Objective of laundry

Linen are destroyed mostly in the laundry, and less in usage.  Modern industrial laundry processes subject the linen to extreme physical and chemical conditions, reducing the life span of the linen.

During washing linen is exposed to high temperature, high chemical concentration, and subjected to the mechanical action of the large wash wheel.

During flatwork ironing they are subjected to stretching and pulling under high temperature.

The wear and tear caused by these processes are much higher than that cause by usage.

It is easy to wash the linen clean, by subjecting it to heavy soil washing disregard to the soil condition.  The cost of laundry increases, and the life of the linen reduces.

Therefore, the objective of a laundry is to process the linen to achieve desired hygiene and aesthetic standards, with minimum damage to the linen, ie to preserve linen’s life expectancy.

Life expectancy of linen

The life expectancy is the number of wash it lasts before it is condemned.

The composition of the linen affect the life expectancy.

Linen cost per unit CPU

The cost of the linen divided into the number of washes is the loss in value of the linen per wash.  Add to it the cost of laundrying is the cost per unit.

e.g.  A bedsheet cost $7.00, lasting 250 cycles of washing

Notice that it cost $123.75 in laundering the bedsheet 250 times, which is 18 times the cost of the bedsheet at $7.00.  Therefore it is the number of laundering cycles that this item can withstand which is critical to the purchase decision of the bedsheet and not the initial cost.

The wise linen manager seeks optimal durability to wear and refurbishment, minimum weight, and minimising laundry cost per pound.

LC/# =  Total cost/total laundry processed

Total cost = wages + chemicals + water + electricity + steam + sewage charge

Wages:

Chemicals:

Utilities = Water + Electricity + Sewage + Fuel

Others: Packing

NO! Several factors made body soap unsuitable for laundry use:

Soap is made from natural oils such as animal fats or vegetable oils. Soap will react with all the hardness in the water first before it can react with soil in the linen.  Therefore, it is effective only for use with soft water i.e. hardness below 50ppm.  If water hardness is above 50ppm then detergent is more suitable.  Detergent is made from chemicals. Body soap is usually neutral; laundry soap works better with alkali builder. Body soap does not dissolve too readily in water, so that it lasts longer.  Laundry soap must dissolve as quickly as possible.  If there are soap specks which have not dissolved completely during the main wash, they will cause havoc in the washing and finishing processes.