Method of producing animal litter including bentonite

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016185024-A1
Application number	US-201414585368-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 30, 2014
Priority date	Dec 30, 2014
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a method of producing animal litter containing bentonite that minimizes blocking of the path of conveyance by bentonite during production. The method of the present disclosure is as follows.
A method of producing animal litter including bentonite, the method comprising a step of forming, from a starting material for animal litter containing bentonite, a starting mixture that contains 10 to 60 mass % of granules that remain on an 8.0 mm-aperture sieve and 40 to 90 mass % of granules that pass through an 8.0 mm-aperture sieve, a step of conveying the starting mixture on a path of conveyance, a step of loading the starting mixture that has been conveyed on the path of conveyance into a granulator capable of pulverizing and granulation, to pulverize at least the granules remaining on the 8.0 mm-aperture sieve while forming a granulated product, and a step of drying the granulated product.

First claim

1 . A method of producing animal litter including bentonite, comprising the steps of:
forming, from a starting material for animal litter containing bentonite, a starting mixture that contains 10 to 60 mass % of granules that remain on an 8.0 mm-aperture sieve and 40 to 90 mass % of granules that pass through an 8.0 mm-aperture sieve; conveying the starting mixture on a path of conveyance; loading the starting mixture that has been conveyed on a path of conveyance into a granulator capable of pulverizing and granulation, to pulverize at least the granules remaining on the 8.0 mm-aperture sieve while forming a granulated product; and drying the granulated product.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the average moisture content of the granules remaining on the 8.0 mm-aperture sieve is 15 to 45 mass %.

3 . The method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein a moisture content of a core section, which occupies 98 mass % of the granules remaining on the 8.0 mm-aperture sieve, is higher than a moisture content of a shell section which occupies 2 mass % thereof.

4 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the moisture content of the core section is 20 to 60 mass %, and the moisture content of the shell section is 1 to 20 mass %.

5 . The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 , wherein the path of conveyance has a region in which a downward gradient is 100 to 500%.

6 . The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 , wherein the starting material contains pulverized crude bentonite, and the granules remaining on the 8.0 mm-aperture sieve include a pulverized crude bentonite or a portion thereof.

7 . The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 , wherein the starting material contains bentonite fine powder produced by drying and pulverizing crude bentonite, and the granules remaining on the 8.0 mm-aperture sieve and the granules passing through the 8.0 mm-aperture sieve each include the bentonite fine powder.

8 . The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 , wherein in the step of forming the starting mixture, a starting material for animal litter comprising pulverized crude bentonite, bentonite fine powder produced by drying and pulverizing crude bentonite, and water, is mixed with a mixer to form granules remaining on the 8.0 mm-aperture sieve that comprise the pulverized product, fine powder and water, and to form granules passing through the 8.0 mm-aperture sieve that comprise the fine powder and water.

9 . The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 , wherein the granulator is an extruding granulator.

Assignees

• Unicharm Corp

Inventors

• Ikegami Takeshi
• Hiroshima Kenji

Classifications

• B29L2031/00

  Other particular articles · CPC title

• A01K1/0155

  comprising organic material · CPC title

• B29C47/0011 Primary

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• A01K1/0154 Primary

  comprising inorganic material · CPC title

• A01K1/0152

  Litter · CPC title