Free flowing builder beads and detergents

Claim 1

A granular detergent having a flowability of at least about 70% that of clean, dry sand, which comprises: (a) from about 60 to 88 percent by weight of spray dried base beads having detergent building properties comprising from about 45 to about 85% by weight of an alkali metal phosphate wherein from about 30 to about 60 percent of the phosphate is hydrated and the remainder is anhydrous, from about 5 to about 15 percent by weight of a sodium silicate having an Na 2 O:SiO 2 ratio of from about 1:1.6 to about 1:3.4 and from about 5 to about 15% water, wherein a portion of the water is present as water of hydration in the hydrated phosphate, the beads being essentially free of organic surfactant, organic detergent or soap, when spray dried; and (b) from 12 to about 40 percent by weight of a nonionic polyethoxylated synthetic organic detergent; (c) said beads having a structure of microcrystals and amorphous solid interconnected as an irregular network within the beads, the network defining interconnected irregularly shaped passageways, said passageways comprising a reticular void space within the beads and interconnecting to discrete openings on the external surface of the beads; (d) the nonionic detergent being applied to the external surfaces of the spray dried beads and being substantially absorbed into the internal passageways of the beads to produce the granular detergent; (e) the beads having a specific gravity of from about 0.5 to about 0.8; and (f) at least 90% of the beads and the granular detergent having a particle size distributed between 20 mesh and 200 mesh U.S. sieve series.