AU663850B2 - Lavatory cleansing - Google Patents

Description

OPI DATE 17/03/92 SAOJP DATE 30/04/92 APPLN. ID 84993 91 PCT NUMBER PCT/GB91/01448 INTERNATI_ EATY (PCT) (51) International Patent Classification 5 International Publication Number: WO 92/03532 C11D 17/00, 1/22, 3/22 Al C11D 3/37 (43) International Publication Date: 5 March 1992 (05.03.92) (21) International Application Number: PCT/GB91/01448 (74) Agent: LAMB, John, Baxter; Marks Clerk, 57-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LS (GB).

(22) International Filing Date: 28 August 1991 (28.08.91) (81) Designated States: AT (European patent), AU, BE (Euro- Priority data: pean patent), BR, CA, CH (European patent), DE (Eu- 9018779.0 28 August 1990 (28,08.90) GB ropean patent), DK (European patent), ES (European patent), FR (European patent), GB, GB (European patent), GR (European patent), IT (European patent). JP, (71) Applicant (for all designated States except US): JEYES LI- LU (European patent), NL (European patent), SE (Eu- MITED [GB/GB]; Brunel Way, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 ropean patent), US.

IHA (GB).

(72) Inventors; and Published Inventors/Applicants (for US only) BLACK, Steven, John, With international search report.

Farrell [GB/GB]; 25 Ramage Road, Carluke ML8 4LX Before the expiration of the time limit for amending the MARSHALL, John [GB/GB]; 18 Lindford Drive, claims and to be republished in the event of the receipt of Eaton, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 6LT WILSON, Bri- amendments.

an, Murie [GB/GB]; I Kellie Grove, East Kilbride, Glasgow G74 4DN (GB).

663850 (54)Title: LAVATORY CLEANSING (57) Abstract In a process for the production of lavatory cleansing blocks by extruding a mixture of appropriate ingredients for the block, the mixture to be extruded comprises, based on the total weight of the mixture; from 5 to 85 by weight, of one or more anionic surface active agents; and (ii) from 0.5 to 40 by weight of one or more rheological control agents.

v i SWO 92/03532 PCT/GB91/01448 LAVATORY CLEANSING This invention is concerned with improvements in and relating to lavatory cleansing blocks.

In particular, the present invention is concerned with so-called "free standing" lavatory cleansing blocks which are immersed in the water cistern of a lavatory or urinal so that cleansing ingredients contained in the block are slowly dissolved in the water of the cistern.

On flushing of the lavatory or urinal, the water from the cistern, containing dissolved cleansing ingredients, is flushed into the lavatory bowl or urinal and serves to cleanse it.

Generally such lavatory cleansing blocks comprise two principal components, namely: a surface active or detergent component comprising one or more surface active or detergent agents, and (ii) a solubility retardant or solubility control component, which serves to control the rate of dissolution of the block in the water of the cistern and which comprises one or more, more or less water-insoluble components.

i WO 92/03532 PCT/GB91/01448 2 In addition to these two principal components, freestanding lavatory cleansing blocks commonly contain one or more of inert fillers, water-softening agents (which may also serve to some extent as fillers), colouring agents (especially water-soluble dyestuffs, commonly of a blue or green colour), perfumes and germicides or preservatives.

When first manufactured ,i a commercial scale, lavatory cleansing blocks were made by a "melt" process; that is the components for the block were melted together and the melt cast into moulds to form the desired blocks. The "melt" process effectively precludes the use of high melting or difficultly meltable materials and especially precludes the use, as surfactants, of anionic surfactants; well-known and readily available surfactant materials.

Lavatory cleansing blocks containir' anionic surfactants may be made by a ccr;sassion process, e a tabletting process or, especially, an extrusion process; in which a mixture of the components of the block is compressed and extruded to form a rod or bar which is subsequently divided into pieces of the desired size.

r 3 We have now found that it is possible to manufacture blocks having a satisfactory in-use life by an extrusion process, which blocks comprise an anionic surfactant together with a rheological control agent, which latter serves, inter alia, to control the in-use life of the block.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a process for the production of lavatory cleansing blocks by extruding a mixture of appropriate ingredients for the blocks into rod form and subsequently cutting the rod into blocks of the desired size, in which the mixture to be extruded comprises, based on the total weight of the mixture; from 5 to 85%, preferably from 10 to 70%, more preferably from 20 to by weight of one or more anionic surface active agents; and (ii) from 0.5 to 40%, preferably from 3 to 15% by weight, of one or more organic polymeric rheological control agents comprising polysaccharide gums.

The mixture to be compressed may also suitably contain, as discussed in more detail below,

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WO 92/03532 PCT/GB91/01448 4 (iii) one or more solubility control agents, suitably in an amount of up to 20% by weight, preferably from 5 to 15% by weight; and (iv) one or more fillers suitably in an amount of up to 75% by weight, preferably from 15% to by weight.

The anionic surface active agent used in the blocks of the invention may be, for example, an alkali metal, typically sodium, paraffin sulphonate; alkali metal alkyl sulphate or alkali metal alkyl aryl sulphonate; especially an alkali metal alkyl benzene sulphonate. In particular, sodium dodecyl benzene sulphonate may be mentioned as it is a readily commercially available anionic surface active agent, Anionic surfactants, as commercially available, commonly contain minor amounts of inert vrater-soluble filler such as sodium sulphate. In determining the amount of surfactant present in the block of the invention we refer to the true content of actual surfactant mentioned so that any filler which may be .present contributes to any filler content (component of the block.

i l i m l I WO 92/03532 PCT/GB91/01448 :n addition to the anionic surface active agent component, other surface active or detergent materials may be present in the block, especially nonionic surface active materials. Such materials should preferably be present in lesser amounts than the anionic surface active agent and thus may, for example, form utto preferably up to 10%, of the weight of the block.

Typical nonionic surface active agents which may be employed include polyalkoxylated, usually polyi ethoxylated, fatty acids, fatty alcohols and alkvy phenols; and ethylene oxide/propylene oxide block Scopolymers. As is well known, the water-solubility of such nonionic surface active agents generally varies depending upon the average amount of ethylene oxide units per mole of surfactant. Thus, for example, ethoxylated nonionic surface active agents containing an average of ten or more ethylene oxide units per mole are generally readily water-soluble whereas those containing lower amounts of ethylene oxide, especially those containing from 1 to 5 ethylene oxide units per mole, are less water-soluble and thus may serve both as surface active agents and as solubility control aaents, The second essential component of the mixture to be extruded is a rheological control agent, that is a material which, when dissolved or dispersed in water, gives a thickening or viscosity building effect. The r -r 6 rheological control agent may be a clay, such as bentonite or laponite, or a water-soluble or water dispersible organic polymer.

Wholly synthetic polymers which may be used in accordance with the invention include polyvinyl alcohols; water-soluble partially hydrolysed polyvinyl acetates; polyacrylonitriles; polyvinyl pyrrolidones; water-soluble polymers of ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acids, such as acrylic acid and methacrylic acid, and salts thereof; base-hydrolysed starch-polyacrylonitrile copolymers; polyacrylamides; polyether resins; and carboxypolymethylenes.

*f i e i i 0 [n:\libff]00256:EAR At WO 92/03532 PCT/GB91/01448 7 A particularly preferred class of organic polymeric rheological control agents comprises the polysaccharide gums which have been found to assist in the extrusion process as well as being useful constituents of the block.

A particularly preferred natural polysaccharide gum for use in accordance with the invention is guar gum, but other gums which may be employed include xanthan gum, tragacanth, carragheenan, etc and their semi-synthetic analogues as produced by fermentation.

The gum serves as a cohesion agent and also as a solubility control agent and as a lubricant processing aid. However other solubility control agents may be employed in addition to the gum or other rheological control agent.

Examples of such other solubility control agents are organic compounds of lower solubility than the anionic surface active agents and may vary in solubility from virtually completely insoluble to moderately soluble; the more insoluble being preferred for use in the present invention. As will be appreciated, a wide variety of solubility control agents may be employed and examples of preferred, generally insoluble agents include: waxes, such as waxes of natural origin, polyethylene waxes and amide waxes; long chain (e.g, I

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WO 92/03532 PCT/GB91/01448 containing more than 10 carbon atoms) fatty alcohols such as stearyl or behenyl alcohol; long chain, g.

containing more than 10 carbon atoms) fatty acids, such as stearic acid, and their salts; esters of long chain fatty alcohols with aliphatic carboxylic acids, such as stearyl acetate; esters of long chain fatty acids with mono or polyhydric alcohols, such as ethyl stearate or glycerol tristearate or mono-, di- or tri- glycerides of natural origin; fatty acid mono- and di- alkanolamides, such as coconut monoethanolamide; ethoxylated products of fatty acid mono- or di- ethanolamides containing low amounts, e.g. 2 to 4 units, of ethylene oxide per mole; paradichlorobenzene; or long chain aliphatie hydrocarbons of natural or synthetic origin, Other preferred solubility control agents are generally insoluble perfume materials as discussed below.

In general, the amount of solubility control agent present will depend upon three principal factors, the intended life of the block, the solubility of the solubility control agent and the amount of theology control agent. As will be appreciated, in order to obtain longer life more solubility control agent should be present and vice versa. Similarly, more of the more soluble solubility control agents will be Iequired to obtain the same life than of the less soluble or wholly insoluble solubili.,y control agents.

WO 92/03532 PCT/GB91/01448 9 Suitable fillers for use in the blocks of the invention are organic fillers such as urea; and inorganic fillers such as sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, sodium sulphate, borax, talc and calcium sulphate.

In addition to the above essential ingredients, the blocks of the invention may contain other ingredients, especially colouring agents, perfumes, preservatives and lime scale-removing agents.

The filler component may also comprise a water-softening agent such aP, for example, inorganic water-softening agents, such as sodium hexametaphosphate or other alkali metal polyphosphates, or organic water-softening or chelating agents such as ethylene-diamine ,etraacetic acid and nitrilotriacetic i acid and alkali metal salts thereof. Further the filler componelit may also comprise salts of polybasic metals, e, g. magnesium s'ulphate which serve to give improved character to the blocks as noted in our Application Serial No 2169612A Thus, the blocks of the invention will also generally contain a dyestuff or other colouring agent, such as a pigment, i,A order to impart a pleasant I -=i r i i WO 92/03532 PCT/GB91/01448 colouration to the water and also to indicate to the user when the block has exhausted e on exhaustion of the block the water becomes colourless). Accordingly, the block preferably contains water soluble dyestuff, suitably in an amount of up to 50% by weight, preferabiv in an amount of from 1 to 30% by weight. Suitable dyestuffs include, for example, Acid Blue 9, Acid Blue 1, Acid Blue 7 -nd Acid Yellow 23, The blocks may also contain perfumes to impart an acceptable odour to the flushed water. The perfume may, be a solid perfume, which term is intended to include micro-encapsulated perfumes liquid perfumes contained in a water-soluble microcapsule) or other solid perfume materials such as paradichlorobenzene, Alternatively the perfume may be a ~iquid and in this case the term liquid perfume is intended to cover not only perfumes oer se but solutions or perfumes in solvents therefor, The total amount of perfume should not be more than 20% by weight and is preferably from 2 to 10% by weight, It may be noted that the term "perfume" is intended to refer to any material giving an acceptable odour and thus materials giving a "disinfectant" odour such as pine oils, terpinolenes or paradichloroben ene may be employed. It may be further noted that liquid perfumes are frequently substantally water-insoluble and thus they may serve as a part of tne i

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WO 92/03532 PCI/GB91/01448 11 wazer-solbili'ty control agent. In other words, a s:ngle material, such as pine oil, may serve both as perfume and a solubility control agent.

The blocks in accordance with the invention may also contain germicides. Suitable germicides nclude, for example, formaldehyde release agents, iodophors and chlorinated phenols. These compounds may be present in the blocks in amounts of up to 10% by weight.

Suitable lime scale-removing agents are acidic compounds such as citric acid, formic acid, sulphuriL acid, phosphoric aci and sulphamic acid, These, when present, suitably form up to 10% by weight of the block, especially in the case of solid acidic materials, such as citric acid. which then also serve as a filler, The blocks in accordance with the invention are produced by an extrusion process comprising forming a mixture of the components for the block, extruding this mixture into rod or bar form and subsequently dividing the rod or bar into portions or blocks of the desired size. Conveniently the starting mixture contains a liquid component or a solid component capable of being wholly or partially liquefied under processing conditions, generally in an amount of up to 20% by weight, preferably from 3 to 15% by weight, of I WO 92/03532 PCT/GB91/01448 12 the, total mixture. Most conveniently such a liquid component comprises a perfume component and/or a solublit- control agent component. Thus, for example, pine oil may serve not only as a perfume and solubility control agent but also as a processing aid. The blocks of the invention are suitably from 20 to 150 gms in weight preferably from 30 to 120 gms in weight.

The invention further provides a method for cleansing a lavatory or urinal which comprises immers ng in the water cistern of the lavatory or urinal a block produced in accordance with the invention. Blocks produced in accordance with the invention may also be used as containerized blocks in dispensing containers) or as rim blocks for mounting in WC bowls.

K :h order that the invention may be well well understood the following Examples are given by way of 11iijstration only, In the Examples all parts are by weiaht, Lavatory cleansing blocks were prepared by extruding compositions having the formulations given in the Table below and cutting the extruded rod into blocks weighing about 50 gm. The blocks so obtained all had acc.ptable in-use lives when employed as free-standing lavatory cleaning blocks in lavatory cisterns.

I_ WO 92/03532 PCT/GB9I /01448 139 Table 2.

Example 1,2 3 4 6 MARLON A390 30 NANSA HS80-SJ 40 35 NANSA HS80GPF 30 30 SODIUMv SULPHATE 5 5.5 48. 5 46. 5 1.S 7. 5 12. -TALC 5 5 5 BLUE DYE 4 4 4 11111 GUAR GUM 5 1 3 15 20 0 v P0. 5 0, 5 0. 5 0. 5 C.5 PINE OIL 6 9 9 -5 57 21 f "A ExamnpleC Raasa 12OGN El,,.

Acii Blue 9 Op COll file OilI NqSO. ILI Irrylic kUi Poyme (tapdom is a rxyietbyl Cllme ICourmeC Pa-144i Sil.dt (Lapfnite hIE1 ("ied) Starch fIkrestar AJ) uair oil Ianthan Go (Idltrol 17 Ij1drury Ethyl CeIlulose (ratrasal non), NEthyl tPHIOIe (EetkicMI 11 UIraqur-propyl-methyI-cellalose (Nettig"d JJ 17 50.5 TABLE III 20 Me.

11 45 17.5 11.0 0.5 26 16.4 12.1 PtAyellva w-sill 1h, IC' i i i i WO 92/03532 PCY/GB91/01448 Table II 7 8 t 9 Lo 1 11 1 12 113 1 14 1 15 11 larlonL390 45 45 45 3, lnsa OSJ Iar~a HS8006 30 -I Ufayl DL9O 45 37.7 Ufaryl DL5- 32.7 Sodim Suipbate 46.1.5 1. 7. 25 60 47.4 5 17.5 W .316 I7 7 7 7 7 7 Taic 5 5 -5 19 BlueDye 6 11 11 11 16 [13.11 PiNoil 150 7 9 9 9 9 9 6 5.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.2 cps) 4 10 10 10 10 10 5 3 5 liniral Oil 1 0.8 1.9 id Yellv IDye 14.1 The materials Marion A390, Nansa HS8OSJ, Nansa Ufaryl DL9O and Ufaryl DL85 on all commercially available sodium dodecyl benzene sulphonate containing, as fillers, sodium sulphate, sodium tripolyphosphate/sodium sulphate, magnesium sulphate/sodium sulphate, sodium sulphate and sodium carbonate, respectively.

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Claims (5)

1. A process for the production of lavatory cleansing blocks by extruding a mixture of appropriate ingredients for the block into rod form and cutting the rod into pieces of the desired size, in which the mixture to be extruded comprises, based on the total weight of the mixture; from 5 to 85 by weight, of one or more anionic surface active agents; and (ii) from 0.5 to 40% by weight, of one or more organic polymeric rheological control agents comprising polysaccharide gum.

2. A process as claimed in claim 1 in which the anionic surfactant is an alkali o1 metal alkyl benzene sulphonate.

3. A process as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the mixture to be compressed also contains: (iii) up to 20% by weight of one or more solubility control agents; and/or (iv) up to 75 by weight of one or more fillers or builders.

4. A process as defined in claim 1 substantially as hereinbefore described, with reference to any one of the Examples. 4 II I 4 4£ I 20 44 II Dated 30 August, 1995 Jeyes Limited Patent Attorneys for the Applicant/Nominated Person SPRUSON FERGUSON '4 6* 4* It 4 i 0 [n:\libffl00256:EAR t r 1 [n:\libff]00256:EAR INTERNATIONAL SEARCH REPORT International Application No PCT/GB 91/01448 1. CLASSIFICATION OF SUBIJECT MATTER (if Several claSSification symbols ipply, indicate all)b According to International Patent Classification (IPCI or to both National Classific:ation and IPC Int.Cl. 5 C11D17/00; C11DI/22; £1103122; C11D3/37

11. FIELDS SEARCHED Minimum Documentation Searched' Classification System Classification Symbols Int.Cl. 5 CUID Documentation Searched other than Minimum Documentation to the Extent that such Documents are Included In the Fields Sesrchedii III. DOCUMENTS CONSIDERED TO BIE RELEVANT 9 Category 0f Citation of Document. It with Indication, where appropriate, of the relevaint passages 12 Relevant to Claim NO.13 X US,A,4 722 802 HUTCHINGS ET AL) 2 February 1,2,4,5 1988 see column 5, line 42 column 6, line 66; claims 16,17,68 X US,A,4 911 859 (CI-J. BUNCZK ET AL) 27 March 1990 see column 3, line 65 line 68; claims Y GB,A,2 061 996 (JEYES GROUP) 20 May 1981 see the whole document Y EP,A,0 369 992 (KIWI BRANDS) 23 May 1990 see claims Y EP,A,0O 101 402 (HENKEL) 22 February 198d see claims; examples 0Special. categories of cited documents :1 later document published after the International fIling date 'A document defining the general state of the art which Is not or priority date and not In conflict with the% applicatign but considered to be Of particular relevance Itvedntiondr tepicleothrytCdrytgte earlier document but published on or alter the international IX' document of particular relevance; the claimed Invention filing date cannot be considered novel or cannot be considered to 'L document which may throw doubts Oht priority claim(s) or Involve an inventive step which Is cited to eumbiih the publication date of another document of particular relevance; the claimed Invention citation or other special reason (as specified) cannot be considered to Involve an Inventive step when the document eeing to an ritdisclosume usevihrbtto or document Is combined with one or more other ouch docu- other means ments, such combination being obvious to a person skilled I- document published prior to the International filing date but In the art. later tha2n the priority date claimed W document member of the same patent family IV, CERTIFICATION Date of the Actual Completion of~ te tvtoeMrliotal Seatch Dalo, of Mailing of this Internationral Search Report 12 DECEMBER 1991 2. 01. 92 Inierisatlowa ovchinj Authority Signature of Attthorized Offltcr EUROPEAN PATENT OFhICE GOLLER P. Lrores PCTIISA/210 iecond otteetl Jouue Itoh 4 ANNEX TO THE INTERNATIONAL SEARCH REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL PATENT APPLICATION No. GB 9101448 SA 50779 This annex Iif;ts the patent family members relating to the patent documents cited in the above-mentioned international search report. The members are as contained in the European Patent Offie EDP rlec on The European Patent Office is in no way liable for particulars vd)icI arc merely given for thc purpose of information, 12/12/9 1 Patent document P~ublication Patent family i'iililication ied in search report date memher,) dale US-A-4722802 02-02-88 AU-B- 595015 22-03-90 AU-A- 7047387 01-10-87 US-A-4911859 27-03-90 EP-A- 0423391 24-04-91 GB-A-2061996 20-05-81 None EP-A-0369992 23-05-90 US-A- 4722801 02-02-88 AU-B- 604616 20-12-90 AU-A- 4864890 10-05-90 AU-B- 595619 05-04-90 AU-A- 7452787 24-12-87 EP-A,B 0250268 23-12-87 GB-A,B 2191781 23-12-87 GB-A,B 2226827 11-07-90 JP-A- 63006095 12-01-88 US-A- 4780236 25-10-88 ZA-A- 8704326 17-12-87 EP-A-0101402 22-02-84 DE-A- 3225292 12-01-84 US-A- 4578207 25-03-86 US-A- 4683072 28-07-87 w For more details about this annex see Official Journil of the Etiropein l'atcht Office, 12/82