Swiss laundry makes an impressive start

Zeba Ag in the Basle Canton represents an investment of some 32million Swiss francs (£12.68million). This private laundry has been open just six months, but its high standards and individual approach are growing its share in both healthcare and industrial sectors. The 10 000sq m plant with its 980 sq m of window area is one of the most impressive private textile-care operations I have visited and it provides a model for hospital-linen rental.

Healthcare services account for over 70% of the throughput and the volume is growing, but alongside this Zeba is also achieving satisfactory growth in its services to industry, offering standard workwear services to manufacturing companies as well as to specialised operations for food preparation, pharmaceutical and micro-electronic companies. It also caters to the hotel market. Three salesman service its workwear and hotel linen customers, while the buying department ensures that all rental items in the inventory are to a good standard.

In its healthcare operation, the company offers three core services:Zebatex, processing hospital linen in sterile and hygienically protected packs; Zebadress. a clean uniform and workwear service where all garments are identified both by wearer and by hospital; and Zebamed which caters for nursing homes and long-stay patients clinics.

Against significant competition, the Kannegiesser Group won the contract to equip the plant and has been involved in the project from the start, sponsoring a consultant to oversee the planning and construction. The result is in part a tribute to the synergy and co-operation between the group companies.

Kannegiesser itself supplied all the ironing and finishing equipment , including one of the latest Hi-Power ironers as well as feeding, folding, stacking, counting and wrapping units, while Passat provided a 16-compartment Ultratandem tunnel washer, with a 50kg loading for each section. Passat also supplied the associated membrane press, tumblers and loading conveyor.

Pharmagg, a recent entrant to the Kannegiesser Group, equipped the plant with 14 double-door washer-extractors with capacities up to 260kg. It also brought its expertise in clean-room planning to the project, taking care of all aspects such as personal hygiene cubicles, access points between soiled and clean areas of the plant and providing manual and automated trolley sterilisation cabinets.

At a time when hospital laundering is dominated by tunnel washers, the emphasis on washer-extractors may seem unusual. However, as Zeba director Rolf Zellweger pointed out, more and more specialised fabrics are coming on to the hospital market. The Pharmagg machines are both well-engineered and highly versatile, and as a result well able to cope with these new fabrics. For example, the Pharmagg machines are used for all the sterile theatre packs.

Washer-extractors are also used for all the polycotton garments, uniforms and workwear for hospital use , and also for industrial workwear. All the machines have the Pharmagg Care-wash cage perforations which have no ragged or sharp edges, so avoiding the risk of fibrillation and prolonging garment life.

Hospital and industrial workwear are handled by two separate departments, but both process to the same high standards.

The washer-extractors are computerised and will shortly be linked into management control and data collection systems.

Another interesting development associated with the washer-extractors is the Scaletron weighing system which allows more efficient processing of part loads. Normally , all loads would be processed to the same formula. However, the Scaletron will not only record the load weight and classification, it will also register under-weight loads and adjust the parameters accordingly.

This reduces cycle time while still producing the same high standards. It also has the advantage of cutting energy and chemical costs and reducing mechanical action damage. Pharmagg is finding that an increasing number of customers are requesting this feature.

The Passat dryers associated with the washer-extractors use filtered clean air both for conditioning and full drying. Indeed the standard of filtration required is so high that this system actually cost more than the dryer itself.

For processing standard hospital bed linen, Zeba uses the Ultratandem tunnel washer and this machine is also used for hotel work.

The Kannegiesser single roll ‘Hi-Power’ ironer with its laminated stainless-steel bed and fast heat transfer produces a high finish on hotel table linen, equal to that achieved by the well-known Rheineveld machine of yesteryear.

The success of the Zeba operation to date can be judged by the fact that already the planned throughput of 100t/week is being exceeded and even now space is being squeezed.