Correct Use of Industrial Washers: Protecting Your Equipment & Linens

Nearly every laundry plant uses 100 kg industrial washers. In daily operation, have you ever noticed how to use industrial washers to do laundry correctly?

Two Situations Many Laundry Plants May Encounter

First One

Take the commonly used 100kg industrial washer as an example, its rated capacity is 100kg of dry linen. However, some employees of the laundry plants adopt an overload operation mode of “fill and fill again” to improve single wash efficiency: fill the drum with dry linen first and then moisturize the linen to let the linen shrink so as to free up some space and fill the drum again. Though this operation can improve the washing efficiency temporarily, in fact, there are multiple operational risks in the long run.

Second One

In order to catch up with efficiency, the main washing time is artificially shortened.

Today, we will analyze these two common wrong operations and the solutions to them.

Overloading Industrial Washer

Damages Caused by Power System Overload 

When the washing amount breaks through the standard load, the motor will be in a state of over-power operation for a long time, which directly leads to overheating of the winding and aging of the insulation. Experimental data show that a continuous overload of 15% can shorten the life of the motor by 40%. In addition, transmission bearings are subjected to excess torque, accelerating wear of precision components and significantly increasing maintenance frequency.

Multiplied Linen Damage and Increased Costs

Excessive loading can lead to abnormal entanglement of the linen. The mechanical pulling force during discharging can reach 2-3 times the normal value, which directly leads to the breakage of fabric fibers. The structural damage caused by the extrusion of the door edge will increase the scrap rate of linen by 18%-25%.

Long-term overload will cause the linen renewal cycle to be generally shortened by 30%. Also, if the damage increases, the compensation of the laundry plant will also increase, which will increase operating costs, compress the profits of the laundry plant, and even affect the reputation of the laundry plant.

Unbalanced Washing Quality Management

Excessive linen forms dense clumps, resulting in:

● Detergent permeability decreased by 42%.

● Mechanical wrestling space is reduced by 60%.

● Stain retention rate increased by 35%.

Such a vicious circle will cause the triple dilemma of “increasing difficulty of washing → increasing cost of chemical material → shortening the life of linen”.

Excessive Chemical Residue after Rinsing

Excessive linen leads to:

● The exchange efficiency of rinsing water is reduced by 55%.

● The risk of chemical residue concentration exceeding the standard is increased by three times.

● The probability of microbial growth increases by 40%.

Chemical residue directly affects the hygiene of linen, and also leads to an increase in linen damage and the color of the same batch of linen after long-term washing.

The industrial washing machine should be loaded according to the rated load of the equipment, and it can not be loaded with excessive linen in order to catch up with efficiency. Following the scientific loading specification, enterprises can achieve the following:

● The failure rate of equipment is reduced by more than 50%.

● Annual maintenance costs are reduced by 30%-45%.

● Linen service life is extended by 2-3 washing cycles.

● Overall operational efficiency increased by 25%.

Improper Washer Settings

Artificially Reduce the Main Wash Temperature

Industry data show that cotton linen decontamination efficiency is positively correlated with temperature (60-75℃ is the best reaction range). In order to shorten the working time of a single batch, some laundry plant employees artificially reduce the main washing temperature by 10-15℃, which directly leads to:

● Chemical activity attenuation: protease/lipase activity decreased by 42% below 70℃

● Stain curing risk: blood stains, oil stains, and other organic stains form a secondary combination at low temperature

● Energy consumption does not decrease but rises: the re-washing rate caused by insufficient temperature increases, and the comprehensive energy consumption not only does not decrease but increases compared with the standard washing.

Artificially Shorten the Main Wash Time

In order to enable the chemical material to fully play its decon-fouling role, the main washing stage needs to be maintained for 15-20 minutes to ensure that:

● chemical molecules fully penetrate the fabric (permeability ≥92%)

● completion degree of stain - chemical chelation reaction > 85%.

Artificially shortening the main washing time will cause:

● Economic loss:

Each batch of chemical material loss increases by 25% (The preparation is discharged directly without reaction)

● Quality risk:

The probability of exceeding the total number of colonies on the surface of the linen is increased by 3.8 times, and the linen is not white enough after washing.

Conclusion

Therefore, the laundry plant must pay attention to these details. Reasonable and correct operation according to the requirements of equipment and chemical materials not only ensures the quality of washing but also avoids the waste of energy consumption, chemical materials, and other resources.