Baby Diaper Absorbent Cores
new tests for effective core design
By Philip Hardy, Disposables Consultancy Services
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The external diaper changes—such as the move to elasticized ears and narrower chassis—have been well documented and can be adopted by diaper manufacturers by retrofitting with purpose-made machinery. The more subtle changes inside the absorbent core are not as well documented or reported, and for many diaper manufacturers they are much more difficult to quantify and hence to design. The tests commonly used in the industry for regular quality monitoring do not give a clear enough picture of the core performance of the diaper and thus the simplistic approach of increasing superabsorbent polymer content while reducing fluff content is often adopted, causing a significant drop in user satisfaction.
New tests and testing devices can provide a deeper understanding of the absorbent core performance of baby diapers and consequently a means of designing them more effectively. As a result of these tests, some Performance Indicators (PI) emerge that can be used to describe diaper cores with a much greater correlation to real-life performance.
