Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-15
2002-02-19
Gupta, Yogendra N. (Department: 1751)
Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces, auxiliary compositions
Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing
For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
C510S276000, C510S309000, C510S312000, C510S347000, C510S360000, C008S137000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06348441
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to methods and products for laundering soiled fabrics with liquid laundry detergent products which are non-aqueous and are in the form of stable dispersions of particulate material in a non-aqueous liquid and preferably also includes other materials such as bleaching agents and/or conventional detergent composition adjuvants.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the late Twentieth Century, virtually all consumers in industrialized nations use an automatic clothes washing machine to launder and clean non-delicate fabrics and clothing articles. Generally, such laundering is carried out by placing from about 5 to about 8 pounds of textiles into a top loading washing machine which typically uses about 45 gallons of water. An aqueous laundering solution is formed by adding detergent to the machine in an amount determined by the manufacturer to provide the best cleaning results for a specified amount of textiles, volume of water and soil level. The use of an automatic washer has the advantages of being more convenient, more effective and involves less consumer effort than washing clothes by hand in a sink or wash basin.
But this method of cleaning could be improved, in particular to be less expensive for the consumer to operate. Such savings could be obtained if the amount of water used in such a wash process were reduced which would concomitantly reduce the amount of energy needed to heat the aqueous liquid solution water for the warm and hot washing cycles which generally provide the most detersive benefits. Additionally, further savings could be obtained if the temperature to which the aqueous laundering solution was heated could be reduced. In response to this need, new “high efficiency” washing machines have been developed which not only use less water (up to about ⅔ less water than conventional washing machines) in the wash process but also heat this water to lower wash temperatures than conventional washing machines. These new washing machines represent a significant improvement over existing technology since the cost of each load of clothes cleaned is reduced.
But because currently available high water wash system detergent products are not optimized to work in these newly developed low water wash systems, a consumer may obtain undesirable results when they attempt to use these laundry detergent products in a new high-efficiency machine. Because conventional detergent products are designed to be added to relatively large volumes of aqueous laundering solution, when used in a high-efficiency machine they can produce an excessive amount of foam, which reduces the quality of the washing process and which consumers find aesthetically objectionable. Additionally, dye transfer and/or dirt suspension and/or susceptibility for greater dinginess can be especially difficult conditions to manage in concentrated wash solutions, such as those encountered in high efficiency washing machines. Likewise, because of highly concentrated wash solutions used in high efficiency machines, direct fabric-to-fabric dye transfer (“crocking”) sometimes occurs, a phenomenon typically not observed in the more dilute aqueous laundering solution concentrations of a top-loading machine. Furthermore, because “high-efficiency” wash processes generally occur at lower wash temperatures (below 40° C.), in order to provide superior cleaning performance (particularly in removing stains) it is necessary to use additional cleaning adjuvants that are not commonly used in conventional laundry detergent products such as bleaching agents and bleaching systems.
Given the foregoing, there is a continuing need to formulate laundry detergent products which not only effectively control sudsing and dye transfer when used in a low-water, low-temperature washing process, but also provide superior cleaning results through the use of detergent composition components such as bleaching agents and activators.
It is additionally desirable that the above benefits be incorporated into a detergent composition in liquid form. Liquid laundry detergent products offer a number of advantages over dry, powdered or particulate laundry detergent products. Liquid laundry detergent products are readily measurable, speedily dissolved in wash water, non-dusting, are capable of being easily applied in concentrated solutions or dispersions to soiled areas on garments to be laundered and usually occupy less storage space than granular products. Thus because liquid laundry detergents are usually considered to be more convenient to use than granular laundry detergents, they have found substantial favor with consumers.
However, liquid laundry detergents have the disadvantage that laundry detergent composition components which may be compatible with each other in granular products tend to interact or react with each other in a liquid (especially an aqueous liquid) environment. Components such as enzymes, surfactants, perfumes, brighteners, solvents and particularly bleaches and bleach activators can be especially difficult to incorporate into liquid laundry detergent products with an acceptable degree of compositional stability.
It is thus a further benefit of the present invention to provide a liquid laundry detergent composition which is not only specially designed for high-efficiency washing machines but also have physically stable formulations which include bleach agents and activators. One approach for enhancing the chemical compatibility and stability of liquid laundry detergent products has been to formulate non-aqueous (or anhydrous) liquid laundry detergent products. Generally, the chemical stability of the components of a non-aqueous liquid laundry detergent composition increases as the amount of water in the laundry detergent composition decreases. Moreover, by minimizing the amount of water in a liquid laundry detergent composition, one can maximize the surfactant activity of the composition. However, nonaqueous liquid detergents pose the additional problem that because they are generally formulated with higher amounts of nonionic surfactants, they result in a higher wash pH than most aqueous liquid detergents. At these higher pHs, the inherent dye transfer benefits inherently found in most detergent products are suppressed.
Given the foregoing, there is a continuing need to formulate liquid laundry detergent products, which when used in a “high-efficiency” washing machine, provide excellent cleaning benefits without excessive sudsing or causing fabric damage through dye transfer or other deleterious fabric surface damage.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It has now been determined that a liquid laundry detergent composition can be prepared which contains a stable bleach and a bleach activator system which provide superior cleaning benefits, as compared to high water wash system liquid laundry detergent compositions, and is suitable for use in a high-efficiency washing machines. In particular it has been found that by preparing nonagueous liquid detergent products comprising a stable suspension of solid, substantially insoluble particulate material (containing at least a bleach and bleach activator) dispersed throughout the liquid, then a stable liquid detergent products with a diverse set of detergent components (particularly a bleaching system) may be formed. Furthermore, by incorporating dye transfer and fabric agents as well as suds suppressors in the detergent composition, than it can be used in a high-efficiency washing machine without the excessive foaming and dye transfer that would result from using conventional detergent compositions.
In a first aspect of the present invention, the nonaqueous liquid laundry compositions are utilized in a method of laundering soiled fabrics comprising the steps of contacting the fabric in an aqueous laundering solution with a nonaqueous liquid detergent composition and said detergent composition being used at a concentration amount in said aqueous solution of from 2000 ppm to about 10,000 ppm. The aqueous solution is formed in a water volume of from about 3 gall
Aiken, III John Davis
Sampath Murali
Swift, II Ronald Allen
Cook C. Brant
Gupta Yogendra N.
Miller Steven W.
Petruncio John M.
The Procter & Gamble & Company
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