More questions, more answers
ast month, I told
you about Lisa, who offers technical help on products and
procedures for Cleaners Supply. I thought that we should give
that another look, but before we do that, I think that a
comment or two is in order. Many other distributors will answer
your questions as well.
When you have a question, it is always
best to do as much research as is practical so that the
conclusion that you arrive at is yours coupled with the input
from your confidants.
When I think about all of the questions
that get asked every day in this business, it makes me very
aware that there is a thirst for knowledge out there. There is
no better place to seek out answers than at your local
or national trade show. This is why they
exist, in my humble opinion.
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Sure, you can counter that trade shows
exist so that a bunch of hungry salespeople can ram their wares
down your throat, but that is truly unfair. It is largely about
win-win.
You may think that a salesperson from
Unipress will tell you anything that you want to hear just to
get you to commit to a $40,000 piece of equipment, but consider
the possibility that the new equipment really is better than
your old broken down Prosperity.
You might think that DCCS has become
remarkably adept at charging $18,000 for something that you can
buy at Office Max, but you are wrong.
Iowa Techniques spends millions developing
products that will make your life easier. Perhaps you consider
that it is all part of a master plan to get you to part with
your money. It isn’t true at all.
The owners of these companies — the
ones who yearn for your hard-earned money — simply have
different agendas than you do, that’s all. They happen to
all be friends of mine and I am sure that they have a genuine
desire to help you. Do they “do it for money?” Yes.
Everybody does, if you give it some thought. What they
“do” for money just happens to be something
entirely different than what you do.
I know that you are in search of answers.
Find them at the next trade show. The 2005 Clean Show is barely
eight months away. Plan on attending. No one will trick you
into buying something that you can’t use, don’t
want or that will cost you any money. You may start thinking
about investing some though. Investing is something like
spending except that you get more money back than you spent
because you spent it.
(Sorry about all that. I found an old
soapbox in my garage and I thought that I should put it to good
use before throwing it in the trash.)
Ok, on to the real part of my column.
Is it 18 or 20 inches?
How can I tell whether my Ajax shirt unit
is a 20-inch or an 18-inch unit?
Measure the width of the buck; do not
include the side air bags. A buck that measures from 18 to 19
inches across is an 18-inch unit. A buck that measures from 20
to 21 inches across is a 20-inch unit.
Simple question with a simple answer and
not much to add, but if you determine that you have an 18-inch,
you probably have more touch-up than you wish for because many
shirts are wider than this relatively narrow buck.
Because of the flat steam chests on Ajax
equipment, you can easily turn your old 18-inch buck into a
20-inch model.
When it’s time to replace the steel
base pad, buy instead the base pad that allows you to turn your
18-inch buck into a 20-inch buck. It’s easy and the
results are excellent! Be aware that you will not be able to
use 18-inch pads and covers.
Shirts turn yellow
What would cause shirts to turn yellow
after pressing them on a shirt unit?
Be sure that the pH balance on the shirts
is correct. Also, check the padding on the shirt unit, the
steel as well as the flannel. If the steel is old and is
starting to break down, this will cause the flannel to discolor
and can transfer the color onto the clothes.
In other words, this often means that the
pH is too high – too alkaline. Shirts need to be slightly
acidic in order to be pressed. Furthermore, when pressing
shirts that have been starched, the pH should be still more
acidic — 5.5.
When this yellowing happened at my plant,
it either meant that my washman forgot to add sour (when I used
powders), I was out of liquid sour or the pump wasn’t
working. In any case, I had a bunch of shirts to rewash.
A few comments: I would really kick myself
if I learned that the drum of sour was empty. It is too easy to
catch this before it’s too late and transfer the siphon
tube to the full drum. This averts a minor disaster.
Certain types of pumps that feed liquid
into your washers are surprisingly unreliable. You’d
think that they’d be quite the opposite.
If yours turn out to be in that unreliable
group, see if your chemical rep can get something that works
better, or get him on some kind of maintenance schedule that
keeps the pumps in tip-top shape rather than being reactive to
a breakdown.
Just as Lisa considered that the yellowing
may be something other than alkaline, so will I. Sometimes, I
see yellowing on the air bags. What causes this? You’ve
just replaced the pads and covers and almost immediately
afterwards the bags are stained yellow. This is most likely to
be oil from your compressed air. It suggests that oil is
leaking by the pistons (or the rotor) in your compressor. This
needs attention.
Mystery wrinkles
Why would I get wrinkles on the backs and
on the bottoms of a shirt if I change the air bag and flannel
each time?
You need to decrease the pressure and
change the steel. If the steel is too compressed, you will
always get the same wrinkles.
Remember, the steel base pad isn’t
part of the machine’s structure or chassis. It is a
padding item that needs to be replaced regularly. Sure, it will
last much longer than the pads and covers, and yes, it is not
inexpensive, but if yours is more than a couple of years old,
it’s time to replace it.
Bad steel will always cause bad press.
Paying someone to touch-up the wrinkles that bad steel causes
is more expensive than a steel base pad.
Often we rush to judgment and conclude
that the steel isn’t the problem. Here’s why:
Noticing some sort of pressing defect, we replace the pads and
covers. The problem goes away, but it returns after a very
short time. This is because the thickness and pliability of the
new material is very forgiving. Soon the pad is compressed and
the problem re-surfaces.
Securing a rope tie
How do you secure a rope tie?
Bundling the shirts is done best with the
shirts being hung up on a counter rack:
1. With all the shirts together, wrap the
cord along the top of the bundle. With the hook pointing toward
you, press the bundle and pull the cord tight.
2. Pull the cord through the top groove
(not the loop) of the hook.
3. Pull the cord over the shank of
the hook, and under the bottom groove (not the loop) of the
hook.
4. The rope tie should be secure. Apply
another cord along the bottom of the bundle.
Lisa, that sounds right. My hat is off to
you for finding a way to describe this procedure via words and
print. The product being described here is actually called a
“no-knot cord”. If you use these incorrectly, they
are a royal pain. Used correctly, they are excellent. If
Lisa’s libretto isn’t enough to help you use these
correctly, e-mail me at don@tailwindshirts.com and I’ll
send you a brochure and a short movie that each shows how to
use this product.
How many shirts should be bundled together
in the rope ties?
The manufacturer recommends no more than
seven, however, they “come in varying lengths (18-inch,
24-inch and 36-inch) so that the number of shirts in a bundle
can be adjusted.
Hmm. Let’s leave it at seven to nine
for a 24-inch rope. I don’t recommend buying longer cords
in order to get more shirts in the bundle and the 18-inch ones
are a little too short to handle easily.
Having problems getting your shirts clean?
Next month, we’ll talk about that.
“If you do what you’ve always
done, you’ll get what you always got.”
Donald Desrosiers has been in the
shirt laundering business since 1978 and is a work-flow systems
engineer who provides services to shirt launderers through
Tailwind Shirt Systems, 867 Spencer St., Fall River, MA. He can
be reached by phone at (508) 965-3163 or by e-mail at tailwind1@comcast.net and he has web sites located at: www.tailwindshirts.com and www.dondesrosiers.com
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