The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 1956-1987
Pampers' superabsorbent gel locks a diaper's liquid up, up to 30x its weight
P&G made the first large-scale disposable diaper, then added an absorbent gel that locked liquid in, keeping babies dry and diapers thin.
Procter & Gamble · Pampers
the move
P&G researcher Victor Mills disliked changing the cloth diapers of his newborn grandchild, so he directed his team in the Miami Valley laboratories to build a better disposable. Pampers launched on a large scale in 1961.
Early Pampers were bulky, heavy and made of wood fluff pulp with a rayon topsheet and polyethylene backsheet, and they could only absorb so much before the liquid squeezed out.
In the mid-1980s P&G integrated the superabsorbent polymer, which absorbs up to x30 its weight in liquid and turns it to gel, letting the diaper hold more, stay drier and be much thinner, cutting both weight and wood-pulp use.
why it works
- Turning liquid into a gel keeps it from leaking out under pressure, which no amount of absorbent fluff can do.
- A high-capacity gel lets the whole diaper be thinner, more comfortable and less bulky.
- Keeping moisture away from the skin reduces chafing and keeps the baby drier longer.
- Less fluff per diaper cut cost and weight, making the product viable at scale.
what transfers
Find the material that makes the job structurally easy: changing the absorbent into a gel was worth more than adding more fluff or thicker padding.
what came after
SAP, developed with partners like Nippon Shokubai and BASF, became the standard absorbent for baby, feminine and adult incontinence products. The disposable diaper category grew into a global consumer staple, and P&G kept competing on absorption and fit with innovations like the channel technology that later redistributed wetness.
references
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