GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Van Andel Institute (VAI) is an independent biomedical research and science education organization here.
VAI was established in 1996 and has grown into an elite research and educational institution that supports the work of more than 300 scientists, educators and staff.
With all that personnel on hand, there is plenty of laundry to be processed, from scrubs to mops. However, in early 2015, VAI had a problem.
The institute’s 15-year-old IPSO washer broke down—the only washer on hand.
Dave Marvin, maintenance technician at VAI, called Brookstone Laundry Equipment LLC in Mt. Clemens, Mich., to order a new part for the machine.
Since the installation, Brookstone Laundry Equipment has merged with p.b.gast Laundry Equipment. Gast has been in business since 1894 and in the commercial laundry equipment business since the mid 1940s.
“[Marvin] was extremely concerned about getting the part quickly, as extended downtime was not an option for them,” says Scott Burgess, owner and manager of Brookstone. “Upon working with him on the part he needed, I asked two telling questions: Are you sure you want to spend that amount of money on a machine of the age? Why in an environment like that would he have only one machine?”
Burgess says he explained how other laundries have redundancy, multiple machines to avoid situations in which operations are completely “down.” Marvin bought into the idea of replacing the old machine with a pair of new washers matched with a pair of appropriately sized new dryers.
“The old machine broke down, so we had to look at an alternative,” says Marvin. “I helped facilitate the installation.”
Burgess says Marvin presented the redundancy proposal to management in his division, which then called all involved in for a group meeting, and decided it was a good idea.
At the end of April 2015, Brookstone installed new IPSO equipment at VAI—two 35-pound soft-mount washers and two 50-pound dryers.
“They needed to go with soft-mount washers because the laundry is over their mechanical room and is not on grade,” Burgess says. “To do the testing environment, they cannot have vibration.”
But that’s only the beginning of the story.
INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS
“I’ve gotten into some interesting places in this business but this one probably tops the cake in ‘different,’” says Burgess.
While installing two washers and two dryers isn’t usually that complicated, the process was bit more involved at VAI, says Burgess.
“Dave requested someone to come in and size up the facility to examine what the requirements would be to install new equipment,” he says. “I relayed this information to [Brookstone sales rep] Pete Gade, and he made arrangements with Dave for a site visit.”
At this point, says Burgess, no one at Brookstone had any idea what the laundry room environment was like. He explains that Gade arrived at VAI, had a brief meeting with Marvin in the non-clean room area and then they headed to the laundry area.
That, says Burgess, is where Marvin explained to Gade that he needed to disrobe, take a shower, wash with the soap provided, leave his clothes behind and dress with the scrubs, shoes and hair net provided.
“The showers are pass-through, so you enter from one side, the ‘soil side,’ and you exit on the ‘clean side’— two terms we know well in laundry circles,” says Burgess. “After the visit, Pete called, laughing, to explain to me the unique requirement for entering the laundry, stating he had never had to strip down and shower before making a sales call.”
During the installation, Brookstone employees had to strip, shower and dress just like Gade did. In addition, says Burgess, when the laundry was under clean-room requirements, the tools had to be exposed to a disinfecting process involving chlorine gas.
“They brought into the laundry the emitting device that sort of looked like a medium-sized floor scrubber. They then put in test strips around the room. Our tools were exposed to the chlorine gas overnight,” Burgess says.
The test strips confirmed that the tools had received proper exposure to the gas. Additionally, he says, passing necessary items into the room required the tools to go through a pass-through portal, which again exposed them to the chlorine gas.
“If you wanted to bring your cell phone in, or smaller items, you could put them in the portal, which is a stainless steel box about 18 inches by 18 inches, and retrieve them, after your shower and hopping into your provided scrub outfit, from the other side,” Burgess says.
But showering and disinfecting tools wasn’t even the biggest challenge during the installation, according to Burgess. The biggest challenge was if an employee needed to leave the clean-room laundry, he would have to go through the cleansing process all over.
“Running out for additional tools or parts was not a good option,” says Burgess. “Keep in mind that the clean-room area was much bigger than just the laundry. Its primary function is a clean-room lab, with lots of staff running around doing their jobs, so clean-room bathrooms, water and most everyday amenities are available.
“We overcame this hurdle by carefully planning our needs so we did not need to leave the clean-room area until we were done for the day.”
WORTHWHILE EFFORT
Burgess says that his employees were extremely good-natured about the added restrictions during the VAI installation.
He says the workdays were fairly normal, except for the showering process and not being able to leave and easily come back in.
“One odd thing was that everybody looks a little odd dressed in scrubs, rubber clog shoes and hair nets on,” says Burgess. “It was pretty funny but definitely a little odd. You could feel a little reluctance from people who typically work in the non-clean areas of the building when they need to shower and enter the clean-room area.”
Overall, the installation took two days. According to Burgess, day one was cut a bit short because some of the drilling in the floor was quite loud and the VAI was having an important fundraiser in the early evening that would have been disrupted by the noise.
Brookstone completed the installation, tested the equipment and conducted employee training on day two.
Marvin says that besides a few “normal” hiccups and adjustments, the IPSO equipment is running well throughout the day, every day.
“Everything is working good,” he says. “It’s up and running. Staff are running six to seven full loads a day.”
In the end, the installation effort was worthwhile for both VAI and Brookstone.
“The Van Andel name is well known and respected, particularly in West Michigan,” Burgess says. “To be associated with one of their projects, especially one this interesting, makes for good conversation at work and outside of work.”
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].