Article, apparatus and method for conditioning fibrous materials with liquid conditioning composition

Abstract

An article for conditioning fibrous materials includes a dispensing container of liquid fabric conditioning composition which has an opening in the wall thereof through which the conditioning composition is gradually dispensed into contact with fibrous materials to be conditioned. The conditioning composition is usually an aqueous solution of a surface active synthetic organic anionic, nonionic or cationic fabric conditioning agent, which is a softening agent that usually also makes the treated fabrics non-static. The container of conditioning composition usually includes a plurality of small dispensing openings therein and the viscosity of the solution of conditioning agent may be such that dispensing is preventable until the container comes into contact with materials to be treated or is subjected to shocks, as in tumbling of the container in contact with laundry being dried in an automatic laundry dryer. A preferred form of the container is a polypropylene sphere, having a separate larger filling opening and a closure therefor. Also disclosed are an apparatus including an automatic laundry dryer or similar machine and the disclosed dispensing container of conditioning agent, and methods for conditioning fabrics and laundry utilizing such article and apparatus.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.