Page 6 - Mission Linen - Green from the word "GO"

a sling that drops them into this “fun- nel sling.” This equipment creates a buf- fer zone for clean extracted goods that staff can move as needed to the finish- ing department. This helps keep pro- duction flowing without bottlenecks, he says. Many of the items coming out of the washer/extractors can go directly to the finishing department, he adds. “Our Brims get such good extraction we don’t need to dry it,” he says.
Of course, other items do require drying and Mission Newark is well equipped to handle them. “We’ve got 15 dryers right now,” Milroy says, pointing to a row of Pellerin Milnor machines. “And as you can see, we’ve got room for more.”
The dryers are linked via software to the overall production process. If the system tells them production is slowing, they automatically slow down the drying pro- cess, thus saving energy. “Those dryers have a thing called ‘GreenFlexTM,’” he says, from Pellerin Milnor. “So what it does is the dryers actually can tell what’s coming from the washers. If it sees you’re not running the washers at full capacity, you don’t have that much stuff coming
through, what it’ll do is hit GreenFlex and it’ll use less Btus and drag out the dry-time to be ‘green.’” The system re- sumes normal operations when produc- tion increases.
Near the dryers, we pass by a ladder that leads to the roof of the plant. After a steep climb, we step out into the crisp morning air and onto a roof covered with row after row of solar panels. The green mountains visible in the distance serve as a reminder of why this plant was planned with environmental sustainabil- ity in mind. Nearby, we also see scores of box-like rectangular-shaped fixtures. We learn that these contain the skylights that save electricity and improve visibil- ity by allowing plenty of natural light to enter the plant.
Upon our return the plant floor, we head for the clean side, which has a walled separation from the soil area, plus nega- tive air flow as mandated by HLAC rules. One of the first things that we see here is a mat roller from Consolidated Laundry Machinery (CLM).
During the washing process, addition- al conservation of water is achieved through a high-pressure ceramic water filtering/recycling system from Thermal Engineering of Arizona.
We next move to the plant’s seven iron- er lines. Four of these machines special- ize in ironing large pieces, while the other three are used mainly to process small items. All seven ironers are rebuilt American Laundry Machinery equip- ment refurbished by Mission’s corpo- rate engineering team. Staff appreciate the quality and cost-effectiveness of this equipment, Milroy says, noting that “They rebuilt seven ironers for the cost of one new ironer.”
Feeding equipment on the front end of the ironer lines and the folder/stackers on the back end includes new equipment such as a King Edge feeder from Chica- go Dryer and small-piece folders from Chicago Dryer, CLM and Voss. A cen- tral conveyor system moves stacks of fin- ished goods to the packout area, where employees place them onto carts bound for customers.
BELOW: a central conveyor in the finishing area moves goods processed in small- and large-piece folder/stackers to the packout area for inspection and loading onto carts bound for customers. A view of the exterior of the plant.
June 2018 § Textile SERVICES 29
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