High bulk density particulate heavy duty laundry detergent

A free-flowing, phosphate free, particulate, heavy duty, laundry detergent having a bulk density greater than 0.6 g/milliliter comprising non-ionic detergent-containing beads produced by

• (a) preparing a crutcher mix by adding sufficient water soluble sodium silicate to an aqueous slurry of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate and a detergent building ion exchanging aluminosilicate zeolite to form a gel, said zeolite having an average ultimate particle diameter of about 15 microns or less,
• (b) shearing the gel to reduce the viscosity thereof,
• (c) adding additional sodium silicate to the sheared gel, such that the crutcher mix contains from about 2 to about 15% by weight of the silicate,
• (d) spray drying the crutcher mix to form beads having a water content of about 2 to about 12% and the proportions of zeolite, sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate in the spray dried beads are in the range of 1:0.3-1.6:0.2-2.0, on an anhydrous basis,
• (e) mixing with said beads from 0.2 to 1.6 parts of nonionic detergent in liquid form so that such detergent is absorbed into the beads.