Feeding frenzy

VERSATILE FLATWORK HANDLING

As readers may have guessed if they have read this month’s Cover Story it is a special year for HJ Weir so who better to talk to about feeders and folders than the internationally renowned manufacturer’s managing director Ross Weir?

According to Weir, the decision on what equipment to buy for feeding and folding can be subjective depending on what linen you are processing and what your goals are. He believes that for small pieces a simple vacuum-based feeder, like the HJ Weir VacFeed 37 is the best, better than extended feed bands on an ironer. The vacuum allows accurate placing of linen and time for adjustment before the piece enters the ironer. Coupled with the simple controls and industry leading reliability this machine is a great option.

Weir comments: “The Vacfeed 37 is a great addition to an ironer line ensuring that the work is perfectly presented to the ironer. Obviously, this then ensures that the folding equipment can perform optimally.”

Large piece feeding into clamps is an option offered by many suppliers. If you are planning to feed heavy super king-size duvet covers via clamps, it is important to ensure that the feeder has adjustable torque settings and possibly a ‘shake’ function. The provision of a suction box to collect the hanging linen is also important so that the eventual presentation to the ironer is correct. The HJ Weir Vacfeed 29 Lowline has all these features as standard. “The ability for this machine to cope with bedlinen and table linen makes it a very flexible proposition. These machines operate in all laundry environments and give great quality and efficiency,” says Weir.

When it comes to folding the HJ Weir range is extensive from the Foldmaker 55, an incredibly versatile flatwork folder that can handle everything from super king duvets to pillow cases and napkins, to the Foldmaker 64 which is in operation worldwide giving excellent quality and speed folding multiple lanes of small pieces. Add to this the stacking option and productivity can really take off. Towel folding is also covered from standard fold machines the Foldmaker 56 and Foldmaker 66 to the French folding Airspeed 43 and 53.

All HJ Weir machines have a reporting function. Pieces and classifications are monitored, and reports can be generated. There is also the option to connect the machines to the internet and have the data displayed on the HJ Weir Portal. This internet connectivity also allows remote fault diagnosis and early warnings for maintenance engineers via text or email direct from the machine.

“When it comes to feeding and folding, we have an option for everything “Ross Weir. “It’s hardly surprising though as we are the originators of flatwork handling technology”.

PRECISION AND CONTROL

This year, the company has launched its new high-speed feeders for flatwork ironing systems, the latest-generation DRE and DRC systems, which, it says, deliver precision and control to ensure high quality and a perfect finish.

The new DRC Feeder meets a need that laundry professionals had been insisting on: not having to find the corners of sheets and other pieces being fed into the flatwork ironer. Thus, this machine was developed for fast feeding of single bed sheets with special attention to efficiency, boosting the operator’s throughput per hour. As the operator does not need to find the corners to feed in the item this makes this machine unique on the market in its ability to work in two lanes.

The new DRE Feeder is a versatile machine offering precision, speed and quality through a variable setup with two, three or four loading stations which, thanks to their new clamps, assure a smooth, trouble-free transfer from the loading stations to the servers, so boosting the quality of the transfer to the ironing area. Also, the loading stations have been designed to boost ergonomics, safety and comfort while working as they can be adjusted individually to suit the operator’s height and automatically detect the presence of linen to start loading with no need for a start button. The PLC control system of the DRE feeder features the Human Machine Interface (HMI) with the latest, most advanced 10” touchscreen to ensure optimum control of the feeding parameters.

With these two innovations Girbau stays at the cutting edge in solutions for the sector, with two tough, versatile and fast machines that will make life much easier and more convenient for both industrial laundries and the operators working there, as well as boosting the capacity and profitability of the business.

GOING LARGE, IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY

Blanchisserie Lingenet in Valentigney, France. Was losing time while processing the large and heavy linen for high-class hotels and restaurants. Joint managing directors, Jean-Luca Troussard and his son Thomas Troussard found that the main problem was in weak feeding performance. On the one hand, the employees had problems feeding the large and heavy sheets, duvets covers and tablecloths. On the other hand, the up to 30 customer changes per day additionally delayed operations. The two managing directors needed a solution that would speed up the feeding process and meet the high-quality requirements of their customers.

With the help of Kannegiesser the French textile service provider found the perfect fit in the SynchroRemote feeding machine.

The figures speak for themselves! Manager and founder Jean- Luc Troussard sums it up: “Thanks to the SynchroRemote, our productivity is no longer affected by customer changes. Overall, our output increased by 25%.”

The SynchroRemote forms a unit of the Kannegiesser Synchro feeding technology with a remote supply and storage system. And it also comes in an extremely compact design. Thanks to the integrated item buffer and its customer/batch change function, the SynchroRemote keeps the feeding process running smoothly. While textiles belonging to one customer are directly fed to the machine, all other operators can continue feeding textile articles from another customer - all at the same time. In this way the item buffer guarantees process consistency at its best and customer changes are not a problem anymore.

The core task of a feeding machine is to spread the laundry items. And this is when ServoTronic comes into the picture. ServoTronic allows more dynamic and precise work than ever before. The combination of servo electronics, servo drive and sensor technology enables high acceleration and a precise approach to the end position, thus shortening cycle times. At the same time it is providing gentle laundry treatment. Compared with conventional drive systems, the ServoTronic increases the machine performance by up to 30%.

The machine’s output is determined by the operators feeding performance. A time saving of only one second per piece can increase the overall performance by approx. 10%.

For that reason the SynchroRemote workstations are designed with a clear focus on ergonomics. The core element of the ergonomical machine design is the automatic trolley advance: After clamping the first corner the article gets automatically lifted. This makes it very easy to find the second corner to be clamped. The single clamp feed function ensures that no operator has to wait while feeding. It is connected to the item buffer and thanks to its guiding contour it ensures a fast and easy handling.

With ServoTronic the customer is able to achieve constantly high output throughout the day.

DIFFERENT FEEDING PATTERNS

The fastest cornerless feeding system in the world for feeding of sheets in one lane operation is now available as a remote version from Jensen. The Jenrail Express Compact ‘plug’n’play’ solution incorporates two or three remote feeding stations for fast cornerless feeding of sheets into pre-specified bufferlines. Cornerless feeding means ‘one grip–- no corners’. The cornerless feeding station has been shaped to guide the linen into the machine after finding the approximate centre of the linen, allowing the operators to reach very high production figures. Each operator can double production per hour compared to conventional feeding of corners into clamps.

The feeding stations are also available in a height-adjustable version. Thanks to the buffer of sheets hanging ready for feeding, a continuous flow with a minimum gap between the sheets can be obtained,. Furthermore, the buffer of sheets reduces the impact from micro-stops, ensuring a constant flow of sheets being fed into the feeder..

The new KliQ feeder – Jensen’s productivity booster for healthcare and hospitality laundries – incorporates a series of new features enabling it to spread and feed flatwork faster while reducing the maintenance requirements at the same time. The EasyClamp guides the corner of the linen into the clamp, and topquality feeding and high capacity is realised by lifting the corners of the linen high before spreading and feeding it onto the transfer beam. During lifting, the trailing edge is led fast and efficiently into the vacuum box. After spreading the linen, the transfer beam pulls the leading edge fast and efficiently into the machine thanks to servo-driven motors ensuring optimum speed and a straight leading edge of the linen. Thanks to the new transfer beam operating with a mechanical holding bar instead of vacuum suction, the feeding quality of the leading edge of the linen stays the same over time, as it is not depending on any vacuum suction force..

Our new compact Katana folder, pictured, allows 4 to 6 inline stackers depending on the working width of the machine. Inside, each cross-folding station has a reversing device and the ‘sword’ (the Japanese call it ‘Katana’) in order to achieve optimum control of the linen position and the best possible folding result. The multiblade technology in both lateral and crossfold section replaces the airblow and saves up to 50% on compressed air consumption. As an extra bonus, the working environment is much quieter.

Laundries can produce 350 sheets more per day on the existing ironer line for free: Full and easy access to the crossfold section allows reduction of time spent unjamming the crossfold section. This calculation is based on 1000 sheets/hour in two shifts.