Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – Solid – shaped macroscopic article or structure
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-15
2002-07-09
Ogden, Necholus (Department: 1751)
Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces, auxiliary compositions
Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing
Solid, shaped macroscopic article or structure
C510S446000, C510S447000, C510S505000, C510S506000, C008S647000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06417155
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to colored detergent bars comprising water soluble polymeric colorants that exhibit excellent non-staining performance on fabrics and other contacted surfaces, including manufacturing and/or washing equipment, are easy to process into the desired detergent bar compositions, and do not exhibit any appreciable harmful effects to the environment. The particular polymeric colorants utilized in this respect are of very high molecular weight (in order to assure staining will not occur on target cleaning surfaces), are extremely water soluble, provide excellent vivid and aesthetically pleasing color shades within the target bar compositions, and are present as liquids or waxy pastes at room and at processing temperatures. The ultimate laundry bar product thus exhibits highly pleasing colors for product distinction as well as for aesthetic purposes.
BACKGROUND OF THE PRIOR ART
All U.S. Patents listed below are fully incorporated herein by reference.
Throughout much of the world, automatic washing machines are not prevalent. In order to regularly clean clothing, many people handwash their garments. Although powders and liquids comprising detergents and/or soaps may be utilized in such handwashing procedures, the standard cleaning compositions utilized for this purpose are in bar form. Laundry bars provide users the ability to more effectively scrub their target garments by permitting the user to concentrate friction and detergent simultaneously on a stained or soiled article of clothing. As such, laundry bars are more appropriate for handwashing procedures, particularly in comparison with powders and liquids, for obvious reasons. Examples of such laundry bars are present within the following U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,204 to Gervasio, U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,581 to Ramachandran et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,041,243 to Joshi, U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,091 to Joshi et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,159 to Joshi, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,825 to Joshi. Such laundry bars differ from household soap and/or personal cleansing bars in that the amount of detergent and/or soap concentrated therein is much greater than for household soaps, etc., alone. Thus, continuous application of such high soap and/or detergent-level laundry bars to human skin would most likely cause skin irritation.
As with most household products, it is highly desirable to provide laundry bars which can easily be identified (from both production source and detergent strength perspectives) and exhibit aesthetically pleasing appearances. One manner of providing such properties is to add color to the final product. Colored laundry bars have been produced, sold, and used in the past; however, such bars have included, primarily, pigments, as coloring agents. Pigments and dyestuffs contribute a number of problems for such laundry bars from processing difficulties to staining possibilities during use. For instance, in order to produce such laundry bars, milling and extrusion procedures are generally followed. The presence of pigments and/or dyestuffs within such machinery causes mechanical problems (due to higher viscosities, solid particles, and/or highly staining compounds) which must be compensated for in different ways. Pigments are generally provided in solid, small particles, which are difficult to handle and which may provide handling problems during production. Also, after the production of certain batches of specifically colored laundry bars, the machinery must be thoroughly cleaned to remove such highly staining pigments and/or dyestuffs (which may create off-color or speckled bars if they remain present during the milling and/or extrusion of a subsequent batch). Pigments do not easily wash away, generally, and thus such cleaning steps may require the utilization of organic solvent compositions which possess their own difficulties and potential problems. Dyestuffs generally require premix production that adds to the complexity of laundry bar production. Furthermore, the colorations provided by pigments are difficult to control from batch to batch (and thus uniform colorations are rather difficult to produce on an industrial scale). Dyestuffs are generally ionic in nature and thus are not readily compatible with other laundry bar constituents (such as surfactants, perfumes, preservatives, and the like). Pigments, dyes, and dyestuffs also comprise heavy metal components at times which provide environmental and health issues. Additionally, the general color appearances provided by pigments are dull due to the adsorption and scattering of light by the constituent solid particles.
Upon use of such pigment- and/or dyestuff-containing laundry bars, such coloring agents have been found to cause staining of the user's skin as well as upon the washboard and target garments themselves. Furthermore, most pigments include metals or other components which, upon introduction within wastewater from a washing procedure, have been known to cause environmental problems. Thus, it is important to provide a manner of coloring laundry bars which is easy to incorporate within standard milling and extrusion procedures, facilitates cleaning from such necessary machinery, fabrics, human skin, and other washing equipment, and which is environmentally friendly. To date, no improvements in the laundry bar industry have been accorded by the prior art.
OBJECTS AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the subject invention to provide colored laundry bars that exhibit substantially no staining on target fabrics, the user's skin, and the manufacturing equipment utilized to produce such laundry bars. It is a further object of the subject invention to provide colorants that have no heavy metal and have no dye dust involved in the manufacturing process and thereby are relatively easy to use and produce. It is yet a further object of this invention to provide a colored laundry bar exhibiting the above characteristics and which also exhibits stable and aesthetically pleasing colorations throughout the bar even after repeated use within an aqueous environment.
Accordingly, this invention encompasses a colored laundry bar comprising at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a soap, a detergent, a surfactant, a tenside, and any mixtures thereof, preferably in an amount of between about 25 and 80% by weight of the total weight of the bar, most preferably between about 30 and 60%, and at least one colorant present in an amount of from about 0.001 to about 2.0% by weight of the total weight of the bar, wherein said colorant is a water-soluble polymeric colorant having from about 3 to 50 moles of oxyalkylene constituents per polymer chain.
Such a specific colored laundry bar composition has never been produced or taught within the pertinent prior art. In fact, the belief has been in the past that such high molecular weight polymeric colorants could not function properly within laundry bar compositions due to the extremely high water solubility and liquid nature of the colorants themselves. Since the laundry bars are utilized within procedures which require a great deal of repeated contact with water, it is rather difficult to retain stable colorations throughout such laundry bars including these extremely water soluble polymeric colorants. Thus, previous attempts at incorporating the desired high molecular weight polymeric colorants within such solid laundry bars have either been unsuccessful or nonexistent until now.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The particular high molecular weights and degree of oxyalkylation of the colorants within the inventive laundry bars are necessary to provide the desired low staining ability. Polymeric colorants in general have a propensity to color any surface to which they are contacted, adhered, or incorporated. The currently discussed polymeric colorants were developed to provide temporary, easily removable, but highly effective colorations to certain substrates, including fabrics, yams, liquids, and the like. These high molecular weight colorants do not readily react
Ong Tiong Khoon
Zhou Zhaolin
Milliken & Company
Moyer Terry T.
Ogden Necholus
Parks Williams S.
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