Drycleaning finishing

Meeting the demands of a worldwide market

25 March 2010



Drycleaners’ requirements for finishing equipment vary from region to region. Janet Taylor investigates the trends and the latest technical developments


The drycleaning market was generally considered slow in 2009, but with some improvement in economies expected, particularly in the second half of this year, the situation may begin to get better.

On a worldwide basis, the finishing equipment market shows regional variations in customer requirements. Massimo Sanvito, export manager of the Italian company Pony, says that the European market is dominated by small shops that use self-contained vacuum/up air ironing tables rather than presses.

He says that in some European countries height-adjustable ironing tables are become more popular and may even be stipulated by bodies providing public finance.

Where the environment is high priority, spotting cabinets are getting preference over the standard table, indeed cabinets are almost mandatory because of their filtration and vacuum systems that protect both the environment and the operator. In Europe, automation is confined largely to shirt finishing where there is growing demand for more productive equipment, even from businesses handling only low or medium volumes.

In South America while presses are in great demand and still the main finishing machine, an increasing number of customers are becoming interested in using vacuum/up air tables. Sanvito says this is because an ironing table needs a lower investment and has lower running costs because they use less energy.

In both the USA and Canada businesses still “think big”.

Shops tend to be larger than those in Europe and there is higher demand for automated equipment such as presses, toppers, form finishers and shirt cabinets.

In Asia, especially in the Far East, the drycleaning market is divided between the hotel sector where Pony can sell presses and other expensive machines and the small drycleaning shops, which often have limited budgets that will not extend beyond the basic ironing table.

Ken Uchikoshi, managing director of Sankosha, believes that, in general terms, the drycleaning market is shrinking yearly worldwide. The west coast of America is becoming extremely difficult. He says that the key to real improvement will be a change of attitude so that there is a more positive mood among businesses. Sankosha is making every effort to encourage such a change.

James Holt, managing director of Sankosha’s UK distributor Parrisianne Dry Cleaning Solutions, points out that in both UK and Europe drycleaners are trying to cut costs and the best way to do this is by reducing the labour needed.

Sankosha is perfectly placed to assist here with automated machines such as the DF50E and DF100E form finishers and the DF740E trouser topper. These three machines illustrate Sankosha’s philosophy of producing high quality, highly reliable machines that produce a good finish and require very little touch-up and increase productivity.

Corinna Mapelli, business development director at Trevil, says that while the market was generally static last year, she did notice changes in customer behaviour.

In effect, the market was polarised for while some equipment dealers were trying to attract more custom by stocking low-end, simple, cheap machines, more solidly based drycleaners were becoming stronger because their competitors were going out of business.

These profitable drycleaners had an entrepreneurial spirit, she says.

They planned for investment and they bought more expensive machines and started to automate production. Mapelli also noticed an increase in drycleaners installing wetcleaning equipment – in some cases becoming a 100% wetcleaning business.

This affects finishing as more accurate techniques are needed.

Growing interest in wetcleaning could provide an opportunity for upmarket finishing products.

Electrolux’s Lagoon wetcleaning system has the USP of being the only system approved by Woolmark.

The Lagoon washer is complemented by two pieces of equipment. The FC48 finishing cabinet allows efficient drying of garments for an immediate finish of wetclean items while the F4TWC trouser topper prepares trousers for fast hand finishing on the ironing table.

At Pony, Massimo Sanvito says that during 2009, the company was often asked for “special prices” especially in Europe.

He now hopes that the expected slight economic improvement will help the laundry and drycleaning industries to return to a normal level of purchasing power where price will not be the main factor.

Continued growth in Asia and the Far East leading to investment in hotels and the commercial laundry market will help. Even in recession, factors such as ergonomics environmental protection, safety and productivity are considerations. The Pony range already offers machines that meet these concerns and the company plans introductions to its range especially in the trouser finishing and shirt finishing areas. The company gained ETL certification for the USA and Canada a few years ago and expects this investment to pay back in the long-term.

One example of Pony’s development has been the model 405 shirt finisher, which is now available with an optional shoulder press. The shoulder is the most critical area of the shirt both in terms of finish quality and production time and the shoulder press improves on both. When the 405 with shoulder press is used in combination with a collar and cuff press a single operator can produce around 45 shirts per hour.

In practice the shoulder press works like the small buck of a hot-head laundry press and can operate automatically with pressing time pre-set by the microprocessor or be manually controlled. Where required, the function can be excluded.

Mapelli at Trevil reports that a lot of interest in its top of the range machines shirt finishers tensioning form finishers and toppers.

Customers want machines that finish to a high quality without any additional processing.

Such highly automated machinery pleases drycleaners who run an express service and want to minimise costs by producing garments that are ready for delivery the moment they come off the machine – no need to spend extra time on touching-up details.

Larger businesses also want these machines because they want to use an assembly line approach where staff with basic skills produce high volumes on automated machines and then specialist operators add the finishing touches.

Trevil was one of the pioneers in automated machinery, says Mapelli who believes automation is proving more attractive to a mass market.

Currently one of the most popular lines is utility tensioning finisher Princess Ultra which can be used to replace the traditional Suzi or used as an excellent shirt and blouse finisher or dedicated to blouses. This has a patented front clamp which allows both wet and dry garments to be finished.

Trevil’s redesigned Trevistar shirt finisher is now on the market. The machine has both cuff placket presses and a yoke drying module and this combination increases productivity and improves the result, eliminating the need for any touch-up in many cases.

The redesign has also improved the machine’s ergonomics allowing operators to adopt a working positing that is both natural and comfortable. The control board is now easier to use and all functions are positioned within the operator’s reach.

Sankosha has launched several models within the past year. The DF100E multi form finisher now has 180degree rotation to help loading. It also incorporates a redesigned microprocessor control panel that gives the operator better control over program times. It also has a clamping system that allows operators to choose between centre, side vents and wide side vents on a jacket. The blower motor power has been increased by 50%.

The DF50E is a scaled down version of the DF100E but does not offer rotation or the choice of clamping positions.

The company’s third introduction this year is the upgraded DF74E trouser topper. James Holt points out that trousers account for 50/60% of a cleaner’s workload and that this machine can handle up to 60/70 garments per hour to a standard that requires only minimal finishing. The machine has sensor detection for leg clamping and also has the option of single-stage or two-stage tensioning and fully adjustable steaming/blowing and drying functions.




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