MATERIAL SOLUTIONS
it has been constrained by the need to set these up correctly, keep them clean and keep them tuned. Self-cleaning lint screens should have removed one repetitive labour task, but these need to be further developed and the principles properly applied also to the infra-red dryness detectors on the automatic terminators. An AI driven controller is now the natural answer to both of these. The next step is even more important; we need real time optimisation of both energy consumption and productivity. Many laundries have now optimised the sequence of classifications into the CBTW to eliminate tumbler holds, which bring washing to a halt while the press waits for a tumbler to become free. In plants where there is genuinely insufficient tumbler capacity to operate without tumbler holds, it is still possible to eliminate holds by the intelligent diversion of the very occasional batch to off-line drying in a separate free- standing dryer.
Ironing
The laundry ironer is often one of the poorest achievers when its performance is rated against its design capability. This is because top-flight productivity and quality depends on correct dewatering of wet textiles coming forward, edge to edge feeding, and optimum settings for
roll to bed fit, cladding porosity, vacuum suction, roll to roll stretch, roll to bed alignment and so on.
Some experienced ironer supervisors and laundry engineers have demonstrated ability to set the ironer line up correctly and maintain optimum set-up, but this is the exception rather than the rule. The next step should be continuous monitoring and optimisation using an AI driven controller. We know enough about ironing to give the controller the information needed; the last step is to automate this intelligently.
Conclusion
So, the laundry manager of the future (and the future is less than ten years away) must be able to recognise and institute the good laundering principles mentioned in this article. They must set the direction of travel to optimum performance in terms of productivity and quality.
They will then need to strong back-up from a dedicated, very knowledgeable and highly skilled Laundry Engineer, able to incorporate practical requirements into advanced electronic controls. These require a rethink of our present laundry training syllabuses and materials to back these up, but that is for a future topic in LCN’s ‘Material Solutions’.
Latest advice on provision of mops for healthcare
History
LCNi received a verbal query, during a recent conference, on the provision of mops for cleaners in a modern healthcare facility (a substantial private hospital). The general manager needed to know how disinfection could be achieved and how the provisions of the UK Department of Health advice note (HTM 01-04) are applied to mop decontamination.
Present arrangement There are two popular types of mophead: the standard Kentucky construction made from 100% cotton threads in a metal or similar head which can be screwed onto the handle; and the removable microfibre mophead which is secured to the crosshead of the mop by Velcro, for example. Cleansing of the Kentucky mophead was widely based on implied thermal disinfection (using a wash stage maintained at 71C for 3 min.)
Disinfection
CLIPPED INDIVIDUALLY: Washed textiles are clipped individually for remote feeding to the unmanned ironer, where spreading, laydown, ironing, folding, stacking and conveying away are all automatic. One operative could supervise several ironers to correct the occasional jam or other malfunction
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viable micro-organisms per sq cm, whereas mopheads might display nearer to 1011
or 107 or 1012
Disinfection advice in the UK was updated in the early 2000s by a government advice note referenced HTM 01-04, which unfortunately made no specific mention of mops. Meanwhile, European countries were moving on to a new European Norme (EN14065: Laundry processed textiles biocontamination control system) which did not specify any particular disinfection method but required feedback controls sufficient to give justified assurance of disinfection to the level agreed with the customer. The UK National Health Service (NHS) adopted EN14065 as a requirement of all contracts for decontamination of healthcare linen around 2010. This standard does not mention mops specifically but the standard can be readily applied successfully to mops, provided the customer includes the decontamination of mopheads in its agreed specifications for disinfection. Disinfection of mopheads requires a separate specification because soiled general healthcare textiles might have 106
– that is over 100,000
times more organisms to be destroyed. A laundering process to decontaminate general healthcare textiles might need to
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