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  Fabric article treatment applianceUSPTO Application #: 20060234891Title: Fabric article treatment appliance Abstract: A fabric article treatment appliance capable of washing and drying fabric articles, moreover, the appliances is capable of providing and using a first and a second predominant fluid in the washing step, wherein the first and the second predominant fluids are different. (end of abstract)
Agent: The Procter & Gamble Company Intellectual Property Division - Cincinnati, OH, US Inventors: Anna Vadimovna Noyes, John Christopher Deak, Jeffrey John Scheibel, Phillip Kyle Vinson, Frederick Anthony Hartman, James Charles Theophile Roger Burckett-St. Laurent, John Cort Severns, Arseni V. Radomyselski, Paul Amaat France, Jerome Howard Collins, Christiaan Arthur Jacques Kamiel Thoen, Nabil Yaqub Sakkab USPTO Applicaton #: 20060234891 - Class: 510285000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Cleaning Compositions For Solid Surfaces, Auxiliary Compositions Therefor, Or Processes Of Preparing The Compositions, Cleaning Compositions Or Processes Of Preparing (e.g., Sodium Bisulfate Component, Etc.), For Cleaning A Specific Substrate Or Removing A Specific Contaminant (e.g., For Smoker`s Pipe, Etc.), For Textile Material (e.g., Laundry Detergent, Etc.), Dry Cleaning (e.g., Using Nonaqueous Fluid, Etc.) The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060234891. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a Divisional Application of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/964,027, filed on Oct. 13, 2004, which is a Divisional Application of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/849,842, filed on May 4, 2001, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/209,443, which was filed on Jun. 5, 2000. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a fabric article treatment appliance capable of washing and drying fabric articles, moreover, the appliances is capable of providing and using a first and a second predominant fluids in the washing step, wherein the first and the second predominant fluids are different. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Fabric articles, such as mixed bundles of consumer garments and/or footwear are cleaned and further treated with compositions other than cleaning compositions in various ways. These include treating the fabric articles by: [0004] (a) washing them in a washing machine and drying them in a dryer in the presence of a fabric-softener loaded substrate article; [0005] (b) washing them in a washing machine, then treating them with fabric softener, then transferring them to a dryer; [0006] (c) washing them and treating them with fabric softener in a combined washer-dryer using water as the predominant fluid; and [0007] (d) washing or treating them in a non-domestic appliance, such as a supercritical fluid cleaning machine or a dry-cleaning machine, for example using supercritical carbon dioxide as the predominant fluid. [0008] Typically the fabric articles have to be separated according to the textile of which they are made or according to their color, before such washing can be done. Additionally so-called "home dry cleaning" compositions have recently become available. These offer imperfect cleaning and are used exclusively in tumble-dryers, where only very small amounts of organic fluids can be used without fire hazards or other problems. Moreover, some recent innovations in appliances for commercial and/or service business use a predominant fluid which is other than water and/or liquefied carbon dioxide. For example, the predominant fluid can be a silicone or fluorocarbon. Conventional dry-cleaning uses perchloroethylene, Stoddard solvent, or other hydrocarbons and/or azeotropic mixtures of volatile compounds. None of the present alternatives offer the consumer the degree of convenience and satisfaction that would be available if they could treat a mixed, preferably unseparated, bundle of fabric articles in a single series of cleaning and finishing operations in a single appliance at home. Perhaps the closest available treatment is that which is conducted in a combined washer-dryer, however, even in this case such appliances have no provision for using let alone recovering any fluids other than water. Moreover, there has apparently been little effort in the art to fully harness and exploit the cleaning and fabric care advantages of processes having more than one fluid. BACKGROUND ART [0009] U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,044, Economics Laboratory Inc. describes a laundry method, all taking place in an aqueous laundry bath, including the step of laundering oil soiled fabric in a particularly defined lipophilic surfactant composition and subsequently laundering such fabric with a hydrophilic surfactant based detergent system. More particularly described is a multi-step process for laundering oil soiled fabric, said process comprising: laundering said fabric in a first aqueous bath including a lipophilic surfactant which imparts oil-solubilizing characteristics to said first aqueous bath, separating said fabric from said first aqueous bath, laundering said fabric in a second hydrophilic aqueous bath including hydrophilic detergent and separating said fabric from said second hydrophilic aqueous bath. [0010] JP--05009862 A, Kanebo, describes a process comprising washing a silk fabric grafted with vinyl monomer by a weak alkaline chemical agent such as sodium tripolyphosphate, hydrosulphite, or Marseilles soap washing with water, drying, and thereafter clumping under immersion in an organic solvent. The organic solvent may be a low dielectric constant solvent e.g. tetrachloroethylene, mineral terpene, or a dry cleaning liquid. The softening process of the graft silk fabric is asserted to impart softness without using a softening agent. The process is not apparently used to treat bundles of manufactured clothing, and is not conducted in a home appliance. [0011] U.S. Pat. No. 4,259,251 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,209, Unilever, do not relate to laundry processes. They describe a process for production of fatty acid soaps comprising extracting sludge (esp. sewage sludge which may be crude or activated, and/or co-settled) of solids content >=15 wt. % with a non-polar solvent to recover fatty materials which are then saponified in presence of a dipolar aprotic solvent of dielectric constant>=15. [0012] See also by way of background numerous recently described concentrated cleaning appliances, including those which use silicones, fluorocabons, carbon dioxide and the like several of these are referenced and adapted to the present purposes in the disclosures hereinafter. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0013] The present invention relates to a fabric article treatment appliance capable of washing and drying fabric articles, wherein the appliance is configured to use different predominant fluids (such as water and a lipophilic cleaning fluid) in the washing step. [0014] The appliance of the present invention is capable of performing an improved fabric treatment method involving a predominant fluid switchover step. The fluid switchover method of the present invention is also useful for reducing surfactant carryover. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0015] The phrase "dry weight of a fabric article" as used herein means the weight of a fabric article that has no intentionally added fluid weight. [0016] The phrase "absorption capacity of a fabric article" as used herein means the maximum quantity of fluid that can be taken in and retained by a fabric article in its pores and interstices. Absorption capacity of a fabric article is measured in accordance with the following Test Protocol for Measuring Absorption Capacity of a Fabric Article. [0017] The term "predominant fluid" as used herein refers to the majority component of a liquid under operating conditions of a laundering appliance. For example, in conventional dry-cleaning, perchloroethylene is the predominant fluid. In conventional home laundering, water is the predominant fluid. In some recently developed processes, supercritical carbon dioxide, silicones or perfluorocarbons are the predominant fluid. Carbon dioxide is a gas under normal conditions but becomes a fluid suitable for cleaning when compressed at high pressures. In applications included in general in the present invention, e.g., microemulsion cleaning, a predominant fluid need not be more than 50% of all fluids present. For example, in a mixture of water and three other fluids, A, B, and C, in the proportions water: 30%, B: 25%, C: 25%, D:20%, water is by the present definition the predominant fluid. A fluid used in treatment of fabric articles may moreover be a solvent or nonsolvent for body soils. For example, processes are known which use perfluorobutylamine as the predominant fluid. However, perfluorobutylamine is a nonsolvent for body soils. A "lipophilic cleaning fluid" as further defined hereinafter is a fluid having at least the physical and safety characteristics of dry cleaning fluids, which in addition is at least partially liquid at atmospheric pressures and at least one temperature in the range 0.degree. C. to 60.degree. C. (in other words, carbon dioxide, air and nitrogen, for example, are not included). Moreover a lipophilic cleaning fluid as defined herein is at least partially a solvent for body soils as defined in the test methods hereinafter (in other words, perfluorobutylamine is excluded). [0018] All percentages and proportions herein are by weight and units are S.I units unless otherwise specifically indicated. Continue reading... Full patent description for Fabric article treatment appliance Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Fabric article treatment appliance patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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