Automation investment is smart path to tread

1 June 1999



When the PHS Group’s Treadsmart division opened its doors for business last year at a new prestigious building in Bolton, it unveiled one of the most compact and efficient dust control mat cleaning services in Europe.


The PHS Group’s new laundry operation in Bolton is devoted solely to dust mats and reflects an estimated growth of around 20% in this sector. To maintain its strong position in this market the company wanted the most advanced, automated laundry process.

Polymark Laundry Systems, the chosen supplier, was able to design and install an integrated flow path from in-feed through the washing and drying cycles in an extremely small footprint—an area no larger than 121/2 metres by 18 metres.

PHS Treadsmart operates nationwide, delivering a full service of floor protection exchanged on a regular basis. Bolton is one of a network of laundries ensuring the best service all year round.

On arrival at the new laundry, dirty dust mats are manually loaded onto an inclined belt conveyor—the lowest segment of the conveyor positioned directly over a weigh-station that ensures loads do not exceed the systems optimum pre-set handling weight of 50 kg. Adjacent to the flighted conveyor Polymark has installed a control panel that gives manual override and resetting of program data.

The mats are elevated to the load point above a specially manufactured ‘shaker’, the belt conveyor flights preventing fall-back and maintaining optimum loading at each operation. Once inside the shaker mats undergo a violent vibration process that loosens and removes dirt and other debris prior to entering the wash system.

The mats are automatically released after a pre-set time and travel along another inclined belt conveyor to the loading chute of a Milnor Model 76039 four-module continuous batch washer.

The Milnor’s huge 2900 litre cylinder capacity has had a limited effect on the washing efficiency. A considerable level of soiling is released from the mats during the wash process and for this reason each compartment has self-cleaning eight inch drain valves for purging of the non-soluble soil associated with mat washing.

Design of Milnor washers is modular, this enables continuous batch washers to be constructed with as many modules as required to achieve the right degree of wash, sanitation and rinse. At PHS it was decided that a four-stage batch washer would be sufficient to achieve required production levels.

Advantage

On release from the washer, the mats enter a centrifugal extractor that is mounted directly at the exit of the washer. A key advantage of the Milnor M7E centrifugal extractor is the maximum moisture removal from cotton and nylon mats, resulting in minimal drying times.

Mats are automatically distributed inside the cylinder to minimise out of balance conditions which ensures fast turnaround. After this the mats head for the last stage in the cleaning process, the dryer, whilst extracted water is filtered and recycled thus conserving fresh water usage and associated heat-up costs.

The final drying stage has a higher load capacity than previous stations, prompting Polymark to introduce an accumalation facility on the last belt conveyor that will hold forward movement to the dryer until three 50 kg loads are ready. After drying the mats are discharged and loaded into stillage trucks ready for collection by PHS’s fleet of delivery vehicles.

Automated flow of dust mats throughout the cleaning process is monitored and controlled by a specially built console that incorporates programmable settings and a visual display unit.

Commenting on the design and installtion, Mr Bryn Bourge, laundry technical manager, said: “During tendering stages by suppliers we visited other laundry sites to evaluate systems. We were able to confirm that through Polymark Laundry Systems, PHS Treadsmart would have access to the world’s most technologically advanced laundry equipment.”



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