Diversey Lever, Inc.

Diversey, Inc.

Unilever, N.v.

Kenneth James Roach

Patricia Anne Anderson

James W Livingston

Tiziano Joseph Bellon

Donald Wright

A container for institutional detergents, preferably tablets, includes a rigid large screened base and a flexible plastic film sidewall heat bonded to the peripheral surface of the base. The container is filled, preferably from its top portion, with tableted detergent and closed with a single heat seal along the top surface of the wall of the container. The screen surface is then closed with a removable, peel-off seal or removable cap. The upper portion of the container will include a handle which makes it easy to transport the container and place it into a dispenser for use. In use, a water nozzle will spray upwards onto the surface of the screen base through the holes in the screen, dissolving detergent and allowing the solution to pass downwardly to a drain, which directs it to a ware washing apparatus.

Flexible walled container for tableted or pelleted ware washing

Tableted detergents are formed from a hydrated phosphate sequestrant, caustic, free water and, optionally, fillers by combining the products and tableting the components without permitting the tablets or detergent to exceed 50.degree. C. In a preferred embodiment where fillers are incorporated, all free water is combined with the phosphate sequestrants, both anhydrous and hydrated. After the water has been absorbed by the sequestrants, the filler and caustic can be added and the detergent tableted. The free water is bound sufficiently tightly to the phosphate sequestrant that it does not rapidly react with the anhydrous caustic, maintaining the temperature at less than 50.degree. C., which in turn prevents the water of hydration in the phosphates from reacting and thereby weakening the formed tablets. The tablets can also be formed by combining the filler with the phosphate sequestrants and water and subsequently adding caustic if the detergent is cooled and its temperature maintained below 50.degree. C. until the hydration reaction with the caustic and free water is complete.

Process for forming tableted high-caustic detergent

Detergent compositions are formed into tablets for dispensing. These tablets can be retained in a flexible plastic bag having a rigid opening and tapered midsection. The rigidity of the tablets enables the bag to retain its shape and prevent hydratable detergents from clogging up the dispenser. A preferred detergent formulation is a high-caustic detergent composition which includes a combination of sodium tripolyphosphate and sodium tripolyphosphate hexahydrate, defoaming surfactant, polycarboxylate and a processing and dissolution aid such as propylene glycol. This detergent composition, when tableted, provides an extremely uniform dissolution rate minimizing any temperature peaks that can occur in dispensing high-caustic detergent.

Growing community of inventors

Canton, MI, United States of America

Kenneth James Roach