Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C11—ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE OILS, FATS, FATTY SUBSTANCES OR WAXES; FATTY ACIDS THEREFROM; DETERGENTS; CANDLES
  • C11D—DETERGENT COMPOSITIONS; USE OF SINGLE SUBSTANCES AS DETERGENTS; SOAP OR SOAP-MAKING; RESIN SOAPS; RECOVERY OF GLYCEROL
  • C11D3/00—Other compounding ingredients of detergent compositions covered in group C11D1/00
  • C11D3/40—Dyes ; Pigments

Definitions

• This invention relates to a process for the manufacture of coloured detergent powder.
• Coloured detergent powders are normally made by adding dye or pigment to a crutcher slurry and converting the slurry to a powder by spray-drying.
• dye solution can be injected into the main feed to the nozzles of the spray-drying tower with similar results.
• the disadvantage of these processes is that they contaminate the whole of the spray-drying plant with dyestuff so that when a white powder is subsequently to be made it is necessary to clean down, with consequent loss of production time.
• United States Patent No 4 162 228 relates to a method of colouring detergent flakes which contain nonionic surfactant as an essential component.
• the method involves mixing a dry colourant into the flakes whereupon the nonionic surfactant dissolves the colourant, imparting an overall hue to the flakes.
• Flakes are, of course, easier to colour than powders since they are translucent, and the whole formulation is contained within the flake.
• powders normally consist of two components - a spray-dried portion and a dry-dosed portion which may have different affinities for colourant resulting in the powder having a mottled appearance.
• coloured powder can be manufactured by simply mixing a particulate colorant with a detergent powder.
• the present invention provides a process for the manufacture of a coloured detergent powder which comprises admixing a particulate colourant with the powder.
• the coloured powder may be sprayed with a small percentage, for example 1-5% by weight, of water or of an ethoxylated alcohol nonionic surfactant in liquid or molten form. This can help to accentuate the colouration.
• the mean particle size of the colourant is 0.5 to 5 microns, most preferably abut 2 microns.
• the process may be applied to powder which has been prepared by spray-drying, spray-cooling, granulation or agglomeration or any combination of these techniques. Additionally, any of the powder so produced may be dosed with conventional detergent powder additives such as sodium perborate tetrahydrate without altering the effectiveness of the process.
• the apparatus used for mixing the particulate colourant and the powder is not critical to the process. We have found a rotating drum mixer to be perfectly satistactory and also, a Patterson-Kelly (Trade Mark) batch blender has performed well.
• White, spray-dried detergent powder is first fed down a chute at a flow rate of about 350 Kg/hour controlled by a slide valve into one end of the interior of a rotatable drum mixer without internal baffles.
• the axis of the drum mixer is approximately horizontal but the mean residence time of the powder in the drum which is about 2 minutes can be adjusted to some extent by moving the axis up or down by a few degrees.
• the drum is rotated and a finely powdered mixture of the following colourants is fed into the drum from a variable speed dosing unit:
• Substantially uniformly blue coloured powder emerges from the discharge end of the drum mixer.
• the small quantity of water or nonionic surfactant referred to above say 1-3% by weight may be sprayed onto the powder in the drum through spray nozzles located along the axis.

Landscapes

• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
• Oil, Petroleum & Natural Gas (AREA)
• Wood Science & Technology (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Detergent Compositions (AREA)
• Cosmetics (AREA)

Priority Applications (1)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=10549121

Family Applications (1)

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Cited By (5)

Citations (3)

• 1983
  • 1983-09-21 GB GB838325326A patent/GB8325326D0/en active Pending
• 1984
  • 1984-09-19 AT AT84306414T patent/ATE27301T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1984-09-19 DE DE8484306414T patent/DE3463787D1/de not_active Expired
  • 1984-09-19 EP EP84306414A patent/EP0138410B1/de not_active Expired

Patent Citations (3)

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