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Garment with one or more gusseted adjustable openings and method of making the same
| Details |
Inventors: Van Gompel, Paul T.;
Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Corporation (Neenah, WI)
Primary Examiner: Hunter; H. Hampton
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Miller; Douglas L., Traut; Donald L.
A garment, such as an incontinence control garment, having an opening to accommodate a part of the wearer's body, such as a leg opening, includes one or more gusset folds at the opening and having at least a portion of the faces of the gusset fold, e.g., the lateral edges thereof, manually disengagably bonded to one another, whereby the opening may be increased in size by manual disengagement of the bonded outer lateral edges. For example, a disposable panty-type garment having leg openings which are manually adjustable in size is provided, each featuring the disengagably bonded gusset fold structure described above. Also disclosed is a method for making garments such as panty-type garments, by the steps which may include cutting articles from a web of material, longitudinally folding the sheet to form a garment having closed leg openings, and folding the material at the opening to form gusset folds thereat which may be selectively opened to provide larger sized openings. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION In accordance with the present invention there is provided a garment including at least one opening for encircling a portion of the wearer's body and having at the periphery of the opening a gusset fold comprised of disengagably bonded together gusset faces, which optionally may be intermittently bonded together, whereby the opening can be increased in size by manual disengagement of at least a portion of the bonded together gusset faces.
In another aspect of the invention, the bonded together faces of the gusset fold are inwardly-folded sections of an outer-facing surface of the garment and define a lateral gusset seam in said outer-facing surface.
Another aspect of the invention provides that the gusset faces are disengagably bonded together along the lateral gusset seam, and optionally are intermittently disengagably bonded together along the lateral seam.
Yet another aspect of the invention provides that the bonded together faces of the gusset fold are sections of an inner-facing surface of the garment, whereby the gusset fold is disposed exteriorly of the opening.
Other aspects of the invention provide one or more of the following features: the gusset fold may be folded along a central fold line and may comprise two disengagably bonded together faces; the central fold line may coincide with a seam of the garment; the central fold line may be reinforced against tearing; at least the gusset fold of the garment may comprise a thermally bondable material and the gusset faces are thermally disengagably bonded together, e.
g.
, ultrasonically bonded together; and the garment may comprise gusset folds at the leg openings, each converging in a direction away from an associated leg opening and with outer lateral edges thereof being manually disengagably bonded to one another, whereby the leg openings may be adjusted in use to larger sized legs, by manual disengagement of the bonded outer lateral edges of the gussets.
In another aspect of the invention, the thermally bondable material is weakened in the area immediately adjacent the disengagably bonded areas to facilitate disengagement of the bonded together gusset faces by mechanical failure of the material in the weakened area
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Manufacturing Materials 
