SAP biased vs Pulp biased

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MixerOp

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So I've tried a few different brands of diapers in my time. And I've learned that Tranquility ATN's are much more SAP biased in the filling than many others. Where as Northshore supremes are more pulp biased than many others. I know XP medical has a cool diaper test page, but it doesn't show all brands.

What have you guys tried (that you can remember well) and how would they rank? Has anyone tried Absorbancy Plus? Are they squishy and do they separate? Or are they stiffer and spread the "wealth" more?

Thanks for your input.

Stay padded my friends,
MixerOp
 
I was very disappointed with the Absorbency Plus. they separate and disintegrate structurally very quickly. Dry24/7 are years ahead of them even Abena L4 a mass production medical diaper are far far better.
 
When I was about 12 I had to use adult diapers from attends for a while. I bought them at the pharmacy near me. They felt awful and didn't hold much urine and when you sat, they leaked, The top sheet was plastic with small holes in it. The SAP used now in my adult diapers is so much better, and there are no leaks or discomfort.
 
The old design goes a little something like this! When you use fluff/pulp it is very soft & comfortable & makes the Diaper thick enough to insert lots of tiny little gel crystals into! :smile1:
When the Fluff padding becomes wet, it vastly shrinks in size as the Gel expands in the space created in exchange. :) Think of how Cotton or even spinach shrinks! lol It's like that!

This is why the old Pampers & so forth worked so well.

But unfortunately, companies have found that they can sell more Diapers in a package, if they machine compress them. Now, contrary to common belief (that may also be a tad stimulated by people's fear of the diaper swelling & swelling until it pops! Hence "Gel Explosion"!) the Gel (Super absorbent Polymer) will NOT.. I say again.. NOT absorb under pressure. This isn't a design flaw. This is just science. You can't pour more water into a glass until the glass shatters! The glass shall merely store as much volume as the glass is capable of. And it's the same with SAP. :smartass: ;) It's all about giving it space to absorb.

So the problem arises where there isn't enough thickness of fluff to distribute fluid throughout the core & wicking becomes a less efficient process. It will just clump together in small batches instead of spreading out evenly in some circumstances. It's less about SAP VS. Pulp, & more a case of how much they have machine compressed it to allow for a balanced absorption.

The Good news is fluffing it up yourself can make a slight difference. The bad news is it isn't much of a difference. Because the material is organic. You can't un-flatten a Dandelion!
Just to put this into perspective, the last company that didn't press their diapers was Comficare. And now there are very few left. Thankfully, ABDL manufactures are becoming aware of this, but they are fighting the urge to get more money in their pockets. It's up to us to ask that they remain thick, soft, cushy, flocculent.. ha ha & unblemished! I may have got carried away a bit at the end there! Sorry! :surrender:
 
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Travis9800 said:
When the Fluff padding becomes wet, it vastly shrinks in size as the Gel expands in the space created in exchange.

Sorry but nope. Diaper fluff, nor cotton, shrinks when it gets wet. When you add water/urine to fluss you are taking up the space in between the fibers. This causes it to expand ever so slightly. Now if you were to rapidly dry it out using high heat, then the contraction of that space in between the fibers will make it shrink overall (just like with a cotton shirt in a dryer).

You did get the other parts right though.
 
People need to understand what the SAP does in a diaper versus the pulp does. The pulp is not very absorbent, but it holds shape rather well and can hold material in place, not to mention having great wicking capability. The SAP comes as small granules and does not hold shape very well once wet. This is why high end diapers use BOTH. The pulp keeps the diaper in a reasonable shape without having everything just falling down into the crotch with the first movement, and it helps wick liquid around to the different areas of the diaper. The SAP sucks up the liquid and turns into larger gel bits. A diaper that is pure SAP will just become a squishy mess when wet, whereas a pure pulp diaper won't hold much at all in terms of liquid. The best diapers get a mix of both, and the ratios, type of pulp, etc, can be a trade secret for each manufacturer.

Go through and read patents on diapers sometime, you'll learn a lot.
 
There's manufacturing costs and complications to consider too. It's much cheaper to make simple padding where you just run a roller die and cut from a continuous sheet of padding that's been premade. It will be a mat made mostly of pulp, but with a mix of sap crystals. The smaller the crystals, the faster they absorb. You'll see terms like "we use PREMIUM sap!" and this is what they're referring to. Sap itself is fairly generic, and will swell to maybe 100x its size when it absorbs. SAP is the only thing that makes a diaper swell. As mentioned above, the pulp is needed to keep the padding in its shape, and to wick wetness around to dry areas of the diaper to be absorbed by the remaining unused SAP. SAP has NO wicking capability, and NO ability to stay in shape. It holds its shape like wet sand, and wicks like a rock. But it can lock away wetness, and can't be pressed out. You sit down in a very wet high sap diaper and it's like sitting on a rubber mat, you practically bounce when you sit down and it will NOT leak. Try that in a low sap diaper and you'll squeeze it out like a sponge and leak all over your chair.

"So why don't they just add more SAP?"
- SAP is expensive. I don't know how much, but I'd wager it can double the cost of manufacturing a high sap diaper
- get the mix too high and your wicking suffers or stops completely, it's like scotchguarding the inside of your diaper.
this turns the crotch into a dam, and your next wetting will leak even if 2/3 of your diaper is still dry
- it doesn't affect size much, but it adds to shipping costs - high sap diapers can cost twice as much to ship

A lot of diapers I see today are doing what I'll call "composite padding". Open up a new diaper and hold it up to the light. MANY diapers you will see a darker shadow area in the crotch area, that looks like a large menstrual pad or hourglass-shaped diaper booster. I think they put that down on the shell BEFORE they lay down the main padding, or they lay down a thinner padding, the booster, and another thinner padding. I've seen a few manufacturers refer to using an advanced "double drum" technology, and I think that's what it is, that allows them to insert a booster in the crotch, and maybe even spray in some added SAP crystals. That would be a good time to dump more in, as it keeps the sap in the padding, and also keeps sap crystals away from the outer shell where they can cause pinholes when dry. Trying to premake the padding in that shape and get it lined up with the shells during assembly as they come down the line would be a nightmare.

I've also seen a lot of diapers that have a blue coloring on the inside of the crotch area where you'd expect a booster. It's just blue coloring, and is always a hard rectangle. But even on those if you hold them up to the light you can clearly see that hourglass-shaped booster material darkening up the crotch. It doesn't add any noticeable thickness, so I'm assuming it's got a lot higher sap ratio than the main padding.
 
I find some of the premium medical diapers like Abena and Molicare clump up on me so badly. It doest seem to be a problem with the abdl ones.
 
blob said:
I find some of the premium medical diapers like Abena and Molicare clump up on me so badly. It doest seem to be a problem with the abdl ones.

Maybe they're more targeting overnight and bedridden use? clumping's only usually an issue for daywear.
 
Nope. The reason this is a problem is because Abena and Molicare are not premium diapers. Sure they used tocbe, but they have been cheaped up so much they now have these problems, leaks, and etc.

I'd recommend you try an actual premium diaper like confidry or northshore.
 
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