Solid anti-friction devices – materials therefor – lubricant or se – Lubricants or separants for moving solid surfaces and... – Ptfe
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-06
2004-01-13
McAvoy, Ellen M. (Department: 1764)
Solid anti-friction devices, materials therefor, lubricant or se
Lubricants or separants for moving solid surfaces and...
Ptfe
C508S208000, C508S283000, C508S433000, C508S545000, C508S562000, C508S583000, C508S590000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06677280
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to a process for reducing the friction between new and/or freshly washed transport containers and conveyors, to containers which are provided on at least part of their outer surface with a film or coating containing lubricating components and to conveyors designed for the transport of such containers.
In the food industry and especially in beverage factories, the containers to be filled in the bottling plants are conveyed by conveyors differing in design and constituent materials, for example by platform conveyors or chain-like arrangements which are generally referred to hereinafter as chain conveyors. The conveyors establish the connection between the various optional treatment stages of the bottling process such as, for example, the unpacker, bottle washer, filler, closer, labeller, packer, etc. The containers may assume various forms, more particularly glass and plastic bottles, cans, glasses, casks, beverage containers (kegs), paper and paperboard containers. To guarantee uninterrupted operation, the conveyor chains have to be suitably lubricated to avoid excessive friction with the containers. Dilute aqueous solutions containing suitable friction-reducing ingredients are normally used for lubrication. The chain conveyors are contacted with the aqueous solutions by dipping or spraying, for example, the corresponding lubrication systems being known as dip lubrication or automatic belt lubrication or central chain lubrication systems.
The chain lubricants hitherto used as lubricants are mostly based on fatty acids in the form of their water-soluble alkali metal or alkanolamine salts or on fatty amines, preferably in the form of their organic or inorganic salts.
Whereas both classes of substances can be used without difficulty in dip lubrication, they are attended by a number of disadvantages in the central chain lubrication systems typically in use today. Thus, DE-A-23 13 330 describes soap-based lubricants containing aqueous mixtures of C
16-18
fatty acid salts and surface-active substances. Soap-based lubricants such as these have the following disadvantages:
1. They react with the hardness ions in water, i.e. the alkaline earth metal ions, and other ingredients of water to form poorly soluble metal soaps, so-called primary alkaline earth metal soaps.
2. A reaction takes place between the soap-based lubricants and carbon dioxide dissolved in water or in the product to be bottled.
3. The in-use solution thus prepared is always germ-promoting.
4. Where hard water is used, ion exchangers have to be employed to soften the water which means an additional source of germs (and is therefore hardly encountered in practice) or, alternatively, products of high complexing agent content have to be used which is ecologically unsafe.
5. Increased foaming occurs which can cause problems in particular at the bottle inspector (automatic bottle control) and results in greater wetting of the transport containers.
6. Most of these products contain solvents.
7. The cleaning effect of the products is poor so that separate cleaning is necessary.
8. Corresponding soap-based lubricant preparations show pH-dependent performance.
9. In addition, soap-based lubricant preparations are dependent on the water temperature.
10. Soap-based lubricants show poor stability in storage, particularly at low temperatures.
11. The EDTA (ethylenediamine tetraacetate) present in many products is known to have poor biodegradability.
12. Soap-based lubricant preparations are not suitable for all plastic transport containers because, in many cases, they give rise to stress cracking in the transport container.
Besides soap-based lubricants, lubricants based on fatty amines are mainly used. Thus, DE-A-36 31 953 describes a process for lubricating chain-type bottle conveyors in bottling factories, more particularly in breweries, and for cleaning the conveyors with a liquid cleaning composition, characterized in that the chain-type bottle conveyors are lubricated with belt lubricants based on neutralized primary fatty amines which preferably contain 12 to 18 carbon atoms and which have an unsaturated component of more than 10%.
EP-A-0 372 628 discloses fatty amine derivatives corresponding to the following formulae:
in which
R
1
is a saturated or unsaturated, branched or linear alkyl group containing 8 to 22 carbon atoms,
R
2
is hydrogen, an alkyl or hydroxyalkyl group containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms or —A—NH
2
,
A is a linear or branched alkylene group containing 1 to 8 carbon atoms and
A
1
is a linear or branched alkylene group containing 2 to 4 carbon atoms, as lubricants.
In addition, lubricants based on N-alkylated fatty amine derivatives which contain at least one secondary and/or tertiary amine are known from DE-A-39 05 548.
DE-A-42 06 506 relates to soapless lubricants based on amphoteric compounds, primary, secondary and/or tertiary amines and/or salts of such amines corresponding to general formulae (I), (IIa), (IIb), (IIIa), (IIIb), (IIIc), (IVa) and (IVb):
in which
R is a saturated or mono- or polyunsaturated, linear or branched alkyl group containing 6 to 22 carbon atoms which may optionally be substituted by —OH, —NH
2
, —NH—, —CO—, —(CH
2
CH
2
O)
1
— or —(CH
2
CH
2
CH
2
O)
1
—,
R
1
is hydrogen, an alkyl group containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a hydroxyalkyl group containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms or a group —R
3
COOM,
R
2
is hydrogen, an alkyl group containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms or a hydroxyalkyl group containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms, but only where M represents a negative charge,
R
3
is a saturated or mono- or polyunsaturated, linear or branched alkyl group containing 1 to 12 carbon atoms which may optionally be substituted by —OH, —NH
2
, —NH—, —CO—, —(CH
2
CH
2
O)
1
— or —(CH
2
CH
2
CH
2
O)
1
—,
R
4
is a substituted or unsubstituted, linear or branched, saturated or mono- or polyunsaturated alkyl group containing 6 to 22 carbon atoms which may contain at least one amine, imine, hydroxy, halogen and/or carboxy group as substituent, a substituted or unsubstituted phenyl group which may contain at least one amine, imine, hydroxy, halogen, carboxy and/or a linear or branched, saturated or mono- or polyunsaturated alkyl group containing 6 to 22 carbon atoms as substituent,
R
5
is hydrogen or—independently of R
4
—has the same meaning as R
4
,
X
−
is an anion from the group consisting of amidosulfonate, nitrate, halide, sulfate, hydrogen carbonate, carbonate, phosphate or R
6
—COO
−
where
R
6
is hydrogen, a substituted or unsubstituted, linear or branched alkyl group containing 1 to 20 carbon atoms or alkenyl group containing 2 to 20 carbon atoms, which may contain at least one hydroxy, amine or imine group as substituent, or a substituted or unsubstituted phenyl group which may contain an alkyl group with 1 to 20 carbon atoms as substituent, and
R
7
and R
8
independently of one another represent a substituted or unsubstituted, linear or branched alkyl group containing 1 to 20 carbon atoms or alkenyl group containing 2 to 20 carbon atoms which may contain at least one hydroxy, amine or imine group as substituent, or a substituted or unsubstituted phenyl group which may contain an alkyl group with 1 to 20 carbon atoms as substituent,
M is hydrogen, alkali metal, ammonium, an alkyl group containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a benzyl group or a negative charge,
n is an integer of 1 to 12,
m is an integer of 0 to 5 and
l is a number of 0 to 5,
containing alkyl dimethylamine oxides and/or alkyl oligoglycosides as nonionic surfactants.
EP-B-629 234 discloses a lubricant combination consisting of
a) one or more compounds corresponding to the following formula:
in which
R
1
is a saturated or mono- or polyunsaturated, linear or branched alkyl group containing 6 to 22 carbon atoms which may optionally be substituted by —OH, —NH
2
—, —NH—, —CO—, halogen or a carboxyl group,
R
2
is a carboxyl group containing 2 to 7 carbon atoms,
M is hydrogen, alkali metal, ammonium, an alkyl group containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms or a benzyl group and
n is an integer of 1 to 6,
b) at least one or
Grosse Böwing Walter
Kluschanzoff Harald
Küpper Stefan
Laufenberg Alfred
Schneider Michael
Ecolab GmbH & Co. OHG
McAvoy Ellen M.
Merchant & Gould P.C.
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