High performance innovations

Drycleaning has become a luxury service again, as it used to be before the boom started in the 1970s, according to Hartmut Paul Kokerbeck of machine manufacturer Ilsa Multimatic in Germany. He said: “Drycleaning of garments as we have known it will further shrink, but other kinds of textile care will grow.”

At Texcare, Ilsa Multimatic joined forces with Barbanti and Metalprogetti from Italy, whose machines it sells exclusively in Germany, to present a “Marketplace of Innovations”.

One of the highlights of Multimatic’s display was the Ipura line developed for cleaning with aliphatic hydrocarbons. This uses the injection cleaning technique called Jet Clean. The system is well known in the USA but is just being launched to Germany. Ipura cleans using a solvent spraying system. The garments are not soaked, but subjected to the cleaning effect of a reduced quantity of aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent which is injected and dispersed within the basket under suitable conditions.

Multimatic described sales during and after the show as phenomenal.

Barbanti presented its twin shirt unit for 60 shirts per hour and the double trouser press for extra easy handling with a capacity of 40 pairs of trousers per hour.

Metalprogetti showed its latest multi story conveyor, sorting conveyor and an automatic deposit and pick-up system that is suitable for drycleaning shops, garment leasing companies and hospitals.

The Böwe stand demonstrated the company’s ability to serve all market sectors. The centrepiece of its stand was the industrial machine InduLine, which takes 100 – 200kg loads and is designed to be integrated into laundry production lines, allowing managers to choose the most suitable method for particular loads. As with a batch washer, it can be loaded either by overhead monorail system or a conveyor belt or from a container. The modular design keeps the height low, again helping integration. It is eco friendly using 6th generation technology.

The PremiumLine perc range is available in 12-30kg capacities with both crossline and slimline constructions. Auto still cleaning, mandatory for perc machines in Germany, is an optional feature.

The competitively priced StarLine perc series provides electrically heated perc machines.

Multisolvent machines again include both crossline and slimline constructions and a capacity range from 12 - 30kg. The range is designed so that used solvent goes directly from the drum to the still.

K-Easy hydrocarbon machines do not have a still but rely on filtration. This cuts electricity consumption and allows dark and light loads to be run in succession.

FUT SATEC USA is a joint venture company formed last year when Satec USA joined forces with Fresenius Umwelttechnik.

The new company, located in Herten, Germany, manufactures many industrial products including commercial drycleaning machines.

Satec USA already has over 800 HCS drycleaning machines on the American market. In addition to its sales and the support service, Satec USA operates several drycleaning shops. Satec USA is responsible for the development of the new machines and keeps exclusive rights of sale for the American market.

On show at Texcare was the EazyClean series, covering 15, 24 and 35kg sizes. The range features monitored and controlled drying, solvent cooler, two spin filters and one activated charcoal filter. The machines can spin up to 900 rpm, so providing shorter cycle times and more efficient vacuum distillation.

The EazyClean Smart is constructed and developed for the professional drycleaner to meet market requirements as well as a strict quality management, said Dirk Rehage, general manager of Fresenius Umwelttechnik/FUT-USA

Renzacci is present in both laundry and drycleaning sectors. According to general sales manager Marco Niccolini, his company enjoyed a good mix of both laundry and drycleaning customers, and the show had provided the company with an opportunity to demonstrate its less well-known Waterland range of washing machines for the coin-op sector. In this sector, it was not the capacity of the machine that was important, but the volume, particularly for handling the high profit items such as duvets.

On the drycleaning side, Renzacci was showing its Excellence series of alternative solvent machines, with and without distillation units. Capacities range from 15kg up to 90kg and the machines feature the Nature Care System to consistently reduce to energy and water consumption.

Maestrelli also manufactures both drycleaning and laundry equipment. Alessandro Trippa, sales director said that Texcare is important, and that the weekend opening had been a good move, but that four days was sufficient.

Texcare provided the company with an opportunity to introduce its laundry equipment – the WM and WS ranges of hard-mounted washing machines, XS soft mounted washer-extractors and the TD and TDCC series of dryers.

The company is perhaps best-known for its drycleaning machines for perc and alternative solvents. He believes perc is well-regulated, and that take-up of alternative solvent machines in Europe will continue to be slow. He was dismissive of CO2 cleaning. He saw it 15 years ago, and although certain sectors still talk about it as the future of drycleaning, Trippa says: “In my personal view, if that is the future, then drycleaning has no future.

“There is presently no alternative to today’s prevailing solvents like perc, hydrocarbon solvents or cyclosiloxanes.”

The company’s focus at Texcare was on its Energy line of perc machines, in both the Plus and Compact versions, and its improved Dreamclean HS series of hydrocarbon machines.

Italclean is a leading international supplier of drycleaning machines. The decision to switch Texcare’s opening to a weekend was good move, said Eugenio Boni, export manager of Italclean. The slight weakness is that it remains too Europe-orientated. He believed there were too few overseas visitors and the show was still too long – it should be three days maximum, not five, said Boni.

Italclean displayed its Premium wide drycleaning machines for use with perc solvent, and its Dry-Tec hydrocarbon solvent machines.

Demand for hydrocarbon machines is likely to be stronger outside Europe, but current exchange rates make trade with USA, for example, very slow.

Finishing equipment

Battistella is a leading manufacturer of semi-professional and industrial ironing boards, steam generators, spotting tables, dummies, toppers and ironing presses.

According to export manager Maurizio Giomo, Battistella has developed a unique electronic control panel for its vacuum, blowing and steaming ironing boards. This assists the machine operator by electronically adjusting the various functions and signalling scheduled maintenance.

The prototype was on show at Texcare, and the control panel should be available from the end of this year.

For Texcare International, Silc of Italy introduced some of the models from its wide range of finishing equipment: jackets/ trousers/finisher, spotting board, ironing tables, shirt unit, collar and cuff press and utility press.

Giovanni Risté, commercial department director, said the Italian-based company – which exports more than 90% of its production worldwide to more than 78 countries – thought it was vitally important to be at the big shows like Texcare and Expo Detergo.

Looking ahead to Clean, he said that it was a big headache trying to sell to the USA at the moment because of the exchange rates.

Risté said there had been great interest in the special form finishers for jackets and shirts, models S/MSG and S/MPC. Representing the most advanced machines for the finishing of jackets and shirts, both models are completely automatic and are equipped with a microprocessor with 10 programs.

The Model S/MSP is a vertical machine that fully finishes trousers and is so simple to operate that Risté said an inexperienced operator with a few hours training should be capable of fully finishing 50 pairs of trousers in one hour.

The market for shirt services is one with a great deal of potential, according to Tom Stites, sales manager at Unipress, the USA-based manufacturer of finishing equipment. He believes that more drycleaners are looking to add a laundry service to those they already provide. “Once you attain volumes of more than 250 shirts per week, then this equipment becomes a viable proposition,” he says. Unipress now does a great deal of business with drycleaners that are extending their services, or laundries looking at shirt finishing.

Unipress was demonstrating its USCS Universal Combination Single Buck and Sleever, a single operator unit that finishes the body and the sleeves simultaneously. Where a business does not have the volume of shirts for a dedicated finisher, the Versaform tensioning style shirt and garment finisher is suitable for all types of laundered and drycleaned garments. The Versaform Plus has 9 fully programmable cycles that enables it to handle ladies’ blouses, sports coats, lab coats, dresses, linens, silks and casual wear.

Corinna Mapelli, business development director of Trevil, felt that this year’s Texcare was proving a good show. The big news on the stand was the Trevistar’s improved shoulder system, which had been very well received. The former now incorporates a device that comprises a press with a hot air pump. The press gives a crisp finish and finishing time is shorter.

Ghidini was introducing the MC101 shirt finisher, which improves on the MC99 in several ways, although the older model is still around.

The MC101 has an electronic inverter to adjust the blowing air, side clamps to tension the shirt at the bottom and a carrier that adjusts to accommodate long shirts. Roland Fleischmann said that although the Italian home market is a problem, Ghidini sells to a lot of markets worldwide and its end user customers include not just drycleaners but hotels and the clothes sector.

Finishing specialist Malavasi produces both laundry presses and a range of shirt finishing equipment. It was highlighting the TR891 shirt finisher, which had redesigned clamps and a more sophisticated control system to make the machine easier to use.

Umberto Malavasi reported that the first day of the show had been good, and the second, when LCNi visited, was also busy.

Pony export manager Massimo Sanvito said the show was busy, but was perhaps one day too long.

There had been great interest in the upgraded Pony 405 shirt finisher. The improved version features a more powerful fan, new shoulder area and the microprocessor, with up to 10 programs, allows automatic steaming cycles, air/steam mix and ventilation, depending on the composition of the fabric and how wet the shirt is.

For units looking to process fewer shirts and wanting a more versatile finisher, Pony produces the 404/403 shirt and universal form finisher. The model can handle wet garment finishing, and can finish drycleaned garments at lower temperatures.

The company also had a new model in its FVC range of vacuum tables and an addition to its toppers, which benefited from a repositioned microprocessor and included several finishing options.

The Turkish company, Malkan produces drycleaning finishing and spotting equipment. The company visits shows partly to expand its distributor network.

Mutlu Alkan reports that her company already exports to 74 countries and has over 100 distributors. It is concentrating on “emerging markets including Vietnam, Thailand, Russia , the Ukraine and Egypt.

A star product on Malkan’s stand was an all in one system that included high carbon filter spot cleaners, ironing board, boiler, air blowing and steam spray.

Sankosha was showing its LP170 double buck machine, which has the same features as the single buck version. Although double buck machines are in less demand in mainland Europe, the company still decided to show it from a UK perspective. Texcare was the first exhibition showing for the Ajax by Sankosha range.

Chemical innovations

Dominique Suttheimer, sales director of Büfa, said that Texcare is the ideal place to introduce innovations. His company was introducing the ModulDos system a modular textile care and dosing system that gives a more precise result in terms of finish – whites will be whiter for example and the system gives a cleaning result comparable to wetcleaning.

The system consists of a soap, (surfactant) activator and softener or sizing depending on the garment and finally an odour absorber.

A further pump is available which can be used for specific effects such as an OBA for whites, a flame retardant or other specialised finish. Suttheimer said the concept was designed to raise the image of drycleaning by giving cleaners a tool to improve their cleaning quality significantly.

ModulDos is available for both perc and hydrocarbon. ModulDos will be offered to all Büfa distributors but is also attracting interest from drycleaning machine manufacturers. Both Ilsa and Fresenius were showing the system at Texcare.

Though the term drycleaning is still in frequent use, Kreussler believes that the market should be talking about textile care rather than drycleaning.

For the private consumer, said Kaspar Hasenclever, that care is better with water based methods – most clothes are washable. The company’s systems cover both laundering, wetcleaning and solvent cleaning.

Among the products for solvent-based cleaning was Clip Green Conc, a highly concentrated detergent that contains only active substances, thus reducing still residue by about 40%.

The system is available for both hydrocarbon and perc, though Kreussler prefers hydrocarbon.

The company also showed developments for industrial and institutional laundries including the Ecosan 3litre procedure which combines optimised water circulation control with heat exchangers and the introduction of precisely co-ordinated detergents, disinfectants and auxiliaries, resulting in a wash process that uses only 3litres of fresh water/kg, used exclusively in the rinse.

Seitz generated a great deal of interest with its Hydronomics system, outlining several developments that can help laundries save energy, water and resources, and even enables the first step towards a steamless laundry. Alexander Seitz, joint managing director for the German-based specialist in professional laundry and textile care chemicals and solvents, explained that the principle behind Hydronomics was to make savings with, and by, water.

In the drycleaning sector, Seitz has concluded a contract with GreenEarth of Kansas City USA to become the master licensor for GreenEarth sales and business development in Germany and Austria from 1 April 2008.

Seitz revealed its Luxor system for drycleaning in perc and hydrocarbon solvents. A development of the company’s PreclinP-system, Seitz said the system provides odourless cleaning results that can be tailored to the requirements of the individual textiles, and enables drycleaning of high quality textiles without pre-spotting, and reduce the time need for ironing and finishing.

Segers is a specialist in wire goods, based in the Czech Republic. Gilbert Segers said the company had not exhibited at Texcare for some time, but was pleased to be doing so again. Segers sells its hangers through distributors but end-users also include drycleaners. and large laundries.