Method for treating a substrate made of animal fibers with solid particles and a chemical formulation comprising a colourant

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9845516-B2
Application number	US-201414782719-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 11, 2014
Priority date	Apr 11, 2013
Publication date	Dec 19, 2017
Grant date	Dec 19, 2017

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for treating an animal substrate comprising: agitating the moistened animal substrate with an aqueous treatment formulation and a solid particulate material in a sealed apparatus, wherein the aqueous treatment formulation comprises at least one colorant. There is also disclosed an animal substrate obtained by the method and finished leather goods obtained by the method.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for treating an animal substrate comprising:
agitating a moistened animal substrate with an aqueous treatment formulation and a solid particulate material in a sealed apparatus,
wherein the aqueous treatment formulation comprises at least one colourant, and
wherein the solid particulate material comprises a multiplicity of polymeric particles, a multiplicity of non-polymeric particles, or a mixture of a multiplicity of polymeric and non-polymeric particles,
wherein the polymeric or non-polymeric particles have an average particle diameter of from 0.1 mm to 500 mm and/or a length of from 0.1 to 500 mm, and
wherein the animal substrate is hide, skin or leather.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the sealed apparatus comprises a treatment chamber in the form of a rotatably mounted drum or a rotatably mounted cylindrical cage and wherein the method comprises agitating said animal substrate and said treatment formulation by rotating said treatment chamber.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein at least some of the colourant applied to the animal substrate originates from the treatment formulation.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein all of the colourant applied to the animal substrate originates from the treatment formulation.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the colourant is selected from one or more dyes, pigments, optical brighteners or mixtures thereof.

6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the colourant is one or more dyes selected from anionic, cationic, acidic, basic, amphoteric, reactive, direct, chrome-mordant, pre-metallised and sulphur dyes.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the animal substrate is moistened by wetting so as to achieve a water to animal substrate ratio of from about 1000:1 to about 1:1000 w/w.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the animal substrate is moistened by wetting so as to achieve a water to animal substrate ratio of from about 1:100 to about 1:1 w/w.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the ratio of water to animal substrate in the treatment formulation is from at least 1:40 w/w to about 10:1 w/w.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein the ratio of water to solid particulate material in the treatment formulation is from about 1000:1 to about 1:1000 w/w.

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein the ratio of water to solid particulate material in the treatment formulation is from about 1:1 to about 1:100 w/w.

12. The method according to claim 1 wherein the ratio of the solid particulate material to the animal substrate is from about 1000:1 to about 1:1000 w/w.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the ratio of the solid particulate material to the animal substrate is from about 5:1 to about 1:5 w/w.

14. The method according to claim 1 wherein the ratio of the solid particulate material to the animal substrate to water is from about 1:1:1 to about 50:50:1 w/w.

15. The method according to claim 1 comprising adding a first portion of the aqueous treatment formulation and agitating the moistened animal substrate with the treatment formulation in the sealed apparatus before introducing the solid particulate material.

16. The method according to claim 1 comprising agitating the moistened animal substrate with the solid particulate material in the sealed apparatus before adding the aqueous treatment formulation.

17. The method of claim 2 comprising recirculating the solid particulate material into the treatment chamber via recirculation means.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising, before or after said agitating the moistened animal substrate with an aqueous treatment formulation and a solid particulate material, subjecting said animal substrate to at least one further treatment selected from tanning, retanning, cleaning, curing, beamhouse treatments including soaking, liming, unhairing, scudding, fleshing, deliming, bating, pickling and fatliquoring, enzyme treatment, dye fixing, and one or more additional colourant treatments.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the treatment formulation comprises at least 5% w/w water.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the treatment formulation comprises not more than 99.9% w/w water.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the treatment formulation comprises water and no organic solvent.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the aqueous treatment formulation comprising at least one colourant has a pH less than 7.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the method comprises a dye penetration stage and a subsequent dye fixing stage and wherein the treatment formulation comprising at least one colourant has a pH less than 7 in the dye penetration stage and a pH less than 7 in the dye fixing stage.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein the method comprises a dye penetration stage and a subsequent dye fixing stage and wherein the treatment formulation comprising at least one colourant has a pH less than 7 in the dye penetration stage and a pH greater than 7 in the dye fixing stage.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the method comprises no step configured to coat the solid particulate material with the colourant prior to contact of the particulate material with the animal substrate.

26. The method of claim 2 wherein the solid particulate material is uncoated, washed or cleaned and introduced into the treatment chamber.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein said uncoated, washed or cleaned solid particulate material is introduced in the presence of said animal substrate.

28. The method of claim 1 wherein the particles are re-used at least once in a subsequent method for treating an animal substrate comprising: agitating a moistened animal substrate with said aqueous treatment formulation and said solid particulate material in a sealed apparatus.

29. The method of claim 1 including the step of subjecting the particles to a cleaning procedure after the treatment of the animal substrate.

30. The method of claim 2 wherein the solid particulate material is recovered from the treatment chamber after the treatment of the animal substrate.

31. The method of claim 1 wherein the solid particulate material does not penetrate the surface of the animal substrate.

32. The method according to claim 1 wherein the polymeric or non-polymeric particles have an average density of 0.5 to 20 g/cm 3 .

33. The method according to claim 1 wherein the polymeric or non-polymeric particles have an average density of 0.5 to 3.5 g/cm 3 .

34. The method according to claim 1 wherein the polymeric or non-polymeric particles have an average particle diameter of from 1 mm to 500 mm.

35. The method according to claim 1 wherein the polymeric or non-polymeric particles have a length of from 1 mm to 500 mm.

36. The method according to claim 1 wherein the polymeric particles have an average volume of from 5 to 275 mm 3 .

37. The method according to claim 1 wherein the polymeric or non-polymeric particles comprise beads.

38. The method according to claim 1 wherein the treatment formulation comprises one or more components selected from the group consisting of: solvents, surfactants, cross-linking agents, preservation agents, metal comple

Assignees

• Xeros Ltd

Inventors

• Steele John Edward

Classifications

• C14C3/06

  using chromium compounds · CPC title

• C14C1/00

  Chemical treatment prior to tanning · CPC title

• D06P3/32

  leather {skins} · CPC title

• C14C3/22 Primary

  using polymerisation products · CPC title

• C14C1/08

  Deliming; Bating; Pickling; Degreasing · CPC title