Delivering greater quality and accuracy

Perhaps the most significant trend for the modern laundry finishing line is the emergence of new textiles. Laundries are having to adapt to fabrics that are more difficult to wash, clean and iron.

Increasing costs triggered by high world cotton prices – which have more than doubled in the last six months – has seen a pronounced switch to manmade synthetic fibres and cheaper alternatives such as polycotton blends. The growing requirement for laundries to handle heavier textiles and larger flatwork also has implications for the finishing line.

Although the textile care sector has responded to the need to minimise costs and to use water and energy more efficiently, the recession had an impact on UK market, prompting laundry operators to delay upgrading equipment as long as possible

With the restaurant and function business continuing to be quiet and uncertainty over the effects of public sector spending cuts, some manufacturers say the UK outlook for 2011 into next year is making launderers cautious.

However others, like Jensen UK, are upbeat about the year ahead. The company says that although the recession had an impact on the UK market in 2010, prompting laundry operators to delay purchasing decisions, there are now clear signs of an upswing. Funding from the banking sector is improving and hotel occupancy levels are picking up.

Electrolux Laundry Systems in the UK takes a similarly positive view. Before 2010 all market sectors had delayed or shelved plans to invest in equipment, Now the company expects laundry operators to start replacing older equipment to save on breakdown time and increase productivity. Electrolux expects its main growth areas in the UK will be the care, hospitality and coin-operated launderette markets.

According to Armstrong Commercial Laundry Systems, laundries now require a finishing line that delivers accuracy and quality. A high-gloss finish is especially important for table linen, says Tom Lowes, director of Armstrong Commercial Laundry Systems.

“At the same time they want to see increased productivity while reducing running costs, in particular energy costs as charges are ever rising.”

Armstrong has had a long partnership with the Belgian manufacturer Lapauw and its XXL gas-heated ironers combined with the Lapauw Mini-feed system are proving popular.

Armstrong says that its range of Lapauw equipment is perfectly capable of handling any linen, regardless of the weight of the fabric. Armstrong offers single- and multi-roll ironers with working widths of up to 4.2m. Folders can be supplied with either air blast or knife folding systems and machines produce standard or French folds.

Armstrong provides Lapauw ironers with three heat mediums, steam, thermal oil and gas.

The gas heated machines have modulating burners which give very accurate temperature control. The customer can program different temperatures for different classifications of work, so saving energy. All machines have individual fully adjustable vacuum units for each roll.

The XXL flexible chest ironer has a single 1,600mm diameter roll with roll-to-bed coverage of 286degrees. This provides performance equivalent to that of a two-roll XXL 1,200mm diameter ironer. The XXL is available in both gas- and steam-heated versions.

Lapauw’s Aircup system is mainly used on large single-roll ironers and gas-heated machines. Roll exhaust air is passed through a heat-exchanger and the ironer then draws this heated air back over the roll.

Another successful development is the Lapauw Mini Feed System, which consists of a single-station feeding attachment that can be attached to the ironer’s feed band assembly, allowing one person to feed large pieces. The system is micro-processor controlled allowing the operator to change programs for different classifications of work. The feeding clamps, when not in use, return to the outside edge of the feedband table giving full access to the ironer for manual feeding.

The Mini Feed can be combined with the Lapauw Unifeed suction box and single-roll ironer, making it suitable for smaller laundries that want to grow their business.

More automation

Electrolux says that with high labour costs, the trend is for more automation in every aspect of the laundry. At the same time, easy-to-operate intuitive controls will help manage the processes.

Laundries must now cope with a larger variety of fabrics and generally thicker materials for flatwork. Electrolux believes that folder equipment using knives rather than solely air jets for cross folding will be able to cope with these requirements more easily.

The company’s FFS ironer is said to be able to handle all sorts of thickness of flatwork and provide excellent finishing. The FFS saves on labour costs because it needs just one operator to perform all operations – feeding, drying, ironing, folding and stacking. It is also equipped with an automatic standby function to help save energy.

The Dubixium double-layer, self-contained thermal oil cylinder is offered as a standard with the FFS ironer, enabling it to achieve an 80% performance rating.

The company has also developed a range of feeders and folders, including a towel folder, to complement its larger heavy-duty C-flex flatwork ironer.

Pace of change

Jensen UK says that as the cotton price continues to rise, so the pace of change in the textile sector is very rapid and the finishing line must now be able to handle heavier duvets and poly-cotton blends. As UK laundries often have limited space, they need ironer lines that increase productivity and also produce high quality results. To meet this requirement, Jensen has developed its Logic Plus and Jenroll EXPG 2000 2metre single-roll gas ironer.

The company reports a steady increase in demand for its EXPG gas ironers over traditional steam ironers. This is because the ironer can be run without a boiler, which increases the flexibility for each laundry operation.

Jensen recently installed an “all-in-one” multi-purpose ironer line at the Victor Vask laundry in Denmark, which serves hotels and restaurants as well as the military and hospitals.

The line comprises a Jenfeed Logic Plus feeder that works in one, two or four lanes, a gas-heated Jenroll EXPG 2000 mono-roll ironer, a Jenfold Universal M large-piece folder and a Jenstack Max Twin stacker for sorting and stacking.

The Universal M large-piece folder is supplied with a direct bypass system that sends small pieces to the combined small-piece folder and stacker, which operates in three lanes.

In the fourth lane, the laundry uses a Jenstack Concorde for top-quality folding and stacking of napkins and that produces special folds for restaurants. In front of the small-piece system, there is a device that centres the small-pieces before folding and stacking.

The line is supplied with Jenscan MPS, a quality control scanning system that automatically detects holes and stains and can sort the pieces for repair or rewash.

The company has also recently unveiled its new Basic Plus small-piece feeder. This provides high-quality feeding of small-pieces by means of a re-designed suction box, spreading brushes and stretch conveyor.

Energy efficient

Kannegiesser is another company looking to provide energy efficient perfomance on the finishing line. Its EMQ feeder has been developed with four feeding stations and can be used in combination with a Kannegiesser CFM folding machine and built-in lifting stacker. These handle the automatic feeding of duvet covers and bed sheets using the feeding clamps, with the items being automatically folded and stacked.

The EMQ can be automatically converted to a small piece feeder for processing table linen and pillowcases, at the touch of a button, thus increasing the range of options on the line

Kannegiesser’s finishing equipment also includes the EMX two-station feeder, which allows cornerless feeding and delivers a maximum output of 1,200 pieces per hour in one- and two-lane operation.

The space-saving AFMBR towel folder is a combination dry-work machine, which can process both bathrobes and towels.

Four requirements

According to Girbau UK, customers have four main requirements from the modern finishing line: efficiency, automation, flexibility and reliability.

Although the Girbau group covers all laundry sectors, Girbau UK is a relatively new player in the market for industrial finishing equipment. Following a recent redesign of its feeder and folder ranges, Girbau has introduced the Lite series to the UK market. These machines are aimed at laundries that want to automate the finishing process but don’t require the optional extras provided by more sophisticated machines.

Girbau’s feeder choice includes the DRF feeders for laundries that handle high volumes and the DRF-Lite for medium productivity.

The company believes that its range of feeders and folders covers the large range of items an industrial laundry might typically handle. The range presently comprises the DRF-Lite feeder, the FL-Lite folder and AP-Lite stacker.

The DRF-Lite automatic front feeder offers two loading stations as standard and the option of adding a third. It can process up to 650pieces per hour on a single lane.

Operators insert items into the feeder station clamps and activate a sensor, which automatically and safely feeds the item into a Girbau PSN80 or PC120 flatwork ironer.

Girbau UK also offers the DRM manual feeder, which is designed for feeding articles of all sizes in one, two or four lanes.

Its FL-lite folder offers both adaptability and high productivity. Using an air blast, it can perform up to two longitudinal folds on one or two equal lanes. A secondary or cross-fold is performed in a single middle lane and consists of three folds, of which the first and last are essential. As an option the FL-Lite folder can be manufactured without cross folding.

Finally the AP-Lite stacker complements the FL-Lite folder. The flap stacker requires minimum maintenance and is easy to adjust. Options on this model include a third primary fold, a receiver for small articles and a program selector that can be operated from the feeder area.

Girbau says that its PC120 flatwork ironer is available with one, two or three 1,200mm diameter cylinders and a working width of 3 – 3.5metres. It is available in steam and thermal oil-heated versions or with an integral gas-fired boiler (gas-fired versions are only available with one or two cylinders).

The PC120 provides high productivity of up to 45metres per minute and features Inteli electronic controls that allow fine adjustment of speed, ironing temperature and pressure.

Girbau designs its flatwork systems to be flexible. With a virtually endless list of items that need to be fed into ironers and folded properly, the company says machines need to be adaptable to handle a quantity of different kinds of items such as sheets, blankets, round tablecloths, king-sized items, duvet covers and “bottleneck” duvets. With a DRF feeder for example, an operator can automatically feed sheets, duvets and ”bottleneck” duvets in one lane and at the same time tablecloths, hospital sheets, and other medium-sized items in two lanes. The process is totally automated and achieves a consistently high quality finish.

At the same time, the manual feeding options also allows the line to handle napkins, pillowcases and round tablecloths Girbau FL folders offer both high performance and a quality finish. The company says its uses the same template to consistently fold anything from thin hospital polycotton sheets to thick 3kg king-sized duvet covers for a five-star hotel.