Resolving common problems with ironers

During the past year, the team at Severnside Fabrics has identified several types of problems that either reduce quality or lower productivity on the ironer line.

Many occur before the linen reaches the ironer. These include chemical carry-over through poor rinsing, and poor equipment maintenance. Adding too much starch to the laundering process results in deposits on the ironer bed and in the ironer clothing becoming encrusted with starch.

Ironers should be waxed every four hours following a precise procedure. Failure to do this or to over-wax leads to mark-off and an increase in items sent for re-wash.

We have been actively advocating using measured scoops to apply the wax. Always clean and scour the ironer bed with abrasive cloths before waxing and turn the vacuum fans off during the procedure.

Standard flaked wax is fine for older ironers but the new generation should be treated with micro-waxes as these do not carbonise at higher temperatures. They also contain built-in cleaners.

Some ironer manufacturers insist on these high temperature micro-waxes, such as standard Dolwax and Dolwax HP, and both can also be used on the older-generation ironers.

Failure to attend to the basics of ironer maintenance continues to lead to the greatest number of problems – malfunctioning steam traps; vacuum fans broken or the vacuum trunking split; incorrect roller-to-bed pressures and roller-to-bed alignment; and inconsistent bed-to-roller contact.

Quite frequently, we see incorrect speed differentials between rolls – caused either by drive-belt slippage or by individual rollers being re-clothed out of sequence. We have even seen second-hand ironers that have been installed with the rollers and beds in the wrong order.

Back pressure in the condense lines is one of the more difficult problems. The fault may be intermittent, and when it does occur, the linen will not dry at normal ironer speed. The problem can be caused by steam traps that stay open, sending live steam down the condense line, so pressurising it.

As a result, working steam traps may not be able to expel the condense into the line again, resulting in lower bed temperatures and water-logged ironer beds.

All these problems will directly affect quality, production rates and shorten the life of calender clothing.

But the cause is not so readily visible for some problems.

We have noticed an increase in the number of modern ironers with damaged springing. As a general rule individual springs inset into the roller are far more robust, although they can be damaged if several thicknesses of jammed linen are forced under the ironer roller.

Most modern ironer manufacturers use wind-on channel springing. There are several types of this springing on the market and while they all work well, they do seem to have a shorter life, especially in adverse working conditions.

Re-springing ironers has brought our customers improvements in overall quality, production and extended clothing life.