and rancid by-products. The best solution for monitoring the effectiveness of the spa towel wash is to sniff every batch of spa textiles as it comes out of the dryer.
Towel design
It is widely acknowledged that incorporating polyester into the textile reduces the moisture retention at the membrane press and increases the strength. It does not make sense to blend polyester into the terry loops, because this would affect the harshness and could also increase the risk of greying. However, research has been carried out with polyester in the ground weave which appeared to show useful advantages in dewatering and increased strength. As mentioned, the polyester would tend to attract and retain more oily soiling than cotton, but use of a suitable detergent should counter this.
Dryer design
There has been much R&D investment in recent years concentrating on the thermal efficiency of the latest dryers to minimise the use of the increasingly expensive gas energy being consumed. These have included automatic cycle terminators mentioned earlier, followed by the automatic lint screen. The latter maintains maximum airflow throughout the drying cycles by clearing lint continuously, which
in turn minimises drying time. Significant improvement in thermal efficiency has also been sought using the intelligent recycling of exhaust air within each dryer. These systems manage the exhaust airstream of saturated air going to atmosphere, to minimise energy usage whilst maintaining productivity. With the development of an AI driven system, we now have the potential to vary the recycle continuously, with a recycle rate calculated automatically to utilise fully the time available for drying. An AI driven system could take into account the pattern of classifications
currently in the CBTW (and the dryers) and calculate the maximum drying time available to each load of towels. When this is translated into thermal efficiency, one would expect further improvements to be achieved and maintained.
Conclusion
There are several areas of untapped savings here and the current poor thermal efficiency of towel drying, along with premature greying, harshness and low productivity make any improvement doubly rewarding. Please let us know your successes.
If you have a problem that you think LTC Worldwide can help with, or that you feel would make a good subject for Material Solutions, please call T: +44 (0)1943 816 545 or E:
enquiries@ltcworldwide.com or W:
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Reader query: How to approach R&D?
The owner of a small textile rental operation asks: “Making our industry profitable and more productive is driven by technical advances. Who is organising and conducting our R&D? What are they achieving? What is happening next?”
D
espite some major barriers to growth and prosperity, the contract laundering
and textile rental sectors worldwide have delivered remarkable growth, maintained profitability and made notable contributions to reducing carbon
emissions and water consumption, while improving textile sustainability. This has been initiated by vigorous and disciplined research and development in a wide range of areas, by an even wider range of innovators. This month we look at who has been involved and what has been achieved.
There are three main sources for laundering and rental research and development:
Machine manufacturers, textile manufacturers, chemicals suppliers and service providers
Launderers and textile renter operators 33
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