Porous Laundry Care Particles for Uniform Dissolution and Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fabric care particles with porous structures formed via melt processing often have irregular pore sizes, leading to incomplete dissolution, poor distribution, and quality issues, limiting their effectiveness and user satisfaction.
Innovation Solution
The development of laundry care particles with a uniform distribution of pore sizes, featuring a flat bottom, rounded top, and three distinct porous sections with varying average pore radii, ensuring complete dissolution and effective distribution of fabric care benefits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If particles are formed via melt processing, then particles can be produced efficiently, but bubbles coalesce and rise out of the molten material resulting in large pores at the outer surface and irregular pore distribution
Solution Approach 1:
Gas is incorporated into the precursor material before melting occurs. This preliminary gas incorporation ensures that bubbles are present throughout the material before the phase change, preventing the coalescence and surface migration that occurs when gas is introduced after melting. The result is uniform pore distribution without large surface pores.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention utilizes the phase transition of the precursor material from solid to molten state and back to solid. By controlling the timing of gas incorporation relative to this phase transition (incorporating gas before melting), the process exploits the phase change to achieve uniform pore distribution while maintaining production efficiency through melt processing.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If particles have large pores at the outer surface, then bubble release is facilitated, but particle durability decreases and particles become dusty and messy to use
Solution Approach 1:
The invention creates a controlled porous structure where gas bubbles are distributed uniformly throughout the particle interior rather than concentrating at the surface. This internal porous structure allows bubble release while maintaining a smooth, intact outer surface that preserves particle durability and prevents dusting.
3Ease of operation
If particles sink in wash liquor, then they may be easier to handle, but they become trapped in folds and creases of laundry resulting in incomplete dissolution
Solution Approach 1:
The particles are designed with a specific local quality - a smooth outer surface without large surface pores - that enables them to float in wash liquor. This floating behavior allows the particles to remain accessible and dissolve completely in the wash water, ensuring complete delivery of fabric care benefits while maintaining ease of use.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The particles provide consistent and complete delivery of fabric care benefits, enhancing user satisfaction by ensuring uniform distribution and dissolution in wash cycles.
Implementation Method 1
Particles having a porous structure can float in the water as the wash liquor is formed
Implementation Method 2
wherein said individual particles comprise: 20% to 99% by weight water soluble carrier
Data Source
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AI summary
A composition including a plurality of individual particles. The individual particles include a water soluble carrier and a fabric care benefit active agent. Each individual particle has a flat bottom, a rounded top, and maximum height. Each individual particle has a porous bottom third, a porous middle third, and a porous top third. The bottom third average pore radius and the top third average pore radius differ by less than about 15 µm.