Commercial Laundry: Edward Arzouian, Bates Troy Inc., Binghamton, N.Y.
In our healthcare linen sector, the greatest risks of overprocessing are damage to linens and equipment and delivering goods back to healthcare facilities with elevated pH levels.
The two biggest culprits contributing to overprocessing are excess chemicals and heat. We can take a quick look at both.
Excessive heat in the initial washwater process will set in stains. That’s a risk. In our batch tunnel washers, we want to keep the water temperatures below 125 F at the front end of the tunnels to remove stains. Middle modules of the tunnels are heated with steam. In those modules, we want the temperature to be over 165 F. In the rinse, ideally, we want warmer rinse temperatures that allow for shorter drying times.
In our particular location, the City of Binghamton (New York) happens to get its water from the Susquehanna River. River water in New York state can fluctuate a great deal from summer, when it reaches 60 to even 70 degrees, to winter, when its temperatures can drop to 40 degrees or less.
At our facility, we preheat our rinse water to 115 F, which shortens our drying times and requires less steam to raise the wash temperature to the 165 F we need. Any higher than 115 F and we get temperatures over 125 F in the first module of the tunnel. It becomes something of a balancing act to achieve the proper temperatures and save on natural gas in our boiler to create steam and in our gas-fired dryers to dry our linens.
We maintain this balancing act using the excess heat from our 400kW combined heat and power (CHP) system, also known as cogeneration or cogen. The water temperature in the heating loops of the CHP system going to heat exchangers is about 180 F. So, we can heat our rinse water far in excess of 115 F if we do not monitor things well. In the winter, we have to apply much more heat than we do in the summer.
The second place where excess heat can cause a risk is in our 500-pound gas-fired dryers. Of course, the obvious and most basic risk there is burning the linens and dryer fires. The dryers are internally sprinkled to mitigate the latter.
A more subtle, less obvious risk is overheating products in the drying process and damaging them. This problem occurs most often in underpads, where excess heat will shrink the backing and ruin the item. Of course, we have various programmed dryer settings for each product line.
Occasionally, a client with customer-owned goods will introduce a new product that requires new settings. You find that out only after drying and coming out with a product wrinkled beyond use. This can also occur with barrier and isolation gowns.
The other risk of overprocessing in a healthcare setting is leaving chemical residue in linens that raises their pH level. The National Institute of Health cautions that detergent residues can cause skin irritation, especially for bedridden patients. Its guidelines for pH values are 4.3 to 8.3. Other research suggests 5-9 pH. A pH of 7 is neutral, neither acidic nor alkaline. The most common cause of excess pH is the overuse of bleach (sodium hypochlorite) for disinfecting and insufficient rinsing.
In addition to creating the risk of skin irritation, bleach will also shorten the lifespan of linens, breaking them down faster. That breakdown leads to more lint, which finds its way throughout your plant. That is a fire risk and maintenance headache. Bleach is also corrosive on steel in equipment and can cause premature failures there.
Those are the overprocessing risks I’m most familiar with but I’m sure there are others.
Uniforms/Workwear Manufacturing: Steve Berg, Encompass Group LLC, Pelican Rapids, Minn.
The main risk inherent in overprocessing linen often gets overly generalized and simplified as a decrease in efficiency. But the risks go deeper than that. In fact, there are almost as many ways to overprocess linen as there are risks associated with this practice.
The main reason we are in the linen-cleaning business is to provide clean, comfortable, and safe linen to the end users of our products, whether they are patients, residents, caregivers, or hotel and restaurant guests.
Let’s start there. Overprocessing linens by using excessive chemicals can cause a linen item to feel rough, lose absorbency and retain odors. It can be a contributing factor to skin care integrity issues. Yellowing of white items is also a common side effect of excess chemical use.
Along with having unhappy end users, there are also other financial risks. There is an increased energy and utility cost to think about. Water, chemicals and energy are all wasted through overprocessing. Excessive cycle times and heat are inherent when overprocessing linens, which increases equipment wear and maintenance costs. High heat and chemical residue can set stains in textiles, which increases the need for ragout and rewash.
Last, but certainly not least, is increased linen-replacement cost due to reduced linen life. Along with the chemical issues noted, excessive wash times and overdrying not only reduce textile life significantly but can cause shrinking of natural fibers and melting of synthetic fibers, which results in instant ragout.
Click HERE to read part 1 with advice from linen, chemicals supply experts.
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