RICHMOND, Va. — The Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center here has overhauled its textile care processing facility, which cleans millions of pounds of laundry for the medical center and nearby hospitals and military bases.
The plant’s refurbishment makes it the first steamless laundry in any federal facility, according to Western State Design, which partnered with R.W. Martin & Sons to complete the project. Cost of the renovation exceeded $8 million.
Major changes and additions were unveiled during a March 13 grand opening. Attendees toured the renovated facility after a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Albert Boyd, textile care manager of the McGuire VA Medical Center.
“We went from the stone age to the 21st century,” says Bruce Jensen, a member of the VA Quality Assurance team.
The new facility features automated equipment to replace manual processes, and ergonomic equipment designed to reduce the impact of repetitive motion for employees, Western State Design says. The new equipment is designed to save time, energy and water. It will be used to process laundry and uniforms for the McGuire VA and will also process soiled linen from Joint Base Langley–Eustis, Camp Peary, Fayetteville North Carolina Military Bases, Fort Eustis, Fort Lee Military Base and Hampton VA Medical Center.
“After touring the plant today, it is obvious that this accomplishment by Western State Design and R.W. Martin is in fact an engineering marvel of its own,” says Ken Tyler, former long-time director of Textile Care Operations at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Newly installed equipment includes an E-Tech soil overhead semi-automatic monorail conveyor system including five storage monorails; a Milnor six-module, 150-pound-capacity continuous batch washer with PulseFlow® technology; a Milnor single-stage, 56-bar press/extractor; and four 300-pound Milnor dryers.
Additionally, the plant renovation includes a 600-pound Consolidated natural gas dryer; two Century two-roll, 52-inch-diameter self-contained thermal ironers from Chicago Dryer Co.; and a Colmac Industries steamless self-contained garment tunnel finisher, among other new pieces of equipment.
The facility will also make use of three Milnor 100-pound washer-extractors and three 120-pound Cissell dryers, which will accommodate smaller loads of uniforms, rewash and specialty linen. All of the laundry equipment installed was made in the United States, according to Western State Design.
Newly revamped features of the building are the interior mechanical plumbing and electrical systems, an air handling system, and the clean- and soiled-linen production areas, which are now separated by a glass barrier.
Western State Design furnished the equipment for the renovation, and R.W. Martin & Sons completed the installation. The original laundry installation occurred in 1977, and the conventional equipment replaced in this latest renovation was installed in 1991.
“It’s just amazing to see how far the systems have advanced,” says Anthony Tura, another member of the VA Quality Assurance team.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].