02.26.08
A sanitary tampon was issued a patent. It comprises an absorber including a flat absorbent layer made of an absorbent fibrous material and a hydrophobic liquid-permeable layer covering both surfaces of the absorbent layer. The flat absorbent layer has a plurality of small open recesses dispersed in both surfaces of the absorbent layer and extending toward an inner area of the absorbent layer.
The flat absorbent layer is folded along three fold lines extending in a longitudinal direction of the flat absorbent layer to have three clefts defined between adjacent folds and then compressed over the entire length into a column shape. The three clefts open on a column surface in a direction parallel to the longitudinal direction. The small open recesses are formed by embossing the flat absorbent layer prior to folding and compression so that a fiber density of the absorbent layer is increased in a vicinity of the small open recesses.