Professional Washing Hygiene During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The laundry industry processes work from a wide range of applications. Laundries and textile service providers process linen not only from hotels and restaurants worldwide, but also from millions of hospital beds, uniforms for doctors and nursing staff, as well as providing nursing homes with clean laundry and workwear. Nevertheless, does clean also mean that bacteria, germs, viruses or fungi will be reliably killed? Hygiene is an extremely important consideration especially in times of viral diseases like Covid 19. What do laundries have to consider? What considerations are necessary regarding mechanical parameters, temperature, ratio metric dosing and time for items that need to be washed?

Convincing wash action

Stain removal should not just be efficient.  Hygiene requires washing deep into the fibres. It is reassuring to know that you can rely on the Kannegiesser PowerTrans batch tunnel washer with its technical innovation called ‘ActiveDrop’.  The mechanical wash action consists of continuous compression and flow of water through the textiles, instead of simply flowing over the textile surface.  However, for a hygienic washing process, in addition to the washing mechanism, other essential factors must be considered, such as the controlled concentration of chemicals and disinfectants throughout the entire process.

Complete control of the whole washing process due to drum design

What are the influencing factors for the concentration of the chemicals and disinfectant in the batch washer – i.e. the mixing ratio of water and chemicals?  Firstly, there must be the right amount of water in the compartment at all times, suitable for the batch weight, type of linen and degree of soiling.  In addition to the correct amount of water, it is necessary to avoid any liquor mixing with the neighbouring batches.  Each batch should be processed with exactly the required amount of chemicals – no more, no less.  With the straight drum wall design, we guarantee consistently separated standing baths. The individual processing of each batch is based on ratio metric dosing and consistent bath separation – so every batch is treated individually according to its category and exact batch size.

Washing temperature and time at the correct temperature is crucial

Temperature is important in the washing process because even if the batch is clean it is not necessarily hygienically clean. Laundry will be either thermally or chemo-thermally disinfected. For thermal disinfection, a temperature of 90° C must be maintained for at least 3 minutes. In chemo-thermal processes, temperatures between 60° C and 70° C and exposure times of between 10 and 20 minutes are common, depending on the chemical used. The PowerTrans Vario is equipped with 60 mm thick high quality foam insulation around the main wash section of the machine. There is a unique insulated drum wall both at the beginning and the end of the main wash section to maintain these temperatures, which reduces heat transfer from the main wash zone to the colder pre-wash and rinse zones.

Once the temperature is reached, it must be maintained for a certain period to ensure disinfection of the batch.