Patent Application
20250089977
It is well known that germs of all kinds thrive on surfaces, especially if they are in a warm and/or damp environment. Regular cleaning and/or disinfection of these surfaces is therefore essential in both public and private areas in order to carefully remove dirt and germs and ensure the cleanliness of the respective surface. This is of course particularly important in places such as schools, swimming pools, restaurants and cultural institutions where large numbers of people regularly gather, as well as in places such as hospitals and doctors' offices where sick people and people with weakened immune systems can be found. However, regular and effective cleaning of surfaces, especially in bathrooms and kitchens, is also necessary in private homes in order to effectively remove germs and prevent them from spreading.
To clean or disinfect surfaces, a cleaning or disinfectant agent is often applied to a non-woven fabric, which is then used to clean the surface, wherein the nonwoven fabric is washed after cleaning. This can be improved in several respects. On the one hand, it is possible that it is forgotten to wash the nonwoven fabric thoroughly and instead it is only rinsed under running water, whereby germs remain on the surface and can spread. Also, if it is not washed immediately, the germs on the surface of the nonwoven will spread if after its use the nonwoven is stored temporarily in the washing machine until the next washing cycle is started, for example. In this way, the nonwoven fabric actually intended for cleaning even represents a risk of contamination being carried over and a source of contamination, respectively.
This problem is addressed in the prior art by providing disposable wipes that are intended for cleaning or disinfecting surfaces and are therefore pre-impregnated with an antimicrobial impregnating agent.
It is known that corresponding pre-impregnated disposable wipes should comprise several layers of nonwoven fabric, which are generally composed differently. On the one hand, this ensures sufficient stability of the sweeping cloth and, on the other hand, in the case of layers of differently composed nonwoven fabrics, can ensure, for example, that a first layer provides good liquid absorption, while a second layer provides good liquid release, if the nonwoven fabrics are selected accordingly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,649 A describes a disposable floor sweeping cloth having two different layers of thermoplastically processed polypropylene, one layer of which is intended to have absorbent properties due to the foaming of the polypropylene. The two layers are bonded together by a heat and pressure treatment.
The lack of biodegradability of the above-mentioned disposable floor sweeping cloth and similar multi-layered cloths containing thermoplastic material is of course disadvantageous, as these cloths cannot be decomposed by environmental influences and/or microorganisms. The ecological footprint left behind by such wipes is therefore very big.
Biodegradable disposable floor sweeping cloths, on the other hand, are described in DE 10 2021 122 041 B3 for example. The different layers of these cloths consist of natural fibres and/or regenerated fibres.
Furthermore, wipes made of CAC (carded/airlaid/carded) material are also known. CAC material is a composite material consisting of two carded viscose outer layers and a cellulose pulp middle layer, which are bonded together by hydroentanglement. The CAC material known from the prior art has a grammage of <80 g/m2 and is known for applications that require neither high tear resistance nor a high storage capacity for impregnating agents, for example for baby cleaning and care, for removing make-up or for personal hygiene articles.
DE 10 2022 122 316 A1 describes a disinfectant wipe container, the wipes of which are constructed in three layers according to a preferred embodiment and consist of hydroentangled CAC material. The wipes are designed to indicate by a colour reaction when the alcohol content is no longer high enough for a disinfecting effect. The grammage of the wipes is between 25 and 80 g/m2.
KR 10 2005 016 281 A describes a composite layered material for personal care and body cleansing products such as diapers, disposable wipes and wet wipes, which comprises an inner puffy layer and two outer layers of nonwoven material. The outer layers can be made of any synthetic or natural cellulosic material, such as carded web, airlaid cellulose or cellulose pulp.
US 2005/0148264 A1 describes a two-or multi-layered nonwoven laminate material for cleaning and disinfecting inanimate surfaces having a grammage of 13.6-339 g/m2. A first layer has a pore radius of >100 μm, while a second layer has a pore radius of <100 μm. The material of the first layer can be carded, and airlaid nonwoven fabric can be used as the material of the second layer. In general, fibres of natural origin, in particular cellulose fibres, are a preferred material.
The object of the present invention is to provide alternative multi-layer disposable sweeping cloths and their use, which overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages known from the prior art and are characterized in particular by good environmental compatibility as well as high durability and liquid storage capacity.
The invention achieves this object with the features of the claims and in particular with a disposable sweeping cloth made of CAC material having a grammage of >80 g/m2, wherein the CAC (carded/airlaid/carded) material is impregnated with an impregnating agent, for cleaning and/or disinfecting floors, and with the use of the aforementioned disposable sweeping cloth for cleaning and/or disinfecting floors.
The CAC material contained in the disposable sweeping cloth used according to the invention corresponds in principle in its composition to the CAC material already known from the prior art, i.e. it is a three-layer material in which an airlaid cellulose pulp layer is arranged between two carded viscose outer layers. The CAC material is therefore characterized by the fact that it consists of 100% natural raw materials and is completely biodegradable. The layers are also bonded together without any possibly non-biodegradable binding agent, namely by hydroentanglement.
In contrast to CAC material known from the prior art, which has a grammage of <80 g/m2, the CAC material used according to the invention has a grammage of >80 g/m2 or >90 g/m2.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the CAC material of the disposable sweeping cloth used according to the invention has a grammage of 80 g/m2 to 120 g/m2.
Due to the aforementioned high grammage of the disposable sweeping cloth used according to the invention, it is significantly stronger than CAC material known from the prior art. In addition, the middle layer, i.e. the airlaid cellulose pulp layer, is also significantly thicker than in the case of CAC material known from the prior art and therefore has a significantly higher capacity for absorbing impregnating agents. The storage capacity of the disposable sweeping cloth for impregnating agents used for cleaning and/or disinfecting floors can be in particular 70-1,200%, for example 80-1,000% or 100-800% of the mass of the CAC material per unit area.
Due to the fact that it has not been possible so far to produce CAC material having a grammage above 80 g/m2, CAC material has so far only been used for applications that do not require a high storage capacity for impregnating agents and do not place increased demands on the stability or tear resistance of the material. Previous applications are therefore limited to personal applications on the human body, in particular as wet wipes for baby cleaning and care, as cosmetic wipes and as panty liners, or to the cleaning or disinfection of inanimate surfaces that require only a low impregnation of wipes, such as moist disinfectant wipes.
With the help of the CAC material having a new grammage that is now available, the applicant has found the use of a disposable sweeping cloth made of CAC material for cleaning and/or disinfecting floors in accordance with the invention.
Accordingly, the use of the disposable sweeping cloth made of CAC material according to the invention relates to the cleaning and/or disinfection of floors, wherein the use of the disposable sweeping cloth made of CAC material according to the invention most preferably relates to the disinfection of floors. This is because this is where the particular advantage of the use according to the invention is best demonstrated, in which a high degree of impregnation, made possible by the high absorption capacity of the middle layer of the CAC material, ensures sufficient delivery of the impregnating agent to a floor surface to be cleaned or disinfected. In this way, a greater range can be achieved when cleaning or disinfecting floors using the disposable sweeping cloth made of CAC material than with biodegradable sweeping cloths known from the prior art, which are pre-impregnated with a cleaning or disinfecting solution as an impregnating agent for cleaning or disinfecting floors.
Particularly in the field of disinfection, it is also an immense advantage that, when used according to the invention, not only an increased range is achieved during surface disinfection due to a high degree of impregnation, which is made possible by the large liquid storage capacity of the middle layer of the CAC material, but the impregnating agent is also released onto the surface in particular as a continuous liquid film. The latter is extremely important in order to reliably inactivate germs on a surface.
According to a preferred embodiment, the disposable sweeping cloth used according to the invention for cleaning and/or disinfecting floors has an embossing, which is located in particular on the side of the disposable sweeping cloth facing the surface to be cleaned/disinfected during cleaning and/or disinfection. Although the disposable sweeping cloth used according to the invention already has very good gliding properties without embossing, it was found that embossing, in particular on the side of the disposable wiping cloth facing the floor, significantly improves its gliding properties.
The impregnating agent contained in the disposable sweeping cloth used according to the invention for cleaning and/or disinfecting floors preferably contains at least one compound having antimicrobial properties. Furthermore, the impregnating agent may contain all ingredients contained in conventional impregnating agents, in particular water, oil, preservatives, surfactants, emulsifiers, skin-caring ingredients, moisturising ingredients and any combination thereof.
Optionally, the disposable sweeping cloth used according to the invention may comprise or be connected to fastening means, for example straps, buttons, hooks, a zip fastener or in particular a Velcro fastener, wherein the disposable sweeping cloth can be fastened to a sweeping device using the aforementioned fastening means. Alternatively, the disposable sweeping cloth used according to the invention may not itself have these fastening means, but may be brought into engagement with them, for example by a hook and loop fastener arranged on a sweeping device being fastened to the disposable sweeping cloth or a hook or button arranged on a sweeping device engaging in an eyelet arranged on the disposable sweeping cloth.
According to a particularly preferred embodiment, the use according to the invention is for disinfecting floors, wherein the disposable sweeping cloth is moved over the floor surface to be disinfected by means of sweeping movements and the impregnating agent, with which the CAC material of the disposable wiping cloth used is impregnated, is released onto the floor surface to be disinfected during the sweeping movements and leaves a continuous film of liquid on the latter.
The features of the invention disclosed in the above description and in the claims may be essential, both individually and in any combination, for the realisation of the invention in its various embodiments.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102023125453.7 | Sep 2023 | DE | national |
