Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – Solid – shaped macroscopic article or structure
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-04
2004-06-08
Douyon, Lorna M. (Department: 1751)
Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces, auxiliary compositions
Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing
Solid, shaped macroscopic article or structure
C510S451000, C510S441000, C510S442000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06747000
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to process for making improved beads for cleaning compositions, comprising solid materials, including surfactant, and purposely added specific amount of water and to thus obtained beads and to compositions containing these beads.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
To introduce surfactants into solid cleaning compositions, detergent manufacturers mainly use granulation processes whereby liquid surfactants or pastes of surfactant in water are mixed with powders, to form granules, or whereby liquid surfactants or solutions thereof are sprayed onto solid granules.
For example, to make surfactant-containing granules, surfactant flakes or needles are typically made into surfactant pastes, by dissolving or dispersing the needles into water and optionally adding additional ingredients to this paste. The paste then formed into granules. Standard processes to make detergent granules with surfactants are agglomeration, extrusion and spray-drying. The resulting granules need to be dried because otherwise the granules are very sticky and difficult to handle.
Also, if higher active granules are required, i.e. containing higher levels of surfactants, it is important to make the granules obtained as described above as dry as possible, to reduce stickiness.
The inventors found that these granules made form pastes and subsequently dried can be very brittle, resulting in dust formation during handling. This is in particular the case with high active surfactant particles.
The inventors found an improved process resulting in detergent granules or beads which are much less brittle. They found that by dry mixing and compacting dry granular ingredients, thereby forming larger dry granules or beads, and subsequently spraying on very small amounts of water, to slightly increase the free moisture level of these granules, the robustness of the resulting granules or beads is improved. The resulting granules or beads are non-sticky and less likely to form dust during handling. It is believed that only the surface of the compacted granules is modified, making the beads more robust.
Furthermore, the inventors found that even when brittle surfactant needles are used as one of the starting granular ingredient, the use of this process results in (high active) robust, non-sticky beads.
The thus obtained beads can be conveniently dry-added to other cleaning ingredients or stored prior to addition to the remaining cleaning composition particles.
Moreover, the inventors found that to reduce process complexity, the making of these beads can conveniently be combined with the making of speckle particles for the compositions, by spraying-on an aqueous solution of a specific dye onto the compacted dry granules. Thus, a convenient way of introducing high active surfactants particle and dye is obtained.
Moreover, the inventors found that it is beneficial to use the process of the invention to introduce speckles to the formulations, because the process requires relative small amounts of dye, because it is only applied on the surface of the beads. This reduces the need for large amount of dye in the product, which is beneficial because dye is known to have a tendency to ‘bleed’ out of the product, which is undesirable.
They also found that in particular cylinder shaped beads are beneficial to give a product speckle-appearance, without using too much dye in the products.
The inventors have also found that the coloured beads are particular useful in clay-containing products, such as softening through the wash products, to efficiently mask the colour of the clay in the product.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a process for making beads for cleaning compositions comprising the steps of
a) compacting two or more dry granular components containing less than 4.5% by weight of free-moisture, and optionally a binder component, to form granules containing less than 4.5% by weight of free moisture; and
b) contacting said granules with an amount of water sufficient to obtain beads with a free-moisture level to 5.5% to 15%.
Preferably, step b) is done by spraying the water onto the granules; preferably step a) is done by mixing the dry granular components, and optionally a binder component, to form a dry mixture and extruding this mixture, typically to obtain an extrudate which is subsequently reduced in size to form the beads of the required size.
Preferably, each of the dry granular components comprises less than 3.5% by weight of free moisture, or even less than 2.5% by weight.
Preferably, the resulting bead comprises from 6% to 10%, or even 6.5% to 8% by weight of free moisture.
The invention also relates to beads obtained by such processes, coloured beads, and cleaning compositions comprising such beads, in particular cleaning compositions comprising clay, such as fabric softening clays.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Process
The process of the invention involves compacting two or more granular components, to form a larger granule. Any compacting process can be used, but preferred is a process involving moulding and compacting, roller compacting and most preferably extrusion of the dry granular components. Such processes are known in the art.
In a preferred compacting process, the dry granular components, having been mixed together, are forced between two compaction rolls that applies a pressure to said mixture so that the rotation of the rolls transforms the mixture into a compacted sheet/flake.
Typically, the compacting step is followed by a size reduction step, for example cutting the long extrudates into granules of the required particle length, or for example, the compacted sheet/flake is granulated. One way to carry this out is to mill the compacted flake/sheet or to granulate the agglomerate mixture by conventional means. Milling may typically be carried out with a Flake Crusher FC 200® commercially available from Hosokawa Bepex GmbH. Depending on the end particle size desired for granules to be formed into the beads herein, the milled material may further be sieved, for example carried out with a commercially available Alpine Airjet Screen.
Preferred is an extrusion process whereby the inlet and out let temperature of the extruder is less than 80° C., preferably less than 60° C. or even less than 45° C., and whereby the temperature in the extruder is increased, preferably up to 120° C., more preferably up to 80° C. or even up to 60° C.
Non-aqueous binders may be present in the process and in the beads. One or more of the dry mixed solid components may also act as binder, but when the term binder is used herein, it is meant that this is an optional additional ingredient, which is a liquid, typically viscous material during the compacting step. Preferred maybe alkoxylated alcohols, having an ethoxylation degree of 20 or more, more preferably of 60 or even 80 or more, preferred being TAE80, or polyethylene glycols.
It may even be possible to add very small amounts of water, up to 4% or even up to 2% by weight of the total of the component, but preferably no water is added during the compaction step.
The components to be incorporated in the beads are dry, which means herein that each of these components comprises no more than 4.5% of free moisture, preferably no more than 4% or even no more than 3.5% or even no more than 2.5% by weight of the component. It may even be preferred that there is substantially no free moisture present in the dry components.
The free moisture level can be determined by placing 5 grams of the granular component or the bead herein in a petri dish and placing this petri dish in a convection oven at 50° C. for 2 hours, and subsequently measuring the weight loss, due to water evaporation.
The granules formed by the compaction step are subsequently contacted with specific amounts of water. This process steps is such that the resulting beads have an increased water level, being from 5.5.% to 15% by weight of the beads, more preferably 6% to 10% by weight, preferably 6% to 8% by weight.
The addition of the water does not substantially change the size of the granules an
Banks David
Pearce Emma Jane
Bolam Brian M.
Corstanje Brahm J.
Douyon Lorna M.
Dressman Marianne
The Procter & Gamble & Company
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