Improved handling to provide a quality finish

Automating the laundry line is becoming increasingly important both to keeps costs down and to increase productivity while still producing a good quality result.

In the finishing line, multi-purpose systems that can switch easily from handling large flatwork to small pieces let the laundry achieve a high rate in terms of pieces per operator hour without compromising quality. For example a line can be switched from napkins or pillowcases to sheets or tablecloths.

Ironers can be fitted with feeders and folders to speed laundry production. This arrangement introduces the linen smoothly into the ironer and folds the ironed linen into small blocks of pre-determined size. Laundries may be tempted to go for a compact multi-purpose folder equipped with all the options but it may be better to decide which options will be used and consider whether it would be more cost-efficient to buy a folder that has been specifically developed to handle certain types of linen.

While many smaller laundries may not be able to afford a wide range of specialist equipment, those that deal with high-class restaurants or hotels may need more advanced machines that provide a high-quality finish and can perform special folds required by the customer.

“Small laundries often choose a multi-purpose line which covers everything from sheets, pillow cases and duvet covers to table linen, napkins and tea-towels,” says Kathrin Scheffel, head of marketing at Jensen. The line must therefore be able to provide excellent finishing quality for items such as table linen while being able to work at higher speeds on items such sheets where productivity is the priority. This, says Scheffel, calls for the advanced feeders and folders.

Larger laundries can often invest in specialised finishing lines, dedicated to bed linen or table linen.

Technological advances and changing customer needs have resulted in multi-functional machines capable of handling all types of linen – sheets, duvet covers, napkins and table cloths.

Merce Bover of Girbau says that small and medium laundries will send several different classifications to the ironing line so it is important that one machine can adapt to different items and conditions.

The extent to which automation is being adopted may depend on region or country and the size of the laundry, adds Bover. She says that highly industrialised countries with high labour costs require a greater number of automated processes but in countries where labour is less expensive, manual feeders are often preferred.

However, Scheffel insists that despite the economic recession, Jensen still sees a demand for greater automation and this is no longer confined to highly developed societies, but includes countries where labour is cheap.

“The main reason for choosing automation is that the return of the investment is very quick. It reduces the cumbersome administration of a large workforce and gives a consistent quality that satisfies customers.

In September 2006, Jensen brought out the Evolution robotic towel feeder, which Scheffel says was the first fully automated system to integrates the entire process, from feeding to stacking.

With the Evolution, towels are fed into a separation unit where they are individually picked, measured and fed automatically into the folder.

According to Wim Demeyer at Lapauw, more laundries opt for automated processes for folding and, especially for feeding, to ensure the best finish possible. This is why even small laundries opt for a feeder and folder.

Lapauw sees a steady increase of sales of one-roll ironers that are either already equipped with feeder and folder or that can be retrofitted with a feeder and folder for single-lane operations.

He agrees that automation is a major factor and explains that laundries want machines that are user-friendly and this is reflected in the design of the controls – the machines should be simple to operate and program.

Controlled at a touch

The Lapauw feeders and folders are fitted with a touchscreen microprocessor. The combination of graphics and touchscreen provides the customer with easy-to-interpret parameter settings and allows a high level of interaction with the folder.

Increased reliability and ease of maintenance is another important factor, he adds.

Scheffel at Jensen says easy control is essential to ensure that the operators can operate the equipment quickly and correctly. “Many laundries employ people from different countries and Jensen has responded to customer requirements by supplying all feeders, ironers and folders with a control panel with touchscreen and multi-language options.”

Upgrading the PLC from 266MHz to 500MHz allows the use of symbols that are easy to recognise rather than text. A more powerful PLC also ensures that the parameters for feeding, ironing and folding are more accurate so the result is better. This also allows a wider choice of programs.

“For example the “all-in-one” Logic Plus feeder now includes a state-of-the-art quality stretch function. This works like a pair of human hands, shaking the linen so that the leading edge flicks up to ensure it is straight when it is placed on the vacuum beam,” says Scheffel.

Modular feeding

Manual feeding can result in costly bottlenecks in the production line. Kannegiesser has developed a modular feeding system that eliminates the problem. “These competitive times call for a reduction in production costs and increasing quality and performance requirements,” according to Kannegiesser.

The company says these requirements are met by the combination of the EMA feeder and the company’s GZ-AV transport system with pre-spreading function.

First presented at Texcare in June 2008, the combination of the GZ-AV transport system and EMA feeder is capable of up to 1,600 machine cycles/hour in one-lane operation, and up to 2,250 machine cycles in a two-lane operation. The system can be set individually for each application so hospital or hotel linen can be processed more efficiently in both standard and special sizes.

This improved performance is achieved by pre-spreading the linen in the GZ-AV transport system, so reducing “idle” time on the machine.

Remote feeding and buffer storage increase operator thoughput and achieve a uniformly higher level of performance because fast operators are no longer held back by slower workers.

Another significant factor is the adaptability of the system. Sheets, duvet covers, draw sheets and table linen can be processed in one- or two-lane operations.

Automatic transfer and sorting by the EMA feeding system also reduces the time normally taken compared with conventional processing of mixed batches.

Sheets and duvet covers are automatically sorted by the GZ-AV transport system. As an option it can be fitted with the LFE automatic scanner to identify items with holes and stains. This can be directly connected to the control system.

More and more laundries now cope with feeding king-size 100% cotton duvet covers. “As more duvets become standard in hotels, so more duvet covers need to be processed in the laundries,” says Jensen’s Scheffel.

Because of the double layer material, duvets are heavy and place more stress on the feeder and folder. Jensen saw a need for an “all-in-one” feeder combining fast feeding of sheets and top-quality feeding of duvet covers and table linen in one lane or in one and two lanes, as well as small-piece feeding in three to five lanes.

Jensen introduced its Logic Plus feeder in September 2006 and then developed its Universal multi-purpose folder. By changing construction materials, the speed of the folder was increased from 40m/min to 45m/min, to give fast folding of sheets and top quality folding of duvet covers and linen.

The duvet trend

Wim Demeyer at Lapauw agrees that the greater use of duvet covers is an important trend. “Even the budget hotel chains are changing over,” says Demeyer. He also notes that there is a general move to linen with a higher cotton content, which is therefore heavier.

He says that as hotel linen becomes heavier, it becomes a lot more difficult to feed manually.

Moreover, the feeders have to be able and equipped to feed the duvet covers correctly to ensure that their weight does not cause them to shift or slide off the machine.

The most important development in recent months for Lapauw is its partnership with Japanese manufacturer Totofolder.

The link-up has resulted in the joint development of the Sonic ES-3 feeder, a three-station, clamp feeding machine that uses the latest technology to handle heavy linen such as duvet covers correctly.

The Totofolder range also includes a complete range of folding machines and a four-station feeder.

Merce Bover of Girbau believes that feeding directly at the front of the machine, rather than remotely, is an advantage in dealing with duvet covers effectively and her company has developed technology specifically for this purpose.

Clamp feeders allow operators to handle this type of item and achieve a good quality finish.

Girbau’s Galaxy automatic feeder has two, three, and four automatic feeder stations with height adjustable clamps. The Galaxy is highly versatile, says Girbau, as it can be adapted to the varying needs of production. It can work with one lane, two lanes, or one/two lanes.

The Galaxy automatically identifies the width of the article being fed and centres it on the lanes being used.

When feeding small items, the clamps move away, making the suction table free for manual feeding.

The clamps deposit the article on the rail and, with a rotational movement, place the article onto the suction table.

The introduction of higher cotton-polyester textiles that are lighter than 100% cottons but still satisfy the demand of quality has had an impact on the finishing line.

Jensen’s Logic Plus combines the high speed achieved by its Logic 2000 feeder and the top quality feeding of its Variant 2000.

The Logic Plus feeder now has a correcting device that senses whether the leading edge is straight and if it is not, automatically adjusts it with moveable plates. The correcting device also allows linen of different sizes to be processed in the same program.

The addition of a third clamp to the feeder has increased its speed by 10%.

Jensen’s introduction of its more powerful gas-heated Jenroll EXPG ironer, which uses oil as the heating medium, has also affected feeding.

Scheffel says that laundries are now dispensing with the pre-drying stage in the tumbler and using the ironer to evaporate the extra water as this is cheaper. The higher moisture content makes the linen heavier and this has a positive effect as wet linen is easier to feed correctly.

Wim Demeyer from Lapauw says microprocessors were introduced into its machines to provide more accurate feeding and folding.

Lapauw’s Extra is a cornerless feeder with an automatic corrector that allows sheets to be fed straight into the ironer. Moving parts are kept to a minimum and the company describes the Extra as user-friendly and easy-to-maintain. The Extra uses the correction roll system that was found in its successful predecessor, the Unicorn, and also benefits from ergonomically-built feeding stations.

Choice of folders

Girbau produces a range of folders targeted at specific markets. Bover says where a laundry has a considerable volume of towels to be folded, it will choose a machine such as Girbau’s Triton folder.

The Triton uses jet-air combined with mechanical action for the first fold with reversing belt folds and four stackers to sort towels by size automatically. Where the volume of towels is not so important, Girbau suggests that laundries choose a multi-function machine such as Girbau’s Saturne Tri.

Bover adds that the Varistar is the best choice for perfect folding on table linen.

Girbau’s Orion series is a complete range of folders able to finish every kind of flatwork linen, configuring the folder to the needs of the customer. Orion folders can be fitted to any ironer in the market without any modification and use the latest pneumatic air technology to reduce costs.

Jensen’s Scheffel points out that table linen must have a quality finish so the ironer must not only dry the linen but also ensure that all wrinkles are removed before the linen goes to the folder.

Large table linen requires a feeder to spread and transfer it to the ironer. After ironing it will need one to three primary folds and one to three cross-folds to reduce it to the size of the final stack.

Special folds

In addition, some customers may have special requirements and ask for French or M-folds at the primary stage and half-folds or French folds at the cross-fold stage.

These types of fold require a machine with reversing conveyors and special programming. By contrast, a towel folder rarely needs to perform more than one lateral half-fold, or alternatively a French fold. It will only need to produce one or two cross-folds as half folds or just one French fold, says Scheffel.

Lapauw offers small piece cross-folding and stacking in multiple lanes with its Stack&Fold compact modular system. The system is added to the Lapauw folder to give one cross-fold to small-piece multiple lanes. Individual stackers then stack the pieces.