Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-07
2002-09-10
Boyer, Charles (Department: 1746)
Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces, auxiliary compositions
Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing
For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
C510S295000, C510S298000, C510S276000, C510S220000, C510S224000, C510S235000, C510S446000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06448212
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a laundry/dishwasher detergent portion with a wrapper of a water-soluble material. More particularly, the invention relates to a laundry/dishwasher detergent portion for use in a washing/dishwashing machine for a machine program taking place in an aqueous phase.
Various laundry/dishwasher detergent formulations available to the consumer in the form of spray-dried or granulated powder products or, alternatively, as liquid products are known from the prior art. These detergent formulations are introduced into the dispensing compartments of washing or dishwashing machines by the consumer using standard containers supplied with the detergents or, particularly in the washing of laundry, into water-permeable containers supplied with the detergents, i.e. containers through which the wash liquor is able to flow. The dosing process has often found to be laborious.
In order to make laundry/dishwasher detergent formulations easier to dose, formulations packed in the form of ready-to-use portions of a laundry/dishwasher detergent sufficient for exactly one wash cycle have been developed. Corresponding portions may be both solid and liquid laundry/dishwasher detergent formulations. Solid laundry/dishwasher detergent formulations may be present in the form of powders or shaped bodies (for example obtained by compression), such as tablets, blocks, briquettes or rings or the like.
Individual doses of laundry/dishwasher detergent formulations have been suitably packaged or wrapped to protect the ingredients of the laundry/detergent formulations against moisture in an environment which, of course, is not normally kept dry and also for protecting the consumer from the ingredients of the formulation, more particularly for protecting people not accustomed to using such formulations. According to the prior art, the packs or wrappers may consist of plastic films of which the properties can be controlled to meet requirements.
Even in the prior art, advanced packs and wrappers, more particularly plastic films, which met the above requirements were soluble in water. The consumer was thus able directly to introduce the portion pack into the wash cycle or to throw it into a bucket or bowl without having to deposit or pour out its contents at an appropriate place. The pack or wrapper then dissolved during the washing/dishwashing process or before or during the hand washing/cleaning process so that its contents came into contact with the aqueous medium.
Thus, DE-AS 11 30 547 (Procter & Gamble) discloses packs of water-soluble films of polyvinyl alcohol which are filled with non-liquid synthetic detergents.
An individual dose of a detergent or bleach in a bag having one or more seams of a water-sensitive material is described in EP-A 0 143 476 (Akzo N. V.). The water-sensitive seam material used is a mixture of an anionic and/or nonionic water-binding polymer and a cationic adhesive.
EP-A 0 158 464 (Clorox) describes low-temperature detergents which may be packed in a bag of water-soluble film.
Accordingly, the prior-art documents cited above describe laundry/dishwasher detergents in a water-soluble pack which dissolves completely on contact with water and releases its contents into the wash liquor. They do not disclose the step-by-step release of various ingredients of the laundry/dishwasher detergent present in the pack.
In contrast to the prior art, the object of the present invention was to take account of the fact that individual components of a laundry/dishwasher detergent preparation may not be compatible with other components of the same preparation or that one component of a laundry/dishwasher detergent preparation may be needed or desirable in one particular wash or cleaning cycle, but not in another or that a certain component of a laundry/dishwasher detergent preparation may not have the same effectiveness at all the temperatures of a wash or cleaning cycle and, in order to ensure that the liquor develops an optimal effect, should be added at a temperature which corresponds to the action optimum. This applies, for example, to enzymes which regularly develop optimal activity at a certain temperature or to bleach activators which are incorporated in a laundry/dishwasher detergent preparation in order to obtain an improved bleaching effect where washing/dishwashing is carried out at temperatures of 60° C. or lower. In the same way, the presence of fabric softeners during washing or rinse aids during dishwashing is only desirable in a softening or clear-rinse cycle following the actual washing/cleaning cycle. Accordingly, components such as these are normally not added to the laundry/dishwasher detergent formulation or portion which is used in a prewash, prerinse or main wash cycle. The problem addressed by the present invention was effectively to separate components or groups of components of a laundry/dishwasher detergent portion in such a way that the individual components would not impair one another in their effectiveness and/or stability and, in the case of an automatic wash cycle consisting of several steps with separate wash liquors, the individual components or groups of individual components adapted to the wash cycle would be released into the liquor in that step in which they develop optimal activity. Another problem addressed by the present invention was to enable the conditions under which the individual components or groups of components of a laundry/dishwasher detergent portion are released into the wash liquor to be controlled by physical measures of the washing or dishwashing cycle.
It has now surprisingly been found that a so-called controlled-release effect can be achieved and components of a laundry/dishwasher detergent portion can be released into the wash liquor at precisely controllable times of a washing or cleaning cycle so that an optimal washing or cleaning result can be obtained if the laundry/dishwasher detergent portion contains a material which surrounds at least one of the measured quantities of a washing preparation and which dissolves in water at a certain temperature.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention relates to a laundry/dishwasher detergent portion, more particularly for use in a washing/dishwashing machine for a program taking place in an aqueous phase, containing
a first measured quantity of a washing preparation which passes into the aqueous phase at a temperature below or equal to a first temperature;
a second measured quantity of a washing preparation which passes into the aqueous phase at a temperature below or equal to a second temperature which is above the first temperature;
at least one material which surrounds at least one of the measured quantities of a washing preparation and which dissolves in water at a certain temperature.
In one preferred embodiment of the detergent portion according to the invention, at least the second measured quantity of a washing preparation is surrounded by a material which dissolves in water at a temperature above the first temperature.
The invention also relates to a process for the production of laundry/dishwasher detergent portions comprising first and second measured quantities of washing preparations as described hereinafter comprising the steps of
(a) making ready at least one material which dissolves in water at a certain temperature and
(b) wrapping at least one of the first and second measured quantities of washing preparations in this material to form a laundry/dishwasher detergent portion.
According to the invention, a preferred process for the production of laundry/dishwasher detergent portions comprising first and second measured quantities of washing preparations is characterized in that it comprises the steps of
(a) making ready at least one material which dissolves in water at a temperature above a first temperature;
(b) wrapping the measured quantity of a second washing preparation active in aqueous phase at a temperature above the first temperature in that material and
(c) combining a measured quantity of a first washing
Haerer Juergen
Holderbaum Thomas
Nitsch Christian
Richter Bernd
Boyer Charles
Harper Stephen D.
Henkel Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien
Murphy Glenn E. J.
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