 20mm, the distance is mainly used for the grasping of the thumb and the middle finger, the corresponding distance is properly set according to the user group of the applicator, and the smaller value is taken in principle, so.

When the product is packaged, the tampon body 1 is arranged between the extension 511 of the inner tube 5 and the inside of the arcuate tab 32 of the outer tube 3, with the free end of the removal string 2 extending towards the outer end 52 of the inner tube 5. When in use, the packaging bag at the outer side of the tampon applicator is removed, the gripping area a of the outer tube 3 is grasped by the thumb and the middle finger, the insertion end 31 of the outer tube 3 is slightly pushed into the vagina with the proper posture and angle of the applicator until the annular retaining wall II 34 touches the vulva part, then the index finger presses the outer end 52 of the inner tube 5 to axially move the inner tube 5 relative to the outer tube 3, meanwhile, the tampon body 1 is pushed to open each arc-shaped piece 32 into the vagina, when the retaining ring 55 of the inner tube 5 contacts the retaining ring 44 of the guide sleeve 4, the inner tube 5 and the guide sleeve 4 synchronously move axially towards the outer tube 3 until the tampon body 1 is completely pushed away from the arc-shaped pieces 32 and is detained in the vagina, at the moment, the index finger is released, the gripping area a is grasped by the thumb and the middle finger, and the outer tube 3 together with the guide sleeve.

Claims

1. A tampon applicator characterized by: including outer tube, guide pin bushing and inner tube, wherein:

2. The tampon applicator of claim 1, wherein: the outer tube is provided with 4 guide grooves which are uniformly arranged in an array along the circumferential direction, and the guide blocks are 4 and are respectively arranged in the corresponding guide grooves.

3. The tampon applicator of claim 1, wherein: the ribbed slab on the inner tube is 4, and evenly arranges along the circumferencial direction.

4. The tampon applicator of claim 1, wherein: the insertion end is composed of 5 arc-shaped pieces, and each arc-shaped piece is integrally formed into a conical structure with radian.

5. A tampon applicator according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: the distance between the first annular retaining wall and the second annular retaining wall is 13-16 mm along the axial direction of the outer pipe.

6. The tampon applicator of claim 5, wherein: the axial end part of the inner end of the inner pipe is provided with discontinuous convex parts and concave parts, and the gap between two adjacent ribbed plates of the inner pipe is communicated with the concave parts.

7. A sanitary component, characterized by: the tampon applicator of claim 1, and a tampon disposed therein, wherein the core of the tampon is formed by winding a nonwoven web of pure cotton, and the tampon is provided with a depression in the middle of the side of the tampon that is disposed at the insertion end of the outer tube, the depression being concave in a direction away from the insertion end of the outer tube.

8. The sanitary assembly according to claim 7, wherein: the gram weight of the pure cotton non-woven fabric is 150-250 gsm.

9. The sanitary assembly according to claim 7, wherein: the depth of the concave part along the axial direction of the outer tube is 5 mm-10 mm, and the width of the concave part along the radial direction of the outer tube is 1 mm-5 mm.