GB935200A - Apparatus and method for preparing detergent compositions - Google Patents

Abstract

935,200. Pug-mills. PROCTER & GAMBLE Ltd. July 25, 1961 [July 25, 1960], No. 26958/61. Class 86. [Also in Group V] In a process for preparing aerated detergent bars the material moves through a scraped wall cooling zone, a mixing zone and a discharge zone, divided into a zone of higher back pressure and a zone of lower back pressure, to an extrusion outlet. In the apparatus illustrated the detergent mass to be processed, which contains a compatible gas, such as air, is delivered under pressure through a conduit 10 into an annular chamber 11, cooling fluid entering a port 17 and leaving a port 18. Blades 19 scrape the thin layer of detergent off the inner surface of a drum 13 to ensure uniform cooling of the mass. The material then passes through a drum 22 where it is further mixed by rotating arms 24 and by passing stationary baffles 21. It then passes into a discharge housing 25 where its flow is impeded by an orifice in a plate 28 and is finally extruded into free air through an extrusion outlet 27. Orifice plate 28 divides the discharge zone in the housing 25 into zones of higher and lower back pressure and substantially increases the back pressure in the mixing and cooling chambers so as to hold a substantial proportion of the compatible gas in solution. When the mass passes through the orifice plate 28 into the zone of lower back pressure the gas is released from solution and becomes dispersed throughout the mass. Residual gas in solution becomes dispersed as vesiculated gas when the mass passes through the extrusion outlet 27 into free air.