Compositions – Water-softening or purifying or scale-inhibiting agents – Plant or organic material containing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-23
2003-02-04
Lovering, Richard D. (Department: 1712)
Compositions
Water-softening or purifying or scale-inhibiting agents
Plant or organic material containing
C252S186350, C424S408000, C510S193000, C510S194000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06514429
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a composition for use in a water tank in the kitchen or sanitary sector.
Such compositions are known in numerous different forms for different applications, e.g. for deliming coffee machines or for cleaning and deliming toilets as an additive to cisterns.
The aim of the invention was to permit the simultaneous charging of substances possibly not completely compatible when used simultaneously and which evolve their functions at different, defined times.
DE-OS 20 65 153 and DE-OS 20 07 413 disclose detergent pellets for use as washing agents, in which it is inter alia provided to combine two components with different functionalities. The structure is formed from a covering or enveloping shell, which is e.g. formed from two shell halves, which comprise a cleaning agent, and a cavity surrounded by the shells and which contains additives such as softeners, brighteners, etc.
British patent 1 390 503 discloses a liquid cleaning agent or detergent which contains capsules, which are insoluble in the composition, but release their content when the composition is diluted with water. This objective is achieved in that the capsules are coated with a substance, which has a poor solubility in water solutions with a high ionic strength, but which is soluble if the ionic strength is reduced by dilution. It is pointed out that this procedure can be used in order to incorporate materials into the liquid cleaning agent, which in the latter are unstable or would produce an instability if added directly. It is also proposed to use this procedure for delaying the release of a specific substance.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,678 describes a fabric conditioner, which comprises a closed container containing a releasable agent and which is used for making water-insoluble or non-dispersible an inner container located in the first container and which is normally water-soluble or water-dispersible, the inner container containing a fabric conditioner.
Japanese patent applications KOKAI 60-141705, 61-28440, 61-28441, 61-28596, 61-28597 and 61-28598 describe processes for the production of pH-sensitive microcapsules for use in detergents. The pH-sensitive coating is a copolymer of the following monomers:
A) at least one basic monomer of formula I:
in which R is hydrogen or a methyl group and R
1
and R
2
in each case an alkyl group with 1 to 3 carbon atoms and x is an integer from 1 to 4,
B) at least one monomer which is insoluble or difficultly soluble in water and
C) at least one water-soluble monomer.
It is pointed out that the described polymers are insoluble at a pH-value of 9.5 or higher and are soluble at a pH-value of 8.5 or lower. Different ingredients of cleaning agent compositions are described, which can be successfully and usefully coated with the described polymers. The aim of the invention described therein is to protect substances, which only evolve their function during the rinsing process up to the start of the latter and then to release them as immediately as possible. A disadvantage of the solution described in these Japanese patent applications is that the enveloped particles are in direct contact with non-alkaline washing water at the start of the washing cycle, which can give rise to a partial dissolving of the protective covering.
Japanese patent KOKAI 50-77406 discloses a washing aid, which is surrounded by a water-soluble covering or envelope, obtained by mixing polyvinyl acetal dialkyl aminoacetate and at least one organic acid, which is solid at room temperature. This protective envelope is intended to protect the washing aid during the main washing cycle and to release it during rinsing cycles. The described compound reacts to the pH-value change between the main washing cycle and the rinsing cycle. Here again the disadvantage exists of a possible partial dissolving of the protective envelope at the start of the washing cycle.
European patent applications EP 284 191 A2 and EP 284 334 A2 disclose a water-soluble polymer film for releasing washing additives during the rinsing cycle of washing machines, remaining intact during the normal washing cycle over a range of typical temperatures and rapidly dissolving during the rinsing cycle. These applications point out that the use of pH-sensitive coatings was admittedly known, but that these films are normally also temperature-sensitive, so that they do not remain reliably stable during the different temperatures of the washing cycle. The solution proposed is a pH-dependent material (which undesirably also has a positive, temperature-dependent dissolving behaviour) which is combined with a material having a negative, temperature-dependent dissolving behaviour. This combination is supposed to guarantee that the coatings do not dissolve at the high temperatures at the start of the washing cycle (in particular the very high temperatures occurring in American machines).
European patent application EP 481 547 A1 discloses multilayer dishwashing machine tablets having a core, a separating layer surrounding the core and an outer layer for the sequential release of the ingredients of the different layers. This tablet is fundamentally intended to solve two problems, namely 1) incompatible materials can be formulated together in a single tablet and released at different times in order to avoid mutual influencing and 2) compositions, which are intended to evolve their functions at different times, can be formulated in a single tablet.
One of the disadvantages of the prior art described in this document is that the only production process described is the successive moulding of the individual components. This gives rise to the risk that the core or core envelope is deformed, which can firstly lead to damage (and therefore a reduction of the protective action) to the core envelope and secondly (as a function of the core composition) can give rise a “bleeding” of the core into the material of the envelope and the basic composition. In addition, the intimate full-surface contact between the individual layers can lead to reactions occurring in the boundary layers which are undesired, particularly between the envelope and the outer layer.
The second important disadvantage of this prior art is that for initiating the dissolving of the enveloping layer the temperature and in particular the contact time with the washing solution is used as the triggering factor, which consequently clearly limits the practical usability of the products described.
PCT application WO 95/29982 discloses a dishwashing machine rinsing agent with a delayed release of a clear rinsing agent in the form of a nonionic surfactant, which together with an inorganic builder salt forms a core particle, which is provided with a wax-like covering in order to ensure the delayed release. This covering is a substance which does not melt at the operating temperatures encountered during the cleaning cycle, but which at alkaline pH-values is so gradually chemically disintegrated that there is still an effective clear rinsing agent quantity present at the end of the main cleaning cycle and is transferred into the rinse clear cycle.
It is disadvantageous that the covering is rendered soluble by chemical saponification at alkaline pH-values, so that the time at which the clear rinsing substance is released from the core is a function both of the temperature and the length of the main cleaning cycle. The patent application contains no teaching as to how a product is to be formulated with which the clear rinsing agent can be released in all washing programs of any machine type only during the rinse clear cycle. Finally the product is a mixture of granular cleaning agents and granular clear rinsing particles.
In view of the prior art described, the problem of the present invention is to provide a composition making it possible to release at different, defined times simultaneously charged products with different functionalities. The aim is to achieve this without significant restriction to the choice of the materials to be combined together.
SUMMARY
Carbonell Enric
Endlein Edgar
Gibis Karl-Ludwig
Waschenbach Guido
Wiedemann Ralf
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld L.L.P.
Lovering Richard D.
Reckitt Benckiser N.V.
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