Dutch NETEX group travels to BÖWE open house

NETEX, the Dutch Association of Dry Cleaners (Nederlandse Vereniging van Textielreinigers) organized a visit to BÖWE’s open-days (15-16 September 2017) in Saalbach, Germany, with support from suppliers Polymark, BÜFA-Care and Christeyns. The network trip was organized to make NETEX members acquainted with the fully equipped showroom at BÖWE , which includes a wide selection with textile cleaning & finishing machines. Additionally, the group visited two more top notch textile care companies, Zischka Textilpflege and MyClean.

 

BÖWE open house
During the open house, all visitors could visit the showroom and academy of BÖWE. Clothes were cleaned on site so that visitors could compare how the they came out from the laundry process. In addition, visitors could view a real-time operation of the equipment (temperature, energy consumption, etc.), so as to identify how energy waste is minimized. One of the latest ideas that BÖWE has implemented at the premium line machine is to measure the purity of the solvent by means of a light beam. The dry cleaner can choose how clean the measurement should be (e.g. 75-85%) and, depending on the setting, the machine will distill it or not. In practice it appears that this measurement remains 4 out of 10 times well within the preset time limits, and 3-4 minutes are saved in production time. Furthermore, this results in energy savings as the solvent is less distilled.

Frank Ziermann, the owner and managing director of BÖWE has also talked about the new developments at BÖWE, namely the Multisolvent M70: “The latest Multisolvent M70 machine has similar results as PER machines, integrating an advanced distillation process and 3 baths. Furthermore, to ensure hygiene in the laundry process, BÖWE has implemented a combination of techniques in one machine so that any bacterial formation is avoided. The first technical process integrated is a special coating placed on the tanks so that no bacteria can attach. Additionally, biocidal products prevent bacteria from infecting the clothes and the ozone installation ensures that the water stays clean.

 

Zischka Textilpflege
Following the open day at Bowe, the NETEX members had the chance to visit Zischka Textilpflege, a major textile care company in Simmern, Germany. In the company’s highly industrialized premises the group had the opportunity to see in action a set of PER machines: one version of 200kg (only three of these machines have been made in the world), two of 70kg and numerous of 50kg, 30kg, and 16kg (all PER machines).

Zischka Textilpflege offers its services to private companies in the workwear and airline industry and is therefore a combination of laundry and dry cleanier. Every day Zischka cleans over 1500 items of which 600 shirts. In addition, an average of 5-8 tons of laundry is washed. To accommodate a vast array of clients, Zischka Textilpflege employs an advanced logistic model, that ensures delivery to a radius up to 230Km. The plant also employs strictly organized internal logistics, including a barcode system.

 

MyClean
MyClean is a major dry cleaner in Germany that was completely refurbished last year. It was founded only a few years ago but has grown significantly: currently it cleans about 2,500 items a day (average) of which 1500 shirts. The maximum capacity is about 5000 items perday. The equipment operates in a brand new building and amongst others a set of Sankosha machines is used (the double shirt finisher can handle about 80-100 shirts per hour).

Currently, the company is installing a monitoring system so that managers can accurately see how many items are produced and trace which employee has treated each piece. Myclean does not only have private customers, but also big companies, of the likes of Alsco and Berendsen (handling for them mostly delicate items that large laundries are not set up to treat).