Claims
- 1. A process for laundering oily soil from a fabric, comprising the step of contacting said fabric with an aqueous washing liquor, having a total surfactant hydrophilic/lipophilic balance index of about 10-13, comprising:
- (a) 1800 ppm to 20,000 ppm of a nonionic surfactant system which has a critical micelle concentration of less than 50 ppm measured at 25 degrees Celsius in distilled water;
- (b) 500 ppm to 10,000 ppm of a sequestering builder selected from compounds of a group of cations selected from sodium, potassium, lithium and hydrogen ions and a group of anions selected from tripolyphosphate, pyrophosphate, orthophosphate, nitrilotriacetate, ethylene diamine tetraacetate, nitrilotrimethyl phosphate, and ethylene diamine tetramethylphosphonate ions, and mixtures thereof; and
- (c) 700 ppm to 20,000 ppm of a strong electrolyte; while maintaining said washing liquor at a temperature within the range given by the expression
- 0. 30(B-A)+A.ltoreq.T<B
- wherein T is the temperature of said washing liquor, B is the phase coalescence temperature of said washing liquor and A is the cloud point temperature of said washing liquor.
- 2. The process of claim 1 wherein said washing liquor is maintained within a temperature range given by the expression:
- 0.50(B-A)+A.ltoreq.T<B.
- 3. The process of claim 2 wherein said washing liquor is maintained within a temperature range given by the expression:
- 0.70(B-A)+A.ltoreq.T<B.
- 4. The process of claim 1 wherein said nonionic surfactant is selected from a group comprising alkyl phenol ethoxylates, ethylene oxide/propylene oxide block copolymers and aliphatic ethoxylated alcohols.
- 5. The process of claim 4 wherein said nonionic surfactant is a condensate of a fatty primary alcohol having 12 to 15 carbon atoms and 5 to 3 ethoxylate moieties per molecule of surfactant.
- 6. The process of claim 1 wherein said nonionic surfactant system has a critical micelle concentration of less than 25 ppm.
- 7. The process of claim 6 wherein said nonionic surfactant system has a critical micelle concentration of less than 10 ppm.
- 8. The process of claim 1 wherein said washing liquor has a total surfactant hydrophilic/lipophilic balance index of about 11.5.
- 9. The process of claim 1 wherein said strong electrolyte is an alkali metal carbonate.
- 10. The process of claim 1 wherein said sequestering builder is tetrasodium pyrophosphate.
- 11. The process of claim 1 wherein said sequestering builder is sodium tripolyphosphate.
- 12. The process of claim 1 wherein said washing liquor is maintained at a pH of about 7 to 11.
Parent Case Info
This is a continuation, of application Ser. No. 016,048, filed Feb. 28, 1979, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (28)
Foreign Referenced Citations (10)
Number |
Date |
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652762 |
Nov 1962 |
CAX |
1083004 |
Nov 1977 |
CAX |
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GBX |
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Entry |
Jefferson Chemical Co., SURFONIC.RTM. LR Series (1963), pp. 2, 3, 8-9. |
Jefferson Chemical Co., SURFONIC.RTM. LF-16 & LF-17 (1967). |
Plurafac.RTM. Nonionic, Wyandott Corp. (1972) Table 12, Formulation A. |
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Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
16048 |
Feb 1979 |
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