Observations from Visiting Overseas Laundry Factories
Release Time:
2010-04-29 16:25
Source:
1. Types of Laundry Rooms
Small Laundry Room: The daily processing capacity of linens is generally 3-5 tons, usually equipped with isolated washer-extractors, dryers, ironing and folding machines, weighing scales, and other equipment.
Medium to Large Laundry Room: The daily processing capacity of linens reaches over 10 tons, equipped with 1-2 tunnel washers, washer-extractors, dryers, trough-type ironing machines, folding machines, linen sorting and distribution assembly lines, automatic weighing systems, etc. Additionally, depending on the grade and processing volume of the laundry room, some also have uniform folding machines and other finishing assembly lines.
Hospital Laundry Room: This laundry room has 39 employees with a daily washing capacity of 6-7 tons, divided into two floors. Upstairs is fabric classification and an automatic weighing system. The preliminarily sorted (by users) soiled fabrics are conveyed from the dirty laundry area on the ground floor to upstairs via a conveyor chain. Four female workers perform further sorting, and after automatic weighing, each bundle is sent by conveyor chain to the feeding points of various washing equipment downstairs. Downstairs there is one 360Kg side-loading washer-extractor (an old model used for 30 years), one 450Kg washing tunnel (9 compartments, each 50Kg, feeding every 3 minutes), four dryers, one 150Kg tilting washer-extractor, one isolated washer-extractor, one double-trough ironing machine (with 4 feeding stations, folding and stacking), one 900 diameter 2-roll trough ironing machine, and one uniform processing assembly line (including uniform transport chain, hanging drying box, and uniform folding machine). The dirty and clean areas are separated; throughout the fabric flow, soiled fabrics do not enter the clean area without washing, preventing contamination of clean fabrics by bacteria due to operator contact or airborne transmission. This is the significance of a hygienic isolated laundry room.
2. Strict, Clean, and Orderly Sorting Area
Upon entering the work area, you are greeted by a row of large conveyor devices with numbered tags. Each conveyor line is hung with bulging cloth bags of different colors. Don't be mistaken, these are not punching bags but a strict and orderly classification by employees of hospital clothing according to the degree of dirt and type of stains. Generally divided into:
Soiled Linens (ordinary dirt)
Contaminated Linens (bodily excretions, possibly infectious)
Infectious Clothing (identifiable infection sources)
Others (such as medical staff uniforms, etc.)
This type of sorting is the first step, generally called "coarse sorting";
The second step is "fine sorting," which means placing the categorized clothes into different colored cloth bags, then hanging them on the conveyor device. This step is quite strict; linens with different levels of dirt have designated colored bags and conveyor lines before entering the workbench.
It is especially important to note that the cloth bags used to wrap infectious clothing are special packaging bags that can completely dissolve or have seams/membranes that dissolve. This eliminates the risk of laundry operators being infected by bacteria during washing — the bags go directly into the washing machine without opening.
3. 1+1=5
1+1=2, how does it equal 5? Of course, this is not a numbers game, but rather — 1 ironing machine (with feeding, folding, stacking) + 1 operator = achieving 5 functions. Normally, ironing bedsheets requires 5 people: 2 feeding, 2 folding, 1 stacking and counting. This machine can complete feeding, ironing, folding, stacking, and counting all at once, with only one operator. Because it performs so many processes, it runs relatively slowly and is especially suitable for small to medium-sized laundry rooms. This equipment is highly automated, stable, and reliable, greatly saving labor resources. For laundry rooms of this scale, the minimum number of operators is 3, and the maximum is 5. Truly the least labor with the highest work efficiency.
4. Weighing of Clothes
After visiting more than a dozen laundry rooms, a common feature was found: every laundry room is equipped with scales to automatically weigh the washing linens. The weighing device is installed on the conveyor line, right in front of the sorting table. Here, every laundry operator has a strong awareness of equipment protection. Before each washing procedure, they strictly follow the operation guidelines indicated in the equipment manual to weigh the linens. Only when the load meets the equipment capacity do they proceed to the next step. This avoids adverse effects such as shortened equipment lifespan and reduced washing quality caused by overloading. Have we realized and implemented such strict operating standards?
5. Tunnel Washer
The daily processing capacity of laundry linens is quite large, ranging from as little as 3-5 tons to over 10 tons. Tunnel washers can easily handle such heavy workloads.
Today’s laundry industry generally relies on two different types of washing systems: ordinary washer-extractors and tunnel washers (also called continuous batch washers). The latter is widely used in hospital laundries and commercial laundries, with most laundry work done by tunnel washers. Tunnel washers combine conveyor belts, washing compartments, squeezing, and other functions. Because they process linens continuously in batches, they maximize water savings. Tunnel washers achieve dehydration by "squeezing." For linens that require ironing, such as sheets and blankets, they first enter the dryer for a 10-minute pre-dry before proceeding to ironing and folding. This helps achieve high efficiency and quality in ironing. This operating procedure is worth learning from by domestic peers.
Tunnel washers have many advantages:
They rely less on expensive resources such as water and detergents, which can be recycled.
More effective labor saving and space saving
More balanced workflow
Fast washing efficiency and strong environmental performance
Smaller support system
Although it has so many advantages, due to the high purchase cost of this equipment, there are almost no laundries using this equipment domestically, while laundries in developed countries around the world almost all use tunnel washing machines.
6. Regulations on Linen Zoning
All cleaned linens must be strictly disinfected, with specified disinfection time and temperature parameters to achieve good disinfection effects, and a strict disinfection procedure is adopted.
The disinfection area, dirty area, and clean area are equipped with glass partitions, which are visible but cannot be entered or exited arbitrarily within the three zones. Entry into the clean area requires wearing isolation uniforms and disinfecting hands before entering.
7. Linen Rental Business
Linen rental business is a development trend in the foreign laundry industry. Hotels, hospitals, entertainment venues, and other places that conduct centralized washing mostly use linen rental. There is an increasing tendency towards centralized laundry services, which expands the development space for linen rental business. Rental covers various linens such as uniforms, bed sheets, towels, and duvet covers.
Several large hospital laundries we participated in all link their business with hospitals in the form of rental. When washing clothes, there is no need to distinguish linens from different hospitals, only sorting by linen type is required. This avoids disputes over linen damage and saves washing costs for hospitals. At the same time, laundries simplify and facilitate the linen sorting process. Therefore, linen rental is a "win-win" good method.
Currently, more and more hospitals abroad outsource linen washing services and join centralized laundry, providing huge business opportunities for laundries.
Now, domestic hospital washing services are also showing signs of developing in this direction. For example, the Nanjing Health System Washing Center undertakes the washing of clothing for all secondary and above hospitals in Nanjing. Socialized centralized washing has been realized, so who can say linen rental is not a development direction they are considering?
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