Clean 2017: an impressive show & a good information exchange within the CINET community!

Both the visitor numbers (12,563) and the number of exhibitors (481) of Clean 2017 have shown significant increases over the previous edition. The well-established trade show, offering attendees an opportunity to see and compare working equipment to determine what best meets their needs, provided many opportunities for inspirational business! Naturally CINET invited it’s community to come to Las Vegas, offering a program for relations and especially members as well!

Laundry on Demand Meetup June 5
CINET’s Laundry On-Demand Meetup attract 70 visitors from over 20 countries. The event was a nice eye-catcher for both familiar and new relations within the CINET community. With a presentation from Laundrapp (UK), Wash Club Trak (USA), 24Tidy (China) and CINET itself this Meetup was a great success where visitors got a good impression of future direction of the PTC industry. The different Laundry on Demand technologies gave the visitors a good insight in the available technologies and business models currently in the market. Judging by the enthusiasm after the presentations this concept will definitely be developed further and CINET will happily support wherever possible.

LOD Meetup 5 June

 

CINET work group sessions
On the 6th and 7th of June CINET organized two member meetings, one for retail textile cleaning and one for industrial textile services. Together with some 10-15 members the group discussed latest innovations, CINET project outcomes & plans and milestones of the last year. Apart from some lively discussions the members indicated their interest in projects and offerings CINET presented. Examples here are showcasing product and company info on the e-learning portal, using the new, web-based ecotool for textile services and joining a big data community lead by the university of Eindhoven.

Work Group Session Textile Cleaning

 

CLEAN 2017 Las Vegas; Focus on innovations!

Innovations in Textile Service

Industrial laundries have to work faster and more economically through the highly competitive market. This makes it essential to work with resources such as energy, chemicals, water and labor. This is even further developed in the principles of industry 4.0. Referring to the next step in industrial revolution, which started with mechanization, mass production, ICT & automation towards the cyber physical systems of industry 4.0.

On the Clean Show 2017 a lot of suppliers have focused on data systems for industrial laundries. Some data processing systems are focussing on the laundry process and other take all processes in the company into account and providing data in one convenience way to make company decisions and get an insight in processes. New RFID-chips were presented on the show which are smaller and stronger, to be used in seams for flatwork items.

Besides data handling systems, more automated machinery were shown on the Clean Show 2017. Manual labor still is an important factor, as personnel takes up from 30 to 60% of the total cost of the laundry. Several finishing suppliers showed automated folding machines. For example World’s first fully automated washcloth separator/stacker that automatically picks, folds and stacks the laundry on a predetermined height.

Not only efficient use of labour is important. Also energy, water and chemicals take a substantial part in laundry processes. Machine suppliers optimized their machines to have a higher efficiency, for example by using a parallel oil flow pattern in the ironer for a better heat distribution resulting in a higher efficiency.

 

Innovations in Textile Cleaning

Nowadays it is difficult to find skilled finishers or persons willing to learn how to use finishing equipment properly. Therefore suppliers are focusing on easy but efficient finishing equipment which is automated and offer a consistent quality. In this way the professional cleaner is assured of a certain quality of finishing. A innovative automatically pants finishing machine was shown that is able to completely finish a pair of trousers, ironing the top just like a topper and the leg just like a press in one machine.

Reducing labor cost by increasing the productivity is another solution. A triple buck shirt press was presented, which is able to process three shirts by one operator to increase productivity. This can increase the productivity of finishing up to 240 shirts per hour.

The most eye-catching trend was digital innovation. Several technology companies demonstrated their innovative Laundry-On-Demand systems. These suppliers have built platforms that allow people maximum convenience to have their laundry collected, washed and delivered whenever and wherever they want. Basically they have built an advanced application for taking in orders, managing the fleet & its drivers, and managing the support team for the service. This is the development CINET stimulates, a.o. with the LOD-Meetup as described above.

 

Show facts & figures

The show of this year attracted more visitors than the 2015 edition. In total, 12,563 visitors were registered, exceeding the total of 11.264 visitors at the Atlanta show with 10%. These numbers include 2,271 international attendees from 96 countries outside the US.

The 21,089 square meter of space (also a significant increase of the 18,338 square meter used at Clean 2015 in Atlanta) was fully sold out with 481 exhibitors. Limited innovation was exhibited with respect to machinery and systems. One of the developments was the introduction of Sensene on the US market.

The Clean Executive Committee (CEC) announced that the next two Clean Shows will be held in New Orleans (20-23 June 2019) and Atlanta (10-13 June 2021).