Granulate consisting of hydrated sodium tripolyphosphate and water-insoluble alumino silicate ion exchanger material

Claim 1

In a granulate comprising particles having sizes substantially within the range 0.15 to 1.25 mm, the granulate consisting essentially of: (a) about 1 to 99 weight % of partially or completely hydrated sodium tripolyphosphate containing water of hydration in a proportion of at least about 10 weight %, based on the theoretically possible water content and having been made from the anhydrous sodium tripolyphosphate, and (b) about 99 to 1 weight % of a water-insoluble alumino silicate ion exchanger material of the general formula (Cat.sub.2/n O).sub.x.Me.sub.2 O.sub.3.(SiO.sub.2).sub.y.z H.sub.2 O in which Cat stands for a calcium exchangeable cation with the valency n, x is 0.7 to 1.5, Me stands for Aluminium, y is 0.8 to 6, and z is 1.8 to 13.5 the improvement wherein the anhydrous sodium tripolyphosphate contains about 20 to 80 weight % of phase-I material prior to hydration and the balance being phase-II; the alumino silicate ion exchanger material being a type A zeolite of the formula [Na 2 O.Al 2 O 3 .(SiO 2 ) 2 .4.5 H 2 O], the material being anhydrous and having the following particle size distribution according to Andreasen prior to granulation: 1μ m: 97-99% 10 μm: 94-97% 1 μm: 1-5% corresponding to an average diameter of the particles of 3 to 5 microns; and the granulate presenting the following particle size distribution (Tyler Standart Sieve Analysis Scale) ______________________________________ Mesh number Retained on sieve, weight % ______________________________________ >12 3.6-13.4 >16 11.0-20.5 >20 19.4-29.1 >35 65.6-90.4 >65 91.7-98.9 >100 97.5-99.8 <100 2.5- 0.1 ______________________________________