Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-31
2001-02-06
Gravini, Stephen (Department: 3749)
Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces, auxiliary compositions
Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing
For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
C510S339000, C510S442000, C510S444000, C510S462000, C510S463000, C008S137000, C008S158000, C034S418000, C034S061000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06184193
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to wet cleaning systems and, in particular, a wet, or water-based, cleaning system for articles of clothing that have been conventionally dry cleaned. In addition to providing a system for wet cleaning of clothing, the present invention relates to a novel shrinkage prevention agent for use in such a wet cleaning system. The antishrink or shrinkage prevention agent minimizes or prevents the shrinkage of fabric, cloth, clothing, and articles made of hair, silk, rayon, animal hair, animal skin, mixed spun material, and other similar materials that are likely to shrink when washed in water. The system of the present invention includes a method for washing in water of items that would be conventionally dry cleaned, using the novel shrinkage prevention agent.
In general, cleaning in the clothing cleaning industry can be divided into dry cleaning and wet cleaning, which is washing in water. In order to avoid shrinkage caused by washing in water, many clothing items are conventionally dry cleaned. These types of clothing include fabric and other clothing made of hair, silk, rayon, animal hair, animal skin, and mixed spun materials, all of which have a tendency to shrink when they are washed in water. Therefore, at the present time, these items are conventionally only cleaned by dry cleaning. Dry cleaning employs solvents for cleaning, such as chloroethylene, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane, and perchloroethylene, which is commonly known as “perc.” Each of these solvents contain chlorine and they present environmental problems of ozone layer destruction, ground-water pollution, as well as the presence of carcinogenic substances. Accordingly, environmental regulations are restricting the use of freon-system or halogenated solvents, such as the above solvents.
Several prior art systems have been proposed for wet cleaning of clothing that is conventionally dry cleaned. U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,947 to Kazama discloses a wet cleaning system that uses a solvent of propylene glycol monomethyl ether containing 4% to 50% by volume of water. The Kazama patent does not teach or disclose the use of the natural plants and chemical substitutes used in the shrinkage prevention agent of the present invention.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 7-268,766 discloses a wet cleaning method for items that should be dry cleaned by using shrinkage prevention agent containing a water repelling silicone emulsion, such as water-repellant dimethylpolysiloxane oil, or amine-modified silicone oil, in combination with a detergent.
Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 6-340,897 discloses a degreasing agent that contains a water or hot water extract of tea as its active component. The extract is obtained by extracting a nonfermented tea such as green tea, a semifermented tea such as oolong tea, or a fermented tea such as black tea. The degreasing agent is formed by a mixture of one or more of such extracts and then is subjected to ultrasonic vibration.
As noted above, conventional dry-cleaning solvents, such as perc, present environmental pollution problems. Similarly, the silicone emulsion that is disclosed in the Japanese Pat. Application Laid-Open No. 7-268,766 is a nonflammable synthetic chemical substance that presents a ground-water pollution problem, to a degree. Flammable petroleum solvents used instead of the above silicone emulsion can ignite or explode, which also presents safety problems. In addition, dry cleaning with various solvents used to prevent shrinkage do not provide suitable cleaning of water-soluble salt-containing contaminants, such as perspiration, although those solvents can be effective for removal of oil-based stains.
On the other hand, the degreasing detergent of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-340,897 is comprised of extracts of tea so it does not present environmental pollution problems. However, the tannin contained in the tea extract can discolor clothes when it is used for washing clothing. Therefore, although the degreasing agent is suitable for cleaning or degreasing of specific precision machines, it is not suitable for washing clothes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a shrinkage prevention agent that permits water washing of clothes and other items that would conventionally be dry cleaned. The shrinkage prevention agent minimizes or prevents shrinkage of the clothing during water washing and also does not discolor the clothes during water washing. The present invention is also directed to a cleaning method or system that includes the use of such a shrinkage prevention agent for washing clothing in water.
In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to a shrinkage prevention agent that is formed by steam distillation or vacuum dry distillation of extracts of several natural plants. When such an agent is used for water cleaning of items that should be conventionally dry cleaned, no shrinkage or minimal shrinkage occurs in those items.
That is, the present invention relates to a shrinkage prevention agent for water washing, comprised of a steam distillation liquid and/or a vacuum dry distillation liquid of two or more plants selected from, for example, extracts of sagebrush, beefsteak plant, tea, plantaginales, aloe, chrysanthemum, pine, cedar and cypress and which contains at least one organic acid, having terpene and phenol as its effective components. The shrinkage prevention agent is comprised of a steam distilled liquid from which the oil in the steam distillation liquid is removed and/or a vacuum distillation liquid from which the initial fraction rich in lower alcohol or acetone is removed.
In addition, in several embodiments, the present invention relates to a system for wet cleaning of clothing with natural fibers that utilizes a shrinkage prevention agent that contains at least one organic acid with terpene and phenol as its effective components. The system permits the washing in water of items that are conventionally dry cleaned, such as fabric, cloth, and clothing made of hair, silk, rayon, animal hair, animal skin, mixed spun material and similar natural fibers. The washing system includes a low agitation soak cycle; cleaning assisted by microbubbles formed from turbulent mixing of air, water and the shrinkage prevention agent; and, is followed by a limited time, high powered drying cycle to remove remaining moisture from the clothing.
In this invention, the shrinkage prevention agent acts to remove oil-soluble and water-soluble contaminants in addition to performing the function of shrinkage prevention. Such contamination-removing action is considered to be due to the shrinkage prevention agent's stronger affinity to fibers than with the contaminating components because of the surfactant content in the shrink prevention agent.
The plants that can be used to produce the shrinkage prevention agent of this invention include sagebrush, beefsteak plant, tea, plantaginales, aloe, chrysanthemum, pine, cedar or cypress, orange, tangerine, and similar plants. The skin, bark, stem, leaves, flower or root of these plants can be used. In one preferred embodiment of this invention, at least two or more of these plants are used on account of the uneven shrinkage prevention effect or cleaning effect produced by steam distillation liquid or vacuum dry distillation liquid of any one type of plant. Thus, depending on the type of fiber or contamination, at least two or more plants are used to assure proper cleaning of the clothing fibers.
As mentioned above, use of multiple types of plants is desirable for an effective shrinkage prevention agent. When multiple types of plants are used, the types of effective components contained in the shrinkage prevention agent increases and, at the same time, their content ratio becomes more uniform and the antishrink action is exhibited against more types of contaminants and more types of laundry items.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Conventional dry cleaning utilizes petrochemical sol
Gravini Stephen
Nippon Mic, Co., LTD
Sidley & Austin
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