Articles and methods for treating fabrics

Claim 2

An article of manufacture adapted for providing fabric soil release and softening benefits within an automatic clothes dryer, said article comprising: (a) a fabric conditioning composition having a melting point of at least 38°C and being flowable at dryer operating temperatures, said fabric conditioning composition comprising: i. 1% to 70% of a polymeric soil release agent; and ii. 30% to 99% of a fabric softening agent selected from cationic and nonionic fabric softeners and mixtures thereof; (b) dispensing means which provides for release of said conditioning composition within an automatic laundry dryer at dryer operating temperatures.

Claim 3

An article according to Claim 1 wherein said dispensing means comprises a flexible substrate in sheet configuration having the fabric conditioning composition releasably affixed thereto to provide a weight ratio of fabric conditioning composition to dur substrate ranging from 10:1 to 0.5:1.

Claim 4

An article according to Claim 2 wherein said polymeric soil release agent is present at a level of from 10% to 70% by weight of the fabric conditioning composition.

Claim 5

An article according to any one of claims 1-3 wherein said polymeric soil release agent has a softening phase transition temperature of at least 30°C and becomes a flowable liquid below 100°C.

Claim 6

5 . An article according to Claim 4 wherein said polymeric soil release agent becomes a flowable liquid below 90°C and is present at a level of from about 25% to about 50% by weight of the fabric conditioning composition.

Claim 7

An article according to any one of claims 1-5 wherein said fabric softening agent comprises a mixture of 5% to 80% of a cationic fabric softener and from 10% to 85% of a nonionic fabric softener by weight of said fabric conditioning composition.

Claim 8

An article according to Claim 6 wherein said cationic fabric softener is selected from: (a) a quaternary ammonium salt; and (b) a carboxylic acid salt of a tertiary alkylamine; and mixtures of (a) and (b); and wherein said nonionic fabric softener is selected from: (c) a fatty alkyl sorbitan ester; (d) a fatty alcohol; and (e) a fatty amine; and binary and ternary mixtures of (c), (d) and (e).

Claim 9

An article according to claims 1-7 wherein the soil release agent is a polymer comprising repeating units of ethylene terephthalate and polyoxyethylene terephthalate at a molar ratio of ethylene terephthalate units to polyoxyethylene terephthalate units of from 25:75 to 35:65, said polyoxyethylene terephthalate containing polyoxyethylene blocks having a molecular weight of from 300 to 700, the molecular weight of said soil release polymer being in the range of from 25,000 to 55,000 and the melting point of said polymer being below 100°C.

Claim 10

An article according to any one of claims 1-7 wherein said poly- neric soil release agent is a crystallizable polyester copolymer with repeat units of ethylene terephthalate units confining 10-15% by weight of ethylene terephthalate units together with 90-50% by weight of polyoxyethylene terephthalate units, derived from a polyoxyethylene glycol of average molecular weight of from 300 to 6,000, and the molar ratio of ethylene terephthalate units to polyoxyethylene terephthalate units in the crystallizable polymeric compound is between 2:1 and 6:1.

Claim 11

An article according to Claim 9 wherein the polyoxyethylene terephthalate units of said polymeric soil release agent are derived from a polyethylene glycol of average molecular weight of from 1000 to 4000.

Claim 12

An article according to any one of claims 1-7 wherein said polymeric soil release agent has the fonmula: -A-R 4 -A+(R 5 O) m (CH 2 CH 2 O) n +X wherein the A moieties are essentially moieties; the R moieties are essentially 1,4-phenylene moieties; and R 2 moieties are essentially ethylene moieties, or substituted ethylene moieties having C 1 -C 4 alkyl or alkoxy substituents; the R 3 moieties are substituted C 2 -C 18 hydrocarbylene moieties having at least one -SO 3 M, -COOM, -O+R 5 O) m (CH 2 CH 2 O) n +X or -A+(R 2 -A-R 4 -A)+(R 5 O) m (CH 2 CH 2 O) n +X substituent or at least one moiety -A+(R 2 -A-R 4 -A)+ w R 2 -A- crosslinked to another R 3 moiety; the R 4 moieties are R 1 or R 3 moieties, or a mixture thereof; each R 5 is C 3 -C 4 alkylene, or the moiety -R 2 -A-R 6 -, wherein R 6 is a C 1 -C 12 alkylene, alkenylene, arylene or alkarylene moiety; each M is H or a water-soluble cation; each X is H, C 1 -C 4 alkyl or wherein R 7 is C 1 -C 4 alkyl; m and n are numbers such that the moiety -(CH 2 CH 2 O)-comprises at least 50% by weight of the moiety +R 5 O) m (CH 2 CH 2 O) n +, provided that when R 5 is the moiety -R 2 -A-R 6 -, m is 1; each n is at least 10; u and v are numbers such that the sum of u + v is from 3 to 25; w is 0 or at least 1; and when w is at least 1, u, v and w are numbers such that the sum of u + v + w is from 3 to 25.

Claim 13

An article according to Claim 11 wherein said polymeric soil release agent has the following formula: wherein each R is a 1,4-phenylene moiety; the R 2 consist essentially of ethylene moieties, 1,2-propylene moieties or a mixture thereof; each X is ethyl or preferably methyl; each n is from 12 to 43; and u is from 3 to 10.

Claim 14

An article according to any one of claims 1-7 wherein said polymeric soil release agent is a cellulosic polymer.

Claim 15

An article according to Claim 13 wherein said polymeric soil release agent is selected from methyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, or hydroxybutyl methylcellulose, said cellulosic polymer having a viscosity in 2% aqueous solution at 20°C of 15 to 75,000 centipoise.

Claim 16

An article according to any one of claims 7-14 wherein said fabric softening agent comprises a mixture of from 5% to 25% of a quaternary ammonium salt, from 10% to 50% of a fatty sorbitan polyester, and from 5% to 25% of a fatty amine, all percentages being by weight of the fabric conditioning composition.

Claim 17

An article according to claim 15 wherein said fabric softening agent comprises a mixture of from 7% to 20% of di C 14 -C 22 alkyl dimethyl ammonium methylsulfate, from 20% to 40% of C 10 -C 26 alkyl sorbitan polyester, and fran 7% to 20% of C 14 -C 22 alkyldimethylamine and/or C 14 -C 22 dialkylmethylamine, all percentages being by weight of the fabric conditioning composition.

Claim 18

An article according to any one of claims 7-14 wherein said fabric softening agent comprises a mixture of from 5%" to 25% of a quaternary ammonium salt, fran 10% to 50% of a carboxylic acid salt of a tertiary alkylamine, and fran 10% to 25% of a fatty alcohol, all percentages being by weight of the fabric conditioning composition.

Claim 19

An article according to claim 17 wherein said fabric soft- en ing agent comprises a mixture of from 7% to 2 0% of di C 14 -C 22 alkyldimethyl quaternary ammonium methylsulfate, from 15% to 35% of C 14 -C 22 carboxylic acid salt of a tertiary C 14 - 22 alkylamine, and fran 10% to 20% of a C 14 -C 22 fatty alcohol.

Claim 20

An article according to any one of claims 2-18 wherein the substrate has an absorbent capacity of fran 4 to 12 and the fabric conditioning composition is impregnated into the substrate to give a composition:substrate weight ratio of from 5:1 to 1:1.

Claim 21

An article according to claim 19 wherein said substrate is a banded nonwoven cloth comprising cellulosic fibers, of length from 3/16 inch to 2 inches and of denier from 1.5 to 5, said cloth being provided with a plurality of rectilinear slits extending along one dimension of the cloth.