Detergent tablet

Claim 1

A cleaning tablet comprising a detergent composition produced by: (a) hydrating a first quantity of anhydrous phosphate builder salt to the maximum in the presence of an alkali metal silicate using sufficient water to form a hydrated slurry; (b) adding a second quantity of anhydrous phosphate builder salt to said hydrated slurry to form a crutcher mix; (c) spray drying said crutcher mix to form a particulate material, the weight ratio of said first quantity of builder salt to said alkali metal silicate being from about 1.5 to about 5 and the weight ratio of said first quantity of builder salt to said second quantity of builder salt being from about 0.3 to about 0.7; (d) combining said particulate material with from about 2 to about 40 percent by weight of an organic material chosen from the group consisting of, nonionic surface active agents and mixtures thereof; (e) compressing said particulate material to form coherent tablets said particulate material prior to tableting having a flowability of at least about 70% that of clean dry sand, said particulate material comprising: from about 60 to 88 percent by weight of spray dried base beads having detergent building properties, comprising from about 45 to about 85% bt weight of an alkali metal phosphate wherein from about 30 to about 60 percent of the phosphate is hydrated and the remainder is anhydrous, from about 5 to about 15 percent by weight of a sodium silicate having an Na 2 O:SiO 2 ratio of from about 1:1.6 to about 1:3.4 and from about 5 to about 15% water, wherein a portion of the water is present as water of hydration in the hydrated phosphate, the beads being essentially free of organic surfactant, organic detergent or soap, when spray dried; from about 12 to about 40 percent by weight of a nonionic polyethoxylated synthetic organic detergent; said beads having a structure of microcrystals and amorphous solid interconnected as an irregular network within the beads, the network defining interconnected irregularly shaped passageways, said passageways comprising a reticular void space within the beads and interconnecting to discrete openings on the external surface of the beads; the nonionic detergent being applied to the external surfaces of the spray dried beads and being substantially absorbed into the internal passageways of the beads to produce the granular detergent; the beads, before tableting, having a specific gravity of from about 0.5 to about 0.8; at least 90% of the beads and the granular detergent having a particle size distributed between 20 mesh and 200 mesh U.S. sieve series, and the beads, during tableting, being subjected to compression forces of between about 3/4 ton to about 3 tons per square inch.

Claim 14

A method for producing cleaning tablets comprising hydrating a first quantity of anhydrous phosphate builder salt in the presence of a second quantity of alkali metal silicate to form a hydrated aqueous slurry; adding a third quantity of anhydrous phosphate builder salt to said hydrated slurry to form a crutcher mix; spray drying said crutcher mix to form a particulate material, the weight ratio of said first quantity to said second quantity being from about 1.5 to about 5, the weight ratio of said first quantity to said third quantity being from about 0.3 to about 0.7, combining said particulate with from about 2 to about 40 percent by weight of a liquid or liquifiable organic surface active agent to form detergent beads, compressing said material to form coherent tablets and wherein said hydrating step is performed at a temperature suitable for hydrating said first quantity of phosphate builder salt and said slurry is raised to a temperature that would inhibit hydration of said third quantity of phosphate builder salt.

Claim 15

A method for producing cleaning tablets comprising hydrating a first quantity of anhydrous phosphate builder salt in the presence of a second quantity of alkali metal silicate to form a hydrated aqueous slurry; adding a third quantity of anhydrous phosphate builder salt to said hydrated slurry to form a crutcher mix; spray drying said crutcher mix to form a particulate material, the weight ratio of said first quantity to said second quantity being from about 1.5 to about 5, the weight ratio of said first quantity to said third quantity being from about 0.3 to about 0.7, combining said particulate with from about 2 to about 40 percent by weight of a liquid or liquifiable organic surface active agent to form detergent beads, compressing said material to form coherent tablets and wherein said hydrating step is performed at a temperature suitable for hydrating said first quantity of phosphate builder salt and said slurry is raised to a temperature that would inhibit hydration of said third quantity of phosphate builder salt.