Method for in situ mixing of liquid compositions with offset liquid influx

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10814291-B2
Application number	US-201816001970-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2018
Priority date	Jun 8, 2017
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

Methods for in situ mixing of two or more different liquid compositions in a container by employing one or more liquid influxes that are offset by 1-50° from a longitudinal axis of such container.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of filling a container with liquid compositions, comprising the step of:
(A) providing a container that has an opening having a centroid, a supporting plane and a longitudinal axis that extends through the centroid of said opening and is perpendicular to said supporting plane, wherein the total volume of said container ranges from about 10 ml to about 10 liters;
(B) providing a first liquid feed composition and a second liquid feed composition that is different from said first liquid feed composition;
(C) partially filling said container with the first liquid feed composition to from about 0.01% to about 50% of the total volume of said container; and
(D) subsequently, filling the remaining volume of the container, or a portion thereof, with the second liquid feed composition,
wherein during step (D), the second liquid feed composition is filled through the opening into said container by one or more liquid nozzles that are positioned immediately above the opening or inserted into the opening, and wherein said one or more liquid nozzles are arranged to generate one or more liquid influxes that are offset from the longitudinal axis of the container by an offset angle (α) ranging from about 1° to about 50°, and wherein the second liquid feed composition comprises one or more surfactants, solvents, builders, structurants, polymers, perfume microcapsules, pH modifiers, viscosity modifiers, or combinations thereof.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the offset angle (α) ranges from about 5° to about 40°.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the offset angle (α) ranges from about 10° to about 25°.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said supporting plane of the container has a major axis and a minor axis, wherein the longitudinal axis of the container intersects the major axis of the supporting plane.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said one or more liquid influxes are within the plane defined by the longitudinal axis of the container and the major axis of its supporting plane.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein during step (D), the container is placed so that its longitudinal axis extends along the vertical direction.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein during step (D), the container is placed so that its longitudinal axis is offset from the vertical direction by the same offset angle (α), and that said one or more liquid influxes generated by the one or more liquid nozzles extend along the vertical direction.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein during step (D), the container is placed so that its longitudinal axis is offset from the vertical direction by a second offset angle (β) that is smaller than said offset angle (α), wherein said at least one or more liquid influxes generated by the one or more liquid nozzles are offset from the vertical direction by a third offset angle (γ), and wherein (γ) is equal to (α)−(β).

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said container comprises a top end, a bottom end, and one or more side walls that extend between said top end and said bottom end, wherein the opening of said container is located at its top end, wherein the supporting plane of said container is located at its bottom end, and wherein during step (D) said one or more liquid influxes reach at least one of said side walls at below 50 % of the height of said at least one side wall.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein during step (D) said one or more liquid influxes reach at least one of said side walls at below 25% of the height of said at least one side wall.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein said one or more liquid influxes are characterized by an average flow rate ranging from 50 ml/second to 10 L/second.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein said one or more liquid influxes are characterized by an average flow rate ranging from 100 ml/second to 5 L/second.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein said one or more liquid influxes are characterized by an average flow rate ranging from 500 ml/second to 1.5 L/second.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the total time for filling the second liquid composition during step (D) ranges from 1 second to 5 seconds.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein during step (C), from 0.1% to 50% of the total volume of said container is filled with said first liquid feed composition.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first liquid feed composition comprises one or more perfumes, colorants, opacifiers, pearlescent aids, enzymes, brighteners, bleaches, bleach activators, catalysts, chelants, polymers, or combinations thereof, optionally where the first liquid feed composition comprises at least one pearlescent aid selected from the group consisting of mica, titanium dioxide coated mica, bismuth oxychloride, and combinations thereof.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein during step (D), at least 50% of the total volume of said container is filled with said second liquid feed composition.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein during step (D), at least 80% of the total volume of said container is filled with said second liquid feed composition.

19. A method of filling a container with liquid compositions, comprising the step of:
providing a container that has an opening having a centroid, a supporting plane and a longitudinal axis that extends through the centroid of said opening and is perpendicular to said supporting plane, wherein the total volume of said container ranges from about 10 ml to about 10 liters;
providing a first liquid feed composition and a second liquid feed composition that is different from said first liquid feed composition;
partially filling said container with the first liquid feed composition to from about 0.01% to about 50% of the total volume of said container; and
subsequently, filling the remaining volume of the container, or a portion thereof, with the second liquid feed composition,
wherein during step (D), the second liquid feed composition is filled through the opening into said container by one or more liquid nozzles that are positioned immediately above the opening or inserted into the opening, and wherein said one or more liquid nozzles are arranged to generate one or more liquid influxes that are offset from the longitudinal axis of the container by an offset angle (α) ranging from about 1° to about 50°, and wherein said one or more liquid influxes are characterized by an average flow rate ranging from 500 ml/second to 10 L/second.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the offset angle (α) ranges from about 5° to about 40°.

Assignees

• Procter & Gamble

Inventors

• Chen Hongling
• Ng Boon Ho
• Gu Chong
• Zhang Qi
• Capeci Scott William

Classifications

• B01F23/451 Primary

  by injecting one liquid into another · CPC title

• B01F2025/919

  characterised by the disposition of the feed and discharge openings · CPC title

• B01F25/28 Primary

  characterised by the specific design of the jet injector · CPC title

• B01F25/20

  Jet mixers, i.e. mixers using high-speed fluid streams (using jets to create vortex flow B01F25/10) · CPC title

• B65B3/04

  Methods of, or means for, filling the material into the containers or receptacles · CPC title