Prodn. of rottable or digestible plant pot or animal feed container

摘要

The prodn. of a container which can be degraded by digestion or rotting, esp. a plant pot for plants or seeds or a container for storing mineral feed blocks for animals is new. It is based on a mixt. of animal or vegetable fibres, the usual fillers, pigments or additives, which is treated with an alkali silicate soln. and can be hardened with a reactive component. The novel features are that (a) a compsn. suitable for injection moulding is made by mixing 25-50 wt.% animal and/or vegetable fibres, 10-20 wt.% usual fillers, pigments or additives and 50-75 wt.% aq. alkali silicate soln., based on dry mass; (b) the compsn. is injection moulded under pressure; and (c) the moulding is hardened with acid gases or aerosols of (in)organic acids or anhydrides, which react with the alkali silicate soln. to form amorphous SiO2, and then conditioned. Also claimed are appts. used for making the containers; and the containers themselves.