Page 58 - CleanIndiaJournal June Digital Issue

Laundry - SpeciaL report

the same data, which is scanned at
every point in the laundry cycle.
Both the fabric and the RFID tag
are validated to withstand over
100 processing cycles; the system
will automatically raise an alert for
replacement at this point.

Sorting & inspection
Upon arrival, used garments are
sorted according to type, colour,
client etc. Each garment is RFID-
scanned, then placed on a light table
to look for wear and tear. Let’s say
a zipper is found broken; in front
of the employee is a screen with an
image of the scanned garment…all Inspecting for wear and tear
he or she has to do is select the type
of problem and where it is located,
before transferring it to the repair attire, scanned again and loaded into Second sorting
trolley. the cleanroom dryer. The sterilised packages are
Scanning one garment after retrieved and placed in secondary
another also enables the process to Folding, packaging & packing. Each package is then
be automatically stopped when the scanned for sorting as per
batch size is reached; the RFID tag sterilisation department, operator, colour, item,
also indicates which wash program After drying, garments are locker number or any desired
must be used for each batch. No inspected once again over a classification. All the employee has to
room for overloading, no room for light table and folded according do is place it on the shelf indicated by
manual error. to specifications. Each garment a light that is activated by the scan.
is placed in primary packaging Once again, no room for error.
Washing & drying made of a breathable material, and
The trolleys with sorted garments transferred to a small conveyor Clean room barriers
are wheeled to the entry door of belt which moves it down the line The entry and exit doors of the
a barrier washer-extractor. Once for sealing (with details of date of barrier washer-extractor cannot be
the wash process begins, scores of decontamination, expiration date opened simultaneously. Packaged
parameters like wash temperature, etc). A trolley full of these is then garments are sent out of the clean
process time and water conductivity sterilised by autoclaving (hence the room area though an air-lock pass-
are controlled and monitored. breathable material). through hatch.
A SCADA (supervisory control
and data acquisition) system is used
to achieve this. For example, it
can adjust the drying process time
according to the moisture content
of each load.
Alarm states are set for all
critical stages; failure to meet the
specified parameter will result in
an immediate alarm and automatic
process halt. This way, parametric
batch release is achieved.
The used garments are loaded
into the washer from a non-clean
room environment by employees
in blue T-shirts and tan pants;
decontaminated garments are taken
out into a clean-room environment
by employees in full clean room Inside the clean room laundry

JUNE 2023•Clean India Journal
58 www.cleanindiajournal.com