What is Laundry Finishing and Handling Equipment?
1. Vacuum Finishing Table:
The rectangular table
top, with an optional swivel arm and buck for ironing smaller parts
like sleeves of the shirts and suits and padded with silicon padding,
is called an ironing table, used to iron the clothes. To hold the cloth
flat on an ironing surface, vacuum is generated on the top of ironing table by
a vacuum generator. Vacuum helps with wrinkle-free and fast
ironing, hence many times this table is called Vacuum Finishing Table
(VFT). It is also called as Vacuum steam press table.
Vacuum finishing
tables are available with an electrically heated top or steam heated with
an adjustable temperature controller by means of thermostat. In a steam heated
ironing table, a steam generator is usually fitted below the table top, steam
is released from the holes on the table top and through the ironer. Steam helps
smooth ironing of the cloth on the table. Vacuum Generator and Steam
generator are fitted below the ironing table.
The sizes are
customized and can be designed as per the requirements. There is peddle at the
bottom of the table, it has to be pressed to get the vacuum and the steam on
the top of the table. Different manufacturers manufacture it in different sizes
and designs. The ironer fitted with this table also has steam connected to it.
Whenever steam is required, the nob near the handle of the ironer is pressed
and the steam is realized. It is also called a water atomizer.
2. Utility Press Machine:
Utility Press Machine
is like a vacuum finishing table, the difference is that in “vacuum finishing
table” only the table is used to iron the clothes manually. Where as in utility
press machine, there is an additional arrangement of the upper press head.
This top press head is generally made up of stainless steel or cast aluminium
to allow quick and even disperse of steam, giving a smooth finish to the
clothes ironed.
This utility press
helps iron out flat and thick garments like pants and jeans, which otherwise
consumes more time on the vacuum finishing table. It is fitted with two
cylinders, one is used to lower the top press head at consistent speed and the
second cylinder is used to apply desired pressure. The pressure of the presses
can be adjusted manually to give precise treatment to the garments as required.
Heat and steam is
provided on the upper press head, whereas heat, vacuum and steam is provided on
the lower plate (table top). It comes in different sizes, such as 42 inches, 45
inches and 47 inches buck.
3. Flat Work Ironer:
Flat Work
Ironers are large commercial laundry/textile appliances which are
used in businesses for ironing large volumes of laundry, like bed sheets,
pillow cases, table clothes, flat curtains, mattresses covers etc.. These
ironers have a dual purpose, one is to remove creases from these items and dry
them at the same time. These are mostly installed in large hotels, hospitals,
pharma companies, railways etc. where ever there is large laundry is required
to be handled.
It speed ups the
process of drying and ironing flat work. A speed of 40 meters per minute to 50
meters per minute can be achieved in a flat work ironer. They are available
with electric, steam, gas and thermal fluid heading. A fully automatic version
of the machine enabling folding system can be operated with only 2 people to
dry, iron and fold sheets longitudinally. The ironing speed is adjusted
according to the density and humidity of the linen.
It has a large heated
roller, on which sheets are fed to dry and iron on them. This roll is heated
from inside by any one source of energy wise electrical, gas, steam or oil as
the case may be. To achieve higher speed double rolls with bigger diameter are
used to dry and iron the linen.
The capacity of the
machine is calculated on the number of sheets dried and ironed in one hour. The
number and size of the roller determines the capacity of the machine. Wet
sheets will remove the heat from the roller to evaporate the moisture into the
atmosphere. If you have thousands of sheets to iron every day, you need to have
an ironer with a large diameter of the rollers. Some models have capacities to
roll more than 1000 sheets per hour, using multiple rollers with long length
and bigger diameters.
As it requires
approximately 2000 btu's to evaporate one pound of water. More energy has to be
transferred to linen by rollers to dry the linen. More moisture in linen means
they must remain in contact with the roller for longer or the roller must be
hotter to get the moisture out of the linen to achieve maximum production.
As the thin bed
sheets and the thick towels are fed from the same flat work ironer and move
with the same speed, it is advisable to have a temperature controller to adjust
the temperatures at different stages of the ironer. You can make it hotter
where you need more drying power.
Feeders fitted at the
feeding end of the ironer expedite the speed of production. This attachment is
really excellent and necessary for large laundry operations. An operator grabs
the linen and locates the corner of the sheet, which he then clips it to the
feeder in front of the ironer. The feeder instantly pulls the clamped wet sheet
and spreads it on the rollers of the ironer. More sophisticated feeders allow
only two operators to clip the sheets on the feeder and the rest is all done by
the machine. This advanced feeder can produce 1000 to 1200 sheets per hour in a
big ironer.
At the other end of
the ironer is fitted with a folder, does the work as per the name. This
equipment collects the dried linen and folds it in a pre-determined size. The
sheet after coming out of ironer is passed through the bed, where it is sucked
with the air and folded. This action will be carried out as per the
predetermined setting as per the requirement of folded size of the garment. The
folder is fitted with a stacker to stack the folded linen in the specific
size and numbers before forwarding it to the conveyor belt.
4. Form Finisher:
Form finishers are
the equipment used to remove wrinkles in clothes like coats, suits, sherwani,
gowns etc. Where ironing is not possible by using a normal steam ironer.
In this equipment
arrangements are made to fix the bottom rim of the dress or suit, at the bottom
the sleeves of the suits are fixed on both the sides and the collar neck at the
top.
Steam is blown from
inside and is held inside the garment to remove the wrinkles. This is the
fastest and the easiest way to remove wrinkles in this type of garment.
Laundry Handling Equipment
Trolleys:
Trolleys are used to carry the linen from different departments to the laundry section. It is important to keep the different trolleys for collection of the laundry and delivery, to avoid the contamination of clothes.
These are generally made up of stainless steel to avoid corrosion. It is mounted on a frame fitted with rotating wheels.
It also comes in
different models like box type for collection of linen from different
departments and used inside the laundry to transfer the clothes from washers to
dryers. Rack type trolleys are used to carry the washed, dried and folded
clothes to the store room or for the delivery of clothes to the different
departments.
In many advanced
laundry setups, conveyors are used for the interdepartmental movement of the
clothes.
