JP6599085B2 - Water absorption treatment material - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a water-absorbing treatment material that absorbs human or animal excrement and other liquids.

  Patent Document 1 describes an excrement treatment material which is a kind of water absorption treatment material. This excrement disposal material includes a core part and a surface layer covering the core part. A colored layer made of a dissolved dye is formed on the surface of the core portion. A water-absorbing polymer is mixed in the surface layer. When absorbing urine, the water-absorbing polymer in the surface layer swells, and the color of the colored layer becomes visible through the swollen water-absorbing polymer.

JP 2011-217663 A

  In the excrement disposal material described in Patent Literature 1, the color of the colored layer changes when the color of the colored layer becomes visible during urine absorption. The coloration of the excrement disposal material after use in this way is useful for visually distinguishing the excrement disposal material before and after use.

  However, in this excrement disposal material, the color of the colored layer can be visually recognized only indirectly through the swollen water-absorbing polymer. This has been a factor of reducing the vividness of color development in the excrement disposal material after use.

  This invention is made | formed in view of the said subject, and it aims at providing the water absorption processing material from which a clear color development is obtained after use.

  The water-absorbing treatment material according to the present invention is a water-absorbing treatment material that absorbs liquid, and includes a plurality of granules containing paper as a main material and containing a pigment material, and when the water-absorbing treatment material absorbs the liquid, A plurality of granular materials are disintegrated and mixed with each other.

  This water absorption treatment material is provided with a plurality of granular materials containing a pigment material. When the liquid is absorbed, each granule collapses and a plurality of collapsed granulates are mixed with each other. That is, after each granule is once collapsed, a mixture composed of a plurality of granules is formed. In this process, the dye material will diffuse over a wide area in the mixture. Thereby, in the water absorption processing material after use, since the pigment | dye material appears on the surface of the said mixture, the color of the pigment | dye material can be visually recognized directly.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the water absorption processing material from which a clear color development is obtained after use is realizable.

It is a schematic diagram which shows one Embodiment of the water absorption processing material by this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating a change when the water absorption processing material of FIG. 1 absorbed the liquid. It is a schematic diagram which shows the granular material which concerns on one modification. It is a schematic diagram which shows the granular material which concerns on another modification.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the description of the drawings, the same reference numerals are assigned to the same elements, and duplicate descriptions are omitted.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of a water-absorbing treatment material according to the present invention. The water-absorbing treatment material 1 is a water-absorbing treatment material that absorbs liquid, and includes a plurality of granules 10. The water absorption treatment material 1 is, for example, an excrement treatment material for pets such as cats and dogs.

  Each granular material 10 contains a pigment material 20. The pigment material 20 develops or changes color by reacting with moisture. Examples of the dye material 20 include dyes, pigments, pH indicators, and the like. The dye may be adsorbed on silica gel. That is, the pigment material 20 may be made of silica gel and a dye adsorbed on the silica gel.

  Each granular material 10 is mainly made of paper. Here, the paper being the main material of the granular material 10 means that the weight ratio of the paper is the largest in the entire material constituting the granular material 10. Paper refers to a material mainly composed of pulp. Examples of papers include, in addition to ordinary paper, PVC wallpaper classifieds (paper obtained by classifying PVC wallpaper), fluff pulp, papermaking sludge, pulp sludge, and the like.

  Such paper is pulverized to a particle size (fiber length) of 1 mm or less. That is, the paper is pulverized using a pulverizer having a screen opening of 1 mm or less. The particle size of the paper is preferably 0.5 mm or less, more preferably 0.3 mm or less.

  Each granular material 10 has a granular core portion 12 and a coating layer portion 14. The granular core part 12 has a function of absorbing and retaining a liquid such as urine. The granular core 12 is formed into a granular shape. Examples of the shape of the granular core 12 include a sphere, an ellipsoid, and a cylinder. The granular core 12 is mainly made of paper. The dye material 20 described above is contained only in the granular core portion 12 among the granular core portion 12 and the coating layer portion 14.

  The granular core part 12 contains an adhesive material having viscosity when absorbing water. As such an adhesive material, for example, starch, CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose), PVA (polyvinyl alcohol), dextrin, or a water-absorbing polymer can be used. The water-absorbing polymer preferably has an average particle size of 20 μm or less. Here, the average particle diameter means a minimum opening through which particles of 50% by weight or more can pass when a water-absorbing polymer that is an aggregate of a large number of particles is passed through a sieve. Therefore, an average particle diameter of 20 μm or less means that 50% by weight or more of particles can pass when the water-absorbing polymer is passed through a sieve having an opening of 20 μm. The weight ratio of the adhesive material in the granular core 12 is preferably 10% or more. In this embodiment, the granular core part 12 contains a water-absorbing polymer having an average particle diameter of 20 μm or less as an adhesive material.

  The covering layer portion 14 covers the granular core portion 12. The covering layer portion 14 may cover the entire surface of the granular core portion 12 or may cover only a part of the surface of the granular core portion 12. The covering layer portion 14 is also mainly made of paper.

  The covering layer portion 14 also contains an adhesive material. When the weight of the adhesive material contained in the coating layer portion 14 is 1, the weight of the adhesive material contained in the granular core portion 12 is preferably 4 or more, and more preferably 5 or more. . In this embodiment, the coating layer part 14 contains a water-absorbing polymer having an average particle size of 20 μm or less as an adhesive material.

  The weight ratio of the coating layer portion 14 to the granular material 10 is preferably 1% or more and less than 10%, and more preferably 1% or more and less than 5%. In the present embodiment, the granular core portion 12 is visible through the coating layer portion 14 in a state before the water absorption treatment material 1 is used, that is, in a state before the water absorption treatment material 1 absorbs the liquid. That is, the granular core portion 12 is seen through the covering layer portion 14 without being hidden by the covering layer portion 14. In addition, at least a part of the unreacted dye material 20 is visible before the water absorption treatment material 1 is used.

  When the water-absorbing treatment material 1 absorbs the liquid, the plurality of granular materials 10 collapse and mix with each other. Specifically, substantially the entire granular material 10 collapses. That is, not only the covering layer part 14 but also the granular core part 12 collapses. Moreover, not the part of the granular core part 12, but the whole whole collapses. The plurality of collapsed granular bodies 10 are mixed with each other to form a mixture that is a mud-like lump. In this mixture, the individual granules 10 can no longer be distinguished.

  The effect of the water absorption processing material 1 is demonstrated. The water-absorbing treatment material 1 includes a plurality of granules 10 containing a pigment material 20. When the liquid is absorbed, as shown in FIG. 2, each granular body 10 is collapsed, and a plurality of collapsed granular bodies 10 are mixed with each other. That is, after each granular material 10 is once collapsed, a mixture 30 composed of a plurality of granular materials 10 is formed. In this process, the dye material 20 diffuses over a wide range in the mixture 30 while reacting with the liquid. Thereby, in the water absorption processing material 1 after use, since the coloring material 20 which reacted with the liquid appears on the surface of the mixture 30, the color of the coloring material 20 can be visually recognized directly. Therefore, the water-absorbing treatment material 1 capable of obtaining a clear color after use is realized.

  On the other hand, in the conventional water-absorbing treatment material containing the pigment material, even if the liquid is absorbed, the granular material does not collapse and the granular shape is maintained. This hinders the pigment material from diffusing over a wide area in the granulate. Therefore, in the water-absorbing treatment material after use, there is no or very little pigment material appearing on the surface, and it is difficult to directly recognize the color. This has been a factor in reducing the vividness of color after use in conventional water-absorbing treatment materials. In this regard, according to the present embodiment, the pigment material 20 diffuses as the granular material 10 collapses during liquid absorption, so that a part of the pigment material 20 is deposited on the surface of the water-absorbing treatment material 1 (mixture 30). Since it appears and becomes visible directly, this problem can be solved.

  When the pigment material 20 is made of silica gel and a dye adsorbed on the silica gel, it is possible to suppress the pigment material 20 from reacting with moisture before the water-absorbing treatment material 1 is used (particularly in the production process). This is because the dye is less likely to come into contact with moisture in the granular core 12 by being adsorbed on the silica gel.

  In a state before the use of the water-absorbing treatment material 1, at least a part of the unreacted dye material 20 is visible. That is, in the water absorption treatment material 1 before use, the unreacted coloring material 20 appears to be scattered. This contributes to the improvement of the beauty of the water-absorbing treatment material 1.

  By the way, when disposing of the water-absorbing treatment material after use, it is convenient for the user if it can be disposed of by flowing in a flush toilet. In order to dispose of the used water-absorbing treatment material in a flush toilet, the water-absorbing treatment material has sufficient water disintegration properties (the property that fibers and particles bonded to each other can be quickly separated and dispersed in water by contact with water) ). However, in the conventional water-absorbing treatment material mainly made of paper, relatively long fibers (pulp) constituting the paper are entangled with each other, making it difficult to unravel. It was.

  In this regard, in the present embodiment, as described above, after each granular body 10 is once collapsed, a mixture 30 composed of a plurality of granular bodies 10 is formed. Thereby, in the mixture 30, there is little entanglement of the fibers which comprise paper, and it is easy to unravel. For this reason, the water absorption processing material 1 excellent in water disintegration property is implement | achieved.

  Paper, which is the main material of the granular material 10, is pulverized to a particle size of 1 mm or less. By finely pulverizing the papers in this way, the fibers constituting the papers can be easily broken and the water disintegration property of the water-absorbing treatment material 1 can be improved. From this viewpoint, the paper is preferably pulverized to a particle size of 0.5 mm or less, and more preferably pulverized to a particle size of 0.3 mm or less.

  In the water absorption processing material 1, both the granular core part 12 and the coating layer part 14 collapse. For this reason, the viscosity of both the collapsed granular core part 12 and the coating layer part 14 contributes to the agglomeration (formation of a lump) of the plurality of granular bodies 10. Therefore, the water-absorbing treatment material 1 is superior in terms of mass strength as compared with the conventional water-absorbing treatment material in which the viscosity of the coating layer portion contributes to agglomeration.

  As described above, in the water-absorbing treatment material 1, the granular core portion 12 and the coating layer portion 14 together contribute to the agglomeration, so that sufficient cohesive strength can be obtained even if the coating layer portion 14 is formed thin. Making the coating layer portion 14 thin contributes to the reduction of the material procurement cost and the manufacturing cost of the water-absorbing treatment material 1. From this viewpoint, the weight ratio of the coating layer portion 14 to the granular material 10 is preferably 1% or more and less than 10%, more preferably 1% or more and less than 5%.

  The granular core part 12 contains an adhesive material. Thereby, when the water absorption processing material 1 absorbs the liquid, it can accelerate | stimulate that the some granular material 10 agglomerates. Similarly, the coating layer portion 14 also contains an adhesive material. Thereby, it can accelerate | stimulate further that the some granular material 10 agglomerates.

  Thus, from the viewpoint of promoting agglomeration, the weight ratio of the adhesive material in the granular core 12 is preferably 10% or more. From the same viewpoint, when the weight of the adhesive material contained in the coating layer portion 14 is 1, the weight of the adhesive material contained in the granular core portion 12 is preferably 4 or more, more preferably 5 or more. Is done.

  The granular core part 12 and the coating layer part 14 contain a water-absorbing polymer as an adhesive material. The water-absorbing polymer has a property that it swells when liquid is absorbed. When the water-absorbing polymer swells, the dye material becomes difficult to diffuse over a wide range of the granular material 10. For this reason, the swelling of the water-absorbing polymer becomes a factor of reducing the vividness of the color development in the water-absorbing treatment material 1 after use. In this respect, the water-absorbing polymer is finely pulverized to suppress swelling during liquid absorption. Therefore, in order to suppress swelling of the water-absorbing polymer, the average particle diameter of the water-absorbing polymer contained in the granular core portion 12 and the coating layer portion 14 is preferably 20 μm or less, and more preferably 10 μm or less.

  In addition, when the water-absorbing polymer swells, it becomes difficult for the liquid to reach the entire granular material 10. For this reason, the swelling of the water-absorbing polymer becomes a factor that deteriorates the disintegration property of the granular material 10 and consequently the water disintegration property of the water-absorbing treatment material 1. Therefore, the use of the water-absorbing polymer having a small average particle size contributes to the improvement of the disintegration property of the granular material 10 and the water disintegration property of the water-absorbing treatment material 1.

  Then, an example of the manufacturing method of the water absorption processing material 1 is demonstrated. This manufacturing method includes a granulation step, a covering step, a sizing step, and a drying step.

  In the granulation step, the material constituting the granular core 12 (core material) is pulverized to a predetermined size by a pulverizer, and the pulverized core material together with the pigment material 20 is put into a mixer at a predetermined ratio. And mix. And after adding water, the said core material is extrusion-granulated with a granulator. At this time, in order to obtain the granular core part 12 which is easy to disintegrate at the time of liquid absorption, it is preferable to reduce the compressive force applied to the core part material during granulation. For example, the compressive force applied to the core material can be reduced by reducing the thickness of the die of the granulator. Thereby, the granular core part 12 is obtained.

  In the coating step, a material (coating material) constituting the coating layer portion 14 is adhered to the periphery of the granular core portion 12 using a coating apparatus or the like. The coating material can be applied, for example, by spraying or spraying. Thereby, the coating layer part 14 is obtained.

  In the sizing step, the water-absorbing material produced in the previous step is passed through a sieve having a sieve with a predetermined size. Thereby, only the water absorption processing material which satisfy | fills a predetermined specification is extracted.

  In the drying step, the water-absorbing treatment material extracted in the previous step is dried with a dryer. The moisture content of the granular core 12 is adjusted as appropriate by drying. Thereby, while preventing the water | moisture content of the granular core part 12 to the coating layer part 14 and a water absorption capability falling, it can prevent that mold | fungi etc. generate | occur | produce at the time of preservation | save of the water absorption processing material 1. FIG.

  The water absorption treatment material by this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, Various deformation | transformation is possible. In the said embodiment, the example in which the pigment | dye material 20 contained only the granular core part 12 among the granular core part 12 and the coating layer part 14 was shown. However, as shown in FIG. 3, the dye material 20 may be contained only in the covering layer portion 14 among the granular core portion 12 and the covering layer portion 14.

  Moreover, the pigment | dye material 20 may be contained in both the granular core part 12 and the coating layer part 14, as shown in FIG. In that case, the coloring material 20 contained in the granular core portion 12 and the coloring material 20 contained in the coating layer portion 14 may be colored or discolored to different colors. Thereby, when the water absorption processing material 1 absorbs a liquid, it can be made to exhibit the color mixture of those colors. For example, the coloring material contained in the granular core portion 12 and the coating layer portion 14 may be blue and yellow, so that the water-absorbing treatment material 1 that has absorbed the liquid exhibits a green color. it can.

  In the said embodiment, the example in which the pigment | dye material 20 contained in all the granular materials 10 was shown. However, in the plurality of granules 10, the granules 10 containing the pigment material 20 and the granules 10 not containing the pigment material 20 may be mixed. That is, only a part of the plurality of granular materials 10 may include the coloring material 20.

  In the said embodiment, the example in which the adhesive material was contained in both the granular core part 12 and the coating layer part 14 was shown. However, it is not essential that both the granular core part 12 and the coating layer part 14 contain an adhesive material. Of the granular core portion 12 and the covering layer portion 14, only the covering layer portion 14 may contain an adhesive material.

  In the said embodiment, the granular material 10 of the multilayer structure which consists of the granular core part 12 and the coating layer part 14 was shown. However, it is not essential to provide the covering layer portion 14. That is, the granular material 10 may have a single layer structure including only the granular core portion 12.

  Further, in the plurality of granular materials 10, even if the granular material 10 having a multilayer structure composed of the granular core portion 12 and the coating layer portion 14 and the granular material 10 having a single-layer structure composed only of the granular core portion 12 are mixed. Good. That is, the structure which has the granular core part 12 and the coating layer part 14 among some granular materials 10 may be sufficient.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Water absorption processing material 10 Granule 12 Granular core part 14 Covering layer part 20 Dye material 30 Mixture

Claims (11)

A water-absorbing treatment material that absorbs liquid,
With paper as the main material, it has a plurality of granules containing a pigment material and an adhesive material that has viscosity when absorbed,
Each of the granular bodies has a granular core part made of the paper as a main material, and a coating layer part covering the granular core part,
The adhesive material is contained only in the covering layer portion of the granular core portion and the covering layer portion,
When the water-absorbing treatment material absorbs the liquid, both the granular core portion and the coating layer portion collapse to collapse the plurality of granular bodies, and the plurality of collapsed granular bodies are mixed with each other to form a mass. A water-absorbing treatment material characterized by forming. The water-absorbing treatment material according to claim 1,
The paper is a water-absorbing treatment material pulverized to a particle size of 1 mm or less. The water-absorbing treatment material according to claim 2,
The paper is a water-absorbing treatment material pulverized to a particle size of 0.5 mm or less. In the water absorption processing material of Claim 3,
The paper is a water-absorbing treatment material pulverized to a particle size of 0.3 mm or less. In the water absorption processing material in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 4,
The dye material is a water-absorbing treatment material contained in both the granular core part and the covering layer part. In the water absorption processing material in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 4,
The said pigment | dye material is a water absorption processing material contained only in the said granular core part among the said granular core part and the said coating layer part. In the water absorption processing material in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 4,
The said pigment | dye material is a water absorption processing material contained only in the said coating layer part among the said granular core part and the said coating layer part. In the water absorption processing material in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 7 ,
In the state before the said water absorption processing material absorbs the said liquid, the said granular core part is a water absorption processing material which can be visually recognized through the said coating layer part. In the water absorption processing material in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 8 ,
The water absorption processing material whose weight ratio of the said coating layer part which occupies for each said granular material which has the said coating layer part is 1% or more and less than 10%. In the water absorption processing material in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 9 ,
The pigment material is a water absorption treatment material comprising silica gel and a dye adsorbed on the silica gel. In the water absorption processing material in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 10 ,
A water absorption treatment material in which at least a part of the coloring material is visible before the water absorption treatment material absorbs the liquid.

Images