Claims
- 1. A fabric-cleaning article comprising a porous substrate sheet stably impregnated with a gelled cleaning composition consisting essentially of about 40-95% water, about 0.25-5% of a gelling agent, about 2-32% of a water-miscible organic solvent and about 5-10% surfactant.
- 2. The fabric-cleaning article of claim 1 wherein the organic solvent comprises a glycol ether.
- 3. The fabric-cleaning article of claim 1 wherein the surfactant includes a least one nonionic surfactant.
- 4. The fabric-cleaning article of claim 1 wherein the substrate sheet is a non-woven fabric sheet.
- 5. The fabric-cleaning article of claim 1 wherein the gelling agent is an organic gum.
- 6. The fabric-cleaning sheet of claim 5 wherein the organic gum is carrageenan.
- 7. The fabric cleaning sheet of claim 6 wherein the cleaning composition further comprises about 0.0025-0.075% of an alkali metal halide.
- 8. A fabric-cleaning kit comprising, packaged in association,
- (a) at least one plastic bag having an opening comprising a fastening system so that the bag can enclose in a vapor-impermeable manner, a soiled fabric, and
- (b) at least one fabric-cleaning article comprising a porous substrate sheet stably impregnated with a gelled cleaning composition comprising about 40-95% water, about 0.25-5% of a gelling agent, about 2-32% of a water-miscible organic solvent and about 0.5-10% surfactant, wherein said cleaning article is separately packaged in a moisture-impermeable envelope.
- 9. The kit of claim 8 wherein said fastening system consists of press-studs, clips, a zipper, a Velcro.RTM. strip, a Zip-lock.RTM. seal or opposed strips of resealable adhesive.
- 10. The kit of claim 8 wherein said plastic consists of polypropylene, polyethylene or polyamide.
- 11. The kit of claim 8 wherein the liquid vehicle contains about 60-90% water.
- 12. The kit of claim 11 wherein the liquid vehicle contains about 5-25% water-miscible organic solvent.
- 13. The kit of claim 11 wherein the organic solvent includes a glycol ether.
- 14. The kit of claim 8 wherein the substrate sheet consists of fabric, paper or foam.
- 15. The kit of claim 14 wherein the gelling agent is an organic gum.
- 16. The kit of claim 15 wherein the gelling agent is a carrageenan.
- 17. The kit of claim 15 wherein the gelled cleaning composition comprises about 0.0025-0.1% of an alkali metal salt.
- 18. The kit of claim 8 wherein the soiled fabric is an article of clothing.
- 19. A process for cleaning a soiled fabric article with a cleaning composition, said process comprising:
- (a) placing said soiled fabric article and a fabric-cleaning article comprising a porous substrate sheet stably impregnated with a gelled cleaning composition comprising about 40-95% water, about 0.25-5% of a gelling agent, about 2-32% of a water-miscible organic solvent and about 0.5-10% surfactant, into a plastic bag;
- (b) forming said bag into a closed system comprising said soiled fabric article and said fabric-cleaning article;
- (c) tumbling said closed system in a rotary clothes dryer at an elevated temperature, to enable the gelled cleaning composition to contact said soiled article and to disperse said soil; and
- (d) removing the cleaned fabric article from the closed system.
- 20. (c) tumbling said closed system in a rotary clothes dryer at an elevated temperature sufficient to dispense the gelled cleaning composition without substantially damaging the bag to enable the gelled cleaning composition to contact said soiled article and to disperse said soil; and
- 21. The process of claim 19 wherein the tumbling is carried out at about 40.degree.-95.degree. C.
- 22. The process of claim 21 wherein the tumbling is carried out for about 15-45 minutes.
- 23. The process of claim 19 wherein, prior to step (a), the soiled fabric article is manually contacted with the fabric-cleaning article to loosen said soil.
- 24. The process of claim 19 wherein said soiled fabric article is an article of clothing.
- 25. A composite fabric-cleaning article comprising a flexible porous base sheet, having coated thereon an effective amount of a gelled cleaning composition comprising:
- (a) about 60-90% of water;
- (b) about 0.25-5% of a gelling agent;
- (c) about 5-25% of an organic solvent; and
- (d) about 0.5-10% of a surfactant; and wherein said composition, when released from said sheet, provides for soil removal from a soiled fabric article when said sheet is applied thereto under conditions of pressure.
- 26. The fabric cleaning article of claim 25 wherein the gelling agent is carrageenan.
- 27. The fabric cleaning article of claim 26 wherein the cleaning composition further comprises about 0.0025-0.1% of an alkali metal halide.
- 28. The fabric cleaning article of claim 27 wherein the halide is KCl.
- 29. A fabric-cleaning kit comprising:
- (a) a composite cleaning article comprising a non-woven fabric sheet having coated thereon an effective amount of a gelled cleaning composition comprising:
- (i) about 40-95% water; (ii) about 2-32% of a water-miscible organic solvent; (iii) about 0.25-5% of a gelling agent; and (iv) about 0.5-10% of a surfactant;
- wherein said composition, when released from said sheet, provides for stain removal from a stained fabric article; and
- (b) a separately provided bag adapted for containment of said cleaning article and a soiled article of clothing, wherein said bag comprises a non-porous material which is not substantially damaged upon exposure to agitation and to a temperature effective to cause the release of said composition from said sheet.
- 30. The fabric cleaning sheet of claim 29 wherein the gelled cleaning composition comprises a minor amount of an alkali metal halide salt which is effective to prevent deposition of a visible residue on the stained fabric article.
- 31. A method for stain removal from a soiled fabric article, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) placing the soiled fabric article and a composite cleaning article comprising a non-woven fabric sheet having coated thereon a composition comprising about 40-95% water, about 2-32% of a water-miscible organic solvent, about 0.25-5% of a gelling agent, and about 0.5-10% of a surfactant within a bag formed of a non-porous material which is not substantially damaged upon exposure to agitation and to a temperature effective to cause the release of said composition from said sheet;
- (b) sealing the bag; and
- (c) tumbling the sealed bag for a sufficient time and at a sufficient temperature to contact an effective amount of the released cleaning composition with the stained fabric article, so as to clean said fabric article.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 7/672,364, filed Mar. 20, 1991 abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (40)
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
672364 |
Mar 1991 |
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