Animal urination processing material

Abstract

To provide an animal urination processing material which has high deodorization effects and can be easily used.SOLUTION: There is provided an animal urination processing material comprising: a core part including, pulverized straw and a binding material; and a shell part covering the core part and including paper powder. In the animal urination processing material, an area ratio of the core part and the shell part in a center part cross section being a cross section passing through a center and being orthogonal to a longitudinal direction is 7:3 to 98:2, an inclusion ratio of the pulverized straw in the core part is 40 to 99%, and an inclusion ratio of the pulverized straw in the shell part is one-tenth or lower of the inclusion ratio of the pulverized straw in the core part.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an animal urine treating material suitable for use as cat litter or the like. [Background technology]

[0002] Pelletized pulp with excellent water absorption properties has been proposed as bedding for pet toilets, etc. Also proposed is cat litter in which the pellets have a double structure of a core and a shell, making it easy to distinguish whether the pellets have absorbed moisture from animal urine or not (see Patent Document 1, etc.).

[0003] On the other hand, animal urine treatment materials such as cat litter are required to have odor-preventing properties in addition to water absorption. For conventional animal urine treatment materials that use pulp as the main raw material, technologies have been proposed in which fragrance components are mixed into the raw materials or a part of the raw materials has a deodorizing effect, but there is a demand for materials that are easier to use and have a stronger deodorizing effect. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2003-247920 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] The present invention provides an animal urine treating material which has a high deodorizing effect and is easy to use. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The animal urine treatment material according to the present invention is in the form of pellets, A core portion including crushed straw and a binder; A shell portion that covers the core portion and contains paper powder, The area ratio of the core portion to the shell portion in a central cross section, which is a cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and passing through the center, is 7:3 to 98:2; The content of the crushed straw in the core is 40 to 99%, The content of the crushed straw in the shell is 1 / 10 or less of the content of the crushed straw in the core.

[0007] In the animal urine treatment material according to the present invention, by setting the content of crushed straw to a predetermined amount or more, the excellent deodorizing effect of the straw can be brought out, and by forming the surface portion with a shell portion containing paper powder, the crushed straw can be prevented from scattering and good moisture adsorption can be ensured. In addition, by increasing the area ratio of the core portion containing a large amount of straw, the deodorizing effect of the straw can be effectively achieved. Furthermore, by not including crushed straw in the shell portion, or by limiting the amount of crushed straw contained therein to a predetermined amount or less, the shell portion containing paper has a good appearance of cleanliness and can effectively adsorb moisture and prevent the crushed straw from scattering.

[0008] Also, for example, the material may be in the form of a pellet having a circle-equivalent diameter calculated from the area of ​​the central cross section of 0.1 to 2 cm and a length in the longitudinal direction of 0.4 to 4 cm.

[0009] Animal urine treatment materials having this shape are easy to handle as cat litter, etc., and can ensure a shell portion of appropriate thickness and a core portion of sufficient area, making them particularly excellent in terms of both deodorizing effect and ease of handling.

[0010] Furthermore, for example, the crushed straw may have a passing rate of 80% or more when passed through a sieve having an opening of 300 μm (JIS Z-8801) before mixing and molding.

[0011] By containing a large amount of straw crushed finely to a specified degree or more in the core portion, even better water absorption and deodorizing effects are achieved. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is an external view of an animal urine treating material in the form of cat litter according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of the animal urine treating material shown in FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013] Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the appearance of an animal urine treatment material 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 1, the animal urine treatment material 10 has a pellet-like appearance with a substantially cylindrical shape. However, the animal urine treatment material 10 is not limited to being substantially cylindrical, and may be of a shape other than a cylindrical shape, such as a substantially rectangular parallelepiped, plate-like, spherical, or elliptical spherical shape, or may be a mixture of these shapes.

[0014] The animal urine treatment material 10 is preferably used as bedding to be spread in an animal litter box, such as cat litter. Five grains of the animal urine treatment material 10 are shown in FIG. 1, but when used as cat litter in a cat litter box, several hundred to several thousand grains of the animal urine treatment material 10 are usually used. The size of each grain of the animal urine treatment material 10 is not particularly limited, but it is easy to handle and preferable when used as cat litter that the length L in the longitudinal direction D1 shown in FIG. 2 is about 0.4 to 4 cm and the diameter of a circle calculated from the area of ​​the central cross section shown in FIG. 2 is about 0.1 to 2 cm.

[0015] Fig. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a cross section of the animal urine treatment material 10 shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 shows a central cross section that is a cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction D1 of the animal urine treatment material 10 and passing through the center C, and only the outline shape of the upper half of the animal urine treatment material 10 is shown by a dotted line. As shown in Fig. 2, the animal urine treatment material 10 has a double structure having a core portion 20 and a shell portion 30 that covers the core portion 20.

[0016] The core portion 20 includes crushed straw and a binder. The crushed straw is not particularly limited as long as it is mainly dried stems of a grass family plant, but examples thereof include crushed rice straw and crushed wheat straw. Examples of the binder included in the core portion 20 include starchy powder and polymers, such as starch such as cornstarch and polymers such as CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose).

[0017] The content of crushed straw in the core portion 20 is preferably 40 to 99% by weight, more preferably 50 to 85%, and most preferably 55 to 75%. Increasing the content of crushed straw can enhance the deodorizing effect of the animal urine treatment material 10. On the other hand, the core portion 20 contains a predetermined amount of binder, etc., which makes it easier to mold into pellets and prevents a portion of the crushed straw from scattering from the core portion 20.

[0018] The binder content in the core portion 20 is preferably 1 to 40% by weight, more preferably 3 to 30%, and most preferably 4 to 25%. By including a predetermined amount of binder in the core portion 20, it becomes easy to mold it into a pellet shape, and since it becomes easier to expand when absorbing water, it becomes easier to recognize that the pellet needs to be replaced.

[0019] In addition to the crushed straw and the binder, the core 20 may contain coloring agents, foaming plant residues such as soybean pulp, waste paper products such as paper diapers (including paper powder), etc. If the core 20 contains coloring agents, the coloring agents move to the shell 30 side when the animal urine treatment material 10 absorbs water, causing the surface of the animal urine treatment material 10 to discolor, making it easier to recognize that the pellets need to be replaced. Note that the core 20 contains a large proportion of straw, and therefore appears yellowish green to brown under white light if it is not colored with dyes or pigments, but since the core 20 contains paper powder and is covered by the shell 30 which appears white under white light, the animal urine treatment material 10 is visually recognized as a white pellet. However, the animal urine treatment material 10 may be a color other than white.

[0020] Furthermore, the crushed straw contained in the core portion 20 may have a passing rate by weight of 80% or more through a sieve with 300 μm openings (JIS Z-8801) before mixing and molding. When the core portion 20 contains a large amount of straw crushed to a predetermined size or more, the contact area between the crushed straw and the absorbed animal urine becomes large, and the animal urine treatment material 10 having such a core portion 20 exhibits even better water absorption and deodorizing effects.

[0021] The shell part 30 shown in FIG. 2 covers the core part 20 and contains paper powder (pulverized paper). Examples of the paper powder contained in the shell part 30 include powdered bleached or unbleached pulp, as well as pulp and resin waste from waste paper diapers. In addition to the paper powder, the shell part 30 may contain a polymer such as starch or CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose) as a binder. By making the binder content in the core part 20 less than the binder content in the shell part 30, it is possible to increase the content of crushed straw while effectively preventing the crushed straw from scattering from the pellets.

[0022] However, it is preferable that the shell portion 30 does not contain crushed straw, which is the main water-absorbing material of the core portion 20, or even if it does, the content of crushed straw in the shell portion 30 is one-tenth or less of the content of crushed straw in the core portion 20. An animal urine treatment material 10 having such a shell portion 30 has a good appearance of cleanliness due to the shell portion 30 containing paper powder, and can effectively absorb moisture in the shell portion 30 and prevent the crushed straw from scattering.

[0023] 2, the thickness of the shell portion 30 in the animal urine treatment material 10 is considerably thin, which increases the amount of crushed straw that is abundantly contained in the core portion 20, enabling the animal urine treatment material 10 to achieve a high deodorizing effect. The area ratio of the core portion 20 to the shell portion 30 in the central cross section (expressed as S1:S2, where S1 is the area of ​​the core portion 20 and S2 is the area of ​​the shell portion 30) is preferably 7:3 to 98:2, and more preferably 8:2 to 97:3.

[0024] By setting the area ratio of the core portion 20 to the shell portion 30 to a predetermined value or more, the content of crushed straw in the animal urine treatment material 10 can be increased, thereby enhancing the deodorizing effect. Furthermore, by setting the area ratio of the core portion 20 to the shell portion 30 to a predetermined value or less, the core portion 20 can be reliably covered by the shell portion 30, preventing the crushed straw contained in the core portion 20 from dissipating. Furthermore, by forming the shell portion 30 to a predetermined thickness or more on the surface, the animal urine treatment material 10 can ensure good moisture adsorption.

[0025] 1 and 2, the animal urine treatment material 10 can be manufactured, for example, by the following process. In manufacturing the animal urine treatment material 10, first, crushed straw and a binder such as CMC are mixed and stirred, and then the mixture is compression molded using an extrusion molding machine to obtain a pellet-shaped core part 20. Next, paper powder is adhered to the surface of the pellet-shaped core part 20 to form a shell part 30 that covers the core part 20, thereby obtaining the animal urine treatment material 10.

[0026] In this way, the animal urine treatment material 10 brings out the excellent deodorizing effect of straw by increasing the crushed straw content, and by forming the surface portion with the shell part 30 containing paper powder, it is possible to prevent the crushed straw from scattering and ensure good moisture adsorption. In addition, the animal urine treatment material 10 can effectively reuse rice straw and wheat straw, which can also be agricultural waste, and by using mainly raw materials derived from agricultural by-products, it has extremely low chemical harmfulness, is environmentally friendly, and has high sustainability. The animal urine treatment material 10 does not use or barely uses straw, which is the main absorbent material of the core part 20, in the shell part 30, and clearly differs in material and properties between the core part 20 and the shell part 30, thereby achieving unprecedented excellent properties.

[0027] The features of the animal urine treatment material 10 according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.

[0028] As an example, 5 g of the animal urine treatment material 10 as shown in Figures 1 and 2 was prepared and placed in a gas bag (volume 5 liters), 3 L of ammonia gas was poured into the container to set the ammonia gas concentration in the container to 100 ppm, and then the pouring of ammonia gas was stopped and the container was left sealed for another 20 minutes, after which the ammonia gas concentration in the container was measured. The temperature at which it was left was room temperature, 25°C, and a measuring device using a detector tube method was used as a detector for the ammonia gas concentration. The components and amounts contained in the core portion 20 and shell portion 30 of the animal urine treatment material 10 used in the examples are as follows.

[0029] Core: 60% crushed straw (rice straw) Paper powder 33% Binding material 7% Shell: 60% paper powder Binding material 40% Furthermore, before mixing and molding, the passing rate of the crushed straw through a sieve with 300 μm openings was 80% by weight, the shell portion 30 did not contain any crushed straw, and the area ratio of the core portion 20 to the shell portion 30 in the central cross section was 87:13 (average value of three randomly selected samples).

[0030] As a comparative example, an animal urine treatment material having a core formed of paper powder and starch was prepared in the same amount as in the example, and an ammonia gas concentration measurement test was carried out in the same manner as in the example. The components and contents of the core portion 20 and shell portion 30 used in the comparative examples are as follows:

[0031] Core: 93% paper powder Binding material 7% Shell: 60% paper powder Binding material 40%

[0032] The results of the examples and comparative examples are shown in Table 1, together with the results of a blank experiment (a similar experiment carried out using an empty container).

[0033] [Table 1]

[0034] As shown in Table 1, in an experiment using the animal urine treatment material of the embodiment, the ammonia concentration after 20 minutes was less than half that of the case where the animal urine treatment material of the comparative example was used, confirming that the animal urine treatment material of the embodiment exhibits a remarkable deodorizing effect. [Explanation of symbols]

[0035] 10. Animal urine treatment materials 20…Core section 30…Shell part D1…Longitudinal direction C: Center (bisection point in the longitudinal direction) L…Length

Claims

1. A core portion including crushed straw and a binder; A shell portion that covers the core portion and contains paper powder, an area ratio of the core portion to the shell portion in a central cross section that is a cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and passing through the center is 7:3 to 98:2; The content of the crushed straw in the core is 40 to 99%; A pellet-shaped animal urine treatment material, wherein the content of the crushed straw in the shell portion is 1 / 10 or less of the content of the crushed straw in the core portion.

2. 2. The animal urine treatment material according to claim 1, which is in the form of a pellet having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.1 to 2 cm calculated from the area of ​​the central cross section and a length in the longitudinal direction of 0.4 to 4 cm.

3. 2. The animal urine treatment material according to claim 1, wherein the crushed straw has a passing rate of 80% or more through a sieve having an opening of 300 μm (JIS Z-8801) before mixing and molding.

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