The IFI has installed a full-size CO2/OL machine at its head office in Silver Spring, Maryland and the tests began at the end of May/ beginning of June.
Mary Scelco, IFI's vice president for education and research, said the aim was to assess how the machine and its cleaning system would perform in a typical drycleaning shop environment.
It would be looking at cleanability, the effect on fabrics and trying to answer the questions that drycleaners might ask if they were considering the system.
Although tests would be carried out partly under lab conditions, they would also try to simulate the shop environment by using the machine as a drycleaner would. The system would be tested on normal clothes.
IFI will also be trying to assess the challenges that the machine might present, its benefits and the ways in which Chart's CO2 system might differ from more established methods.
The period of the trials is still to be decided, as is the question of whether the results will be made public.
