New Sense in Nuisance - JaniPad

Further Development
of Pad Concepts
Mock-up one, two and five proved most promising in
the evaluation phase and were thus chosen for further
development. We started by building a realistic model
of concept two, with the top and bottom-layer waxed
and glued together along the sides. This model turned
out to be very inflexible, mainly due to the hard and
quite sharp edges and wings. Moreover, as the first
and fourth layer were not allowed to move relative to
each another. These discovered issues also ruled out
the pitta concept since this method of attaching the
layers to each other was believed to create the same
kind of stiffness and sharp edges. However, when
having made the fibre paper according to the pitta
concept, the surface of the hollow space was found to
be very smooth. The industrial process of this is called
calendaring and it showed that the fibre paper could
become more comfortable for the user if it was dried
against an even surface.
To address the revealed problems, we started generating
ideas on how we could allow the top layer to compress
or move relative to the fourth layer. The trouble was
that if the layers were fixed to each other, the top layer
would crease and cause discomfort during usage. We
came up with a variety of solutions, mainly based
on the idea of folding the layers in different ways to
allow movement. This kind of solution proved to be
complicated to manufacture and as the fibre paper
is not very strong, these solutions would put stress
on the material. The winning solution proved to be
parallel slots in the top layer, which allows this layer
to compress during usage.
We liked the flexible edges of mock-up five but were
discouraged by the square shape, which made the pad
feel somewhat primitive and inflexible. The problem
was thoroughly thought through and the solution was
to partly keep the fold. On the ends of the pad, there is
no need for more than one layer as the absorbent is both
less broad here and also ends about a centimetre from
the short side of the pad. This results in that it is possible
to cut any desired shape in the ends, without losing the
folded edge along the main part of the long sides.
When examening the tests, like this absorbent core, we
saw the potential in making the pad pre-shaped
Reality Studio 09 - New Sense in Nuisance
page 58 of 97