Content about Tunnel

ROANOKE, Va. — It seems that making the required adjustments in your laundry operation is a never-ending process. There are a number of variables to be considered when making periodic adjustments. With this in mind, I have decided to, over the next several months, discuss the factors and opportunities available to every manager in fine-tuning his or her operation.

Let’s look at the wash room. There are certain universal principles that apply to all washing equipment, whether it is a tunnel washer or a conventional washer-extractor. The first principle is deciding how big a load you wish to put into your washing machine. Sounds simple enough, but the answer can and should vary based on the type of linen you are washing and the moisture content of the linen to be washed.

To illustrate, I will use my operation’s tunnel washer. Its rated load capacity is 110 pounds per pocket, but if I were to fill each pocket with 110 pounds, I would be dramatically under-loading the tunnel. We wash micro-filament mops through our tunnel washer. Because of the moisture content in the soiled mops, we load each pocket to 165 pounds. This load easily fits into the extractor at the end of the tunnel, and the load comes out looking clean and smelling great.

There is a danger in putting too much linen into a tunnel-washer pocket. An overly large load will not come clean, and may not fit efficiently into the extractor at the end of the tunnel or may not come out at all. Anyone who has experienced a jam up inside the tunnel washer knows that it is something you want to avoid.

There is, however, a compelling reason to accurately determine the proper load size for each type of linen. We were able to increase our average load size from 100 pounds per pocket to 125 pounds per pocket. That is a 25% increase in output without adding time or additional equipment.

We wash a large amount of reusable barrier surgical linen that each day. This linen is made from 100% polyester fibers and weighs very little per piece. If I were to load this type of linen to 100% of normal capacity, the linen would be so tightly packed in the washing machine that water may not reach the center of the load.

The key to this type of linen is to have enough goods in the washer to provide good mechanical action and effective cleaning. Underloading the washer will cause the linen to float on the water’s surface; overloading will end up producing no mechanical action at all. We have found that a general rule of thumb is to start testing at 70% of rated capacity.

The most effective way to wash linen is to do it right the first time. The wash room is not an area where you want to try to save money. Poor-quality washing will result in unhappy customers, higher labor costs and higher linen-replacement costs. Since labor and linen represent two of the largest expenses in a linen rental plant or in-house laundry, we should focus our attention on managing these costs.

It is for this very reason that I personally despise the use of guaranteed cost-per-pound-of-linen wash-room chemicals contracts. I want to be able to exercise my managerial control and to dictate the quality level coming out of my wash process. I want to be able to reduce my labor and linen replacement costs.

Many fixed-cost-per-pound contracts end up using far too much chlorine bleach (extremely inexpensive) and less-than-desirable amounts of alkali and detergents. Instead of having a chemical representative trying to find ways to make a profit on his or her fixed-price contract, I want them spending time trying to keep my quality up, my replacement costs down, and my productivity high. I personally believe that these are two entirely different types of service and are mutually exclusive.

The next area to focus on in the wash room is turnaround time. How long does it take from the time a wash cycle is completed until the next load is started? This is extremely important for conventional washers but also should be looked at for tunnel washers (hold time).

We track turnaround time for every load on our conventional washers, and have found that having a place to unload the washer into “ready” and “waiting” helps reduce turnaround time. Having the next load prepared and ready to be loaded also reduces this time.

When we first starting looking at turnaround time, we found that we were not doing a good job when it came to processing traditional wet mops. Housekeeping was bagging the mops in plastic bags and sending them to the laundry. Our soil sorters set these bags to the side until there were enough for a wash load. The cart was then taken to the wash room where, after the washer was emptied, the wash person would slowly open each bag and place the mops into the washer. This system required 30 minutes to load the washer. By having the soil sorters remove the mops from the bags and sort only the mops into the carts, we were able to greatly reduce the amount of time it took to load the washer.

Running a tunnel washer faster than the dryers can handle the linen causes the tunnel to go on “hold.” To me, a tunnel on hold is wasted time. It is better to lengthen the tunnel wash time per pocket than to allow it to constantly go into a hold situation. Proper scheduling of the linen mix going through a tunnel can help keep the equipment running smoothly. Next time, I will discuss tunnel scheduling.

ROANOKE, Va. — A surefire way to improve the bottom line of your business or department is to increase the life of your linen. Increasing the number of quality servings you get from each piece of linen will dramatically decrease your cost of operation.

I recommend that the first step to increasing your linen life is to review each linen item with end-users to make sure that it is the proper item for the intended use.

If a bath blanket is being used as a lift sheet, excessive tears will develop. Are bath blankets or thermal blankets being used in place of mattress pads? Linen users find creative ways to use our linen and unless we engage in regular discussions with them, we will be unaware of just how our items are being used.

Bargain patient gowns usually do not have the sweep and coverage necessary to properly maintain a patient’s modesty. Ambulatory patients often use two patient gowns—one covering the front and the other covering the back—to make up for this shortfall. By purchasing a larger patient gown that provides greater coverage, you can decrease uses of the item by 30-35% and thereby increase its effective life.

I also recommend that you meet with your chemical vendor and review your wash formulas to make sure you are obtaining proper levels of cleanliness without excessively washing the linen.

Mechanical action and chemical action cause most fabric degradation. Wash each classification in such a manner to keep rewash below 3% of total volume produced. Some laundries sort all heavily soiled linen together and give it a special wash. High levels of alkalinity attack the cotton fiber and the finish on reusable barrier linen as well as the soil. One key to longer linen life is to reduce the alkaline concentration of the wash formula. Using enzyme detergents instead of traditional detergents can be an effective alternative.

Management should review the procedures for determining the proper size of each wash load. Overloading will cause poor quality wash and excessive stains. I have seen laundries that maintained excellent written procedures for weighing loads but their daily practice did not mirror what was on the page.

Carefully review all damaged linen to see if a pattern of abuse or product failure is evident. Once a trend is discovered, corrective action can be taken to adjust product quality or construction or to provide in-service education for personnel working in use areas.

We recently had a problem with small holes appearing in the barrier backing of our incontinent pads. We were unsure of the source but wanted to first eliminate the laundry. While brainstorming the problems, we figured that it could be happening in one of a number of locations: the soil-sort belt, tunnel washers, tunnel press, tunnel dryers, or one of the small-piece folders.

We determined to test our system by using brand-new pads. Our first step was to avoid the sorting belt and put the new pads directly into a sling. We ran a load through our No. 1 tunnel, its press and one of its dryers. The test load contained a number of damaged pads. We also ran a load through our No. 2 tunnel, press and one of its dryers and did not find any damaged pads.

We then ran a load through the No. 1 tunnel and press. Upon inspection, again we found damaged pads. Finally, we ran pads through the No. 1 tunnel and bypassed the press. This procedure still resulted in a number of pads being damaged. (It is interesting that we have not noticed damage to any other linen items going through this tunnel.)

Our short-term solution was to move all the incontinent pads from the No. 1 tunnel, where they had always been processed, to the No. 2 tunnel. This required us to make other changes in our pick lists to balance out the demand for the tunnel dryers. After a visual inspection of the interior of No. 1 tunnel, we found several possible causes for the linen damage. Today, we are still running pads through the other tunnel.

Check all dryers to make sure they are operating correctly. Excessive heat can damage linen and cause it to have a harsh hand. Inspect door seals and interior air-deflection blades to make sure everything is working properly. Dryers with poor seals that allow room air to enter the dryer without going through the burner area can cause artificially low outlet-temperature readings. These readings will cause the linen to be subjected to higher-than-programmed temperatures.

Thermal fluid ironers should not be operated at temperatures above 375 F. Ironing at higher temperatures will result in the loss of size stability in polyester fibers. Once the heat-set polyester fiber is no longer size-stable, the laundry will experience higher-than-normal shrinkage. I have seen contour sheets that started at 88 inches in length shrink to 76 inches. Resist the temptation to iron at higher temperatures to increase productivity, because you’ll be creating linen shrinkage problems.

These ideas do not represent an all-inclusive list, but they give you a good starting point. Determining ways to extend linen life is a never-ending task but one well worth the time and effort.

KEYSTONE, Colo. — You might not expect a town of 825 permanent residents to have much need for production laundry services, but try adding 230 inches of annual snowfall, 19 ski lifts, 135 ski runs, cat skiing, night skiing, high-speed gondola rides, ice skating, and hockey.

Twenty-five thousand pounds of rooms linen each day adds up pretty quick for Richard Griffin, laundry manager for the Keystone Lodge and Spa.

Griffin, a veteran laundry manager and vice president of the Association for Linen Management, operates a tight but effective production hospitality plant at the Vail Resorts property. Service requirements include three different levels of linen quality serving 400 hotel rooms and 1,600 condo units.

He recently spoke to American Laundry News about the challenges of linen management and distribution at the seasonal resort laundry operation.

“The key to our linen management success is controlling the inventory,” Griffin says. “We provide linen services here at the Keystone Lodge and Spa, but also to a number of smaller properties in Keystone and over the mountain at Breckenridge, as well as for 1,600 condo units in the area.”

Q: What type of linen products do you use?

Griffin: We process the hotels by the batch as NOG (Not Our Goods) type work. Most of their products are very nice 240- and 400-thread-count blend and full cotton flatwork.

We are in the process of upgrading all of our condo linen to 240-thread-count cotton blend flatwork and high-end terry. It is a significant capital commitment. We spent a lot of time detailing linen specifications: weight, thread count, and other quality criteria. Then we requested samples and tested all the proposed linen solutions for months, to see how they would hold up.

Once the final cut came in, it was all down to who wanted to make the sale. The lowest-cost-approved vendor won the business.”

Q: What about production?

Griffin: The heart of our wash aisle is a 10-year-old, sling-loaded, seven-module Milnor tunnel. The staff calls it The Beast. We feed it, and The Beast keeps spitting it out.

The press operates much more efficiently when we under load a bit from the 110-pound rated capacity. Our target weight per module is 95 pounds. Our real-world production is about 2,000 pounds an hour from the tunnel, which translates to an average of 21 transfers per hour.

Managing what goes into the tunnel and in what order is very important. The lead person on the soiled side is the guy feeding the tunnel. He and the finishing-side lead are in constant communication so that the tunnel keeps pushing out the right products to keep downstream in full production.

We track production on the clean side after each break. We have hourly production standards that need to be met. I want the operators to know what is going on without taking all of our time getting bogged down in numbers.

Having dedicated lead supervisors on each side of the plant really helps our operation.

Q: How does operating a tunnel differ from a conventional wash aisle?

Griffin: Tunnels give you a lot more production in less floor space. It streamlines everything. The steady flow of tunnel production provides a consistent volume of goods for clean-side processing.

Tunnel washing also eliminates operator-related issues in the wash aisle. No more restarts, or idle, unloaded machines out of production. You feed the tunnel and it spits it out.

The key to tunnel production is paying attention to what goes in. Managing the batches to avoid “single caking” the dryers, or dryer line overloading, is important in order to maximize productivity. We also don’t start the tunnel until we know that we have enough linen to keep it going all day.

Denver-based Martin Ray Laundry Systems supplied the equipment used at the Keystone Lodge & Spa. President Bill Mann says that the tunnel was a natural solution for Keystone when the resort upgraded the plant 10 years ago.

“There was a mix of washer-extractors that had been added here and there over the years as the resort service base grew,” Mann says. “It got to a point where production requirements and the high cost of water out here made the ROI on a tunnel system the best solution.”

Click here for Part 1.

Editor’s Note: Equipment installation in an existing laundry is rarely done without having to meet certain construction challenges. Charles Berge of American Laundry Systems, a full-service mechanical contractor catering exclusively to the commercial laundry industry, recounts his company’s latest project.

SAN FRANCISCO — American Laundry Systems (ALS) recently completed the second phase of a three-phase laundry renovation with Ellis Corp. here at the Hilton San Francisco.

AGOURA HILLS, Calif. – It was a little like speed dating, only with laundry equipment.

Attendees at this spring’s Textile Rental Services Association’s (TRSA) Tech/Plant Summit had the opportunity to listen to five of the industry’s top equipment manufacturers – Ellis Corp., G.A. Braun, Jensen USA, Kannegiesser USA and Pellerin Milnor Corp. – compare and contrast their washer-extractors and tunnel washers.