Avoiding purchasing pitfalls

Purchasing and specifying commercial textiles is a complex matter. Such transactions usually involve significant sums of money and mistakes will severely affect the budget.

The specification and the final decision should take account of all the relevant factors that may affect the item over its usable lifetime.

Expectations: A textile will have many different attributes and the laundry’s buyer needs to decide which are the most important for the business’s specific purpose. Most managers will have a wide range of responsibilities in addition to textile purchasing so will need to call upon the more detailed expertise of the textile company’s salesperson.

Understanding a textile’s specification can be a complex and difficult matter especially when the terms used to describe the various properties can differ from supplier to supplier. For example, the strength of a 100% cotton fabric can be measured in fluidity or in the degree of polymerisation (DP).

The first expectation is that the linen should be the correct size, not just when it is new but when it has been washed several times.

All fabrics shrink to some extent during the first five wash cycles depending upon the tensions placed in the fabric during manufacture and how well the fabric has been “pre-shrunk”.

This is well documented and there are various BS/EN/ISO standards that give the maximum permitted rates of shrinkage depending upon the type of material, the fibre content, whether the fabric is knitted or woven, whether it is washed or drycleaned and the processes used.

Even a small difference can render a duvet cover, fitted sheet or pillow case unusable or at least very difficult to fit. It can be quite a challenge trying to dress a bed with a fitted sheet that is 15 – 20cm too short for the mattress.

All textiles will suffer relaxation shrinkage the moment they are placed in water. The textile is woven under high tension and this tension will be released when the material is thoroughly wetted out. The extent of relaxation shrinkage is in the control of the cloth manufacturer and neither the launderer nor the fabric converter that makes up the finished goods can predict this.

However, the cloth manufacturer should advise the fabric converter (the CMT – Cut, Make and Trim) company so it can “over-size” during make-up to compensate.

This relaxation shrinkage plays a vital role in holding the loops in the base material of a terry towel. The base fabric is designed to shrink to bind the terry loops into the towel and stop them coming free.

Fabric can also suffer wash shrinkage. Cotton yarns will swell during washing and then contract during drying, resulting in 5 – 7% shrinkage.

Some fabric is pre-shrunk by boiling it in a highly alkaline solution but this increases the cost significantly and so many rental operators will rule it out.

Laundries usually wash linen at over 60C in a highly alkaline environment and the first five cycles will therefore compensate for any inadequacies in pre-shrinking. For this reason, many textile suppliers will label their fabrics for a 40C wash – even though the fabric can and should be washed at much higher temperatures to remove soiling and assure disinfection.

Performance: This is largely dictated by the end-use application and the environment in which the fabric is going to be used.

A pure polyester is unsuited for use in towelling as it does not absorb moisture.

Trousers need to look well pressed and neat with a firm crease down the front – even after being worn for a day or more. They also need to be strong to withstand the stresses in use. Cotton does not hold pleats and creases very well but polyester does as it is significantly stronger so a polycotton blend would work better as a trouser fabric than a 100% cotton.

The textile sales person should be technically qualified and have the expertise to help the buyer identify the laundry’s exact requirements to help prepare the specification.

All fabrics must be capable of retaining a good appearance after being finished. Many textiles need to be finished by ironing – possibly through a multi-roll ironer whilst slightly damp – to present a smooth, crisp finish that both looks and feels good.

Textile manufacturers may use synthetic resins or certain polymers to give the new fabric the right feel and texture but these finishes must be readily removed in the first wash. If they are not removed properly they can lead to a “cracked ice effect with tiny creases that are almost impossible to remove within the first 10 – 15 washes unless a special treatment program is used.

The fabric will be clean and technically usable but will look rough and have a poor feel and appearance that will lead to numerous customer complaints.

Linen life:Virtually all textiles need to be cleaned/washed – and each time this happens a certain amount of damage will take place.

The degree of damage will depend on the cleaning method and the chemicals used. For example any process involving bleach will cause some damage, especially if the bleach is not rinsed correctly or used at the wrong temperature. If even small amounts of dilute hypochlorite bleach remain on the fabric when it is ironed, they will cause significant damage as the heat accelerates chemical activity and high temperatures can turn a chemical that is relatively safe at room temperature into a fierce and highly dangerous one.

New fabrics will have an inherent strength, which is measured in a variety of ways depending upon the fibre content and construction methods.

However, after repeated washing and drying cycles, all fabrics will reach a point where they will tear readily and must be discarded.

In a well-managed laundry, the wash process must be sufficiently powerful to remove stains and soiling but still allow at least 200 wash and dry cycles before the item becomes too weak from wash damage alone.

This has become the recognised yardstick for 100% cotton items such as sheets and pillow slips. Note though that this target excludes theft, abuse, irremovable stains and/or accidental damage.

This target life expectancy will also be affected by the treatments on the fabric during manufacture. Cotton is naturally creamy-yellow and will have to be bleached to achieve the white colour required.

Even coloured cottons will have been bleached because the natural colour can vary according to the type of soil the plant was grown in and the fabric needs to be bleached to a standard white before it is dyed.

In most modern textile mills the fabric will pass through a bath of peroxide, then while it is wet it will be transferred onto a large roll and left to rotate for a controlled period until it is the desired shade of white. It will then be rinsed and go through several other processes before it is made up into the sheet, pillowcase or duvet cover. This bleaching process reduces the fabric’s strength and has a severe impact on costs.

I have seen examples where the loss has been as much as 33% of the potential fabric life.

If the laundry is budgeting on an average of 150 cycles from every new piece of hospitality flatwork but it only lasts for 100 cycles – this can mean the difference between making a profit or a loss.

A sheet which costs £3.00 and lasts 150 cycles costs 2p per cycle in depreciation; at 100 cycles the cost becomes 3p per cycle. In macro terms, a launderer who spends £250,000 per year on stock purchased at 150 cycles to failure will spend £375,000 if this is reduced to 100 cycles .

The laundry must therefore specify its linen purchases very precisely to avoid customer complaints or going seriously over budget.

It must know precisely what kind of fabric it wants, how and where it will be used and the requirements in terms of its performance, appearance and life. All these details must be included in the fabric spec and each consignment must be checked and rechecked against requirements.