laundry
A laundry is a service company washed or organizational unit in an operation in which washable fabrics and recycled, as opposed to dry cleaning , in which non-washable fabrics to be cleaned.
If the laundry is not an organizational unit of a company (e.g. clinic), but an economically independent unit, it is also referred to as a commercial laundry, large-scale laundry or industrial laundry.
A commercial laundry basically provides a service (transport and washing of textiles), but to provide this service requires a high energy requirement and complex machinery, which could also be called a production company. Due to its cost structure, a laundry has a hybrid position between service and production operations. The provision of logistical resources is also part of the commercial laundry supply service.
The "Erika" laundry in Bad Bevensen is proven to be the oldest working laundry in Germany . It was first mentioned in a document in 1602.
Apprenticeship in a laundry
The apprenticeship related to the job description is that of the textile cleaner.
After completing secondary school, the training lasts three years, but it is possible to shorten it if you have an intermediate school leaving certificate or Abitur. The contents of the training are textile science, textile cleaning technology, work technology, environment and hygiene , customer contact and advice as well as business processes.
After the apprenticeship the journeyman's examination can be taken and after at least three journeyman's years the master’s examination The technical college entrance qualification or the Abitur, combined with at least one year of professional activity, offers both a technical degree as a graduate engineer in the field of textile and clothing technology as well as the business degree “textile services”.
Types of laundry in a laundry
While the private customer business used to play a major role, today the washing of object laundry (from hospitals, retirement and nursing homes, hotels and restaurants), work and protective clothing (from industry and craft to corporate business clothing), and clothing ( especially from old people's and nursing homes) in the foreground. A large number of mattresses , pillow and ceiling inlays, industrial cleaning cloths or mops from building cleaning companies can also be washed today .
There is no generally valid classification of washable textiles, but in many places textiles are grouped according to the processing stages following the washing process into:
- Lack of linen (also flat linen : especially bed and table linen , all linen that can be mangled)
- Dry laundry (terry and underwear, all dryer- resistant textiles)
- Finishable textiles ( workwear made from mixed fabrics)
Editing customer's own laundry is generally considered washing companies referred. Unlike leasing laundry , which is provided by the laundry within the property and staff resources that a lessee available.
The proportion of contract laundry has declined sharply in recent years, so that many laundries have greatly expanded the service of contract furnishing and work clothing in leasing . The term leasing laundry is often not the correct expression; in most cases, it is rental laundry , as the type of laundry is specified by the laundry. This area includes lending and cleaning floor mats.
In particular, large national and international companies no longer offer pure laundry processing, but see themselves exclusively as leasing companies, for the most part specializing in e.g. B. work clothing, hotel industry or healthcare.
Operation of a commercial laundry
A large number of laws and ordinances apply to the operation of a commercial laundry, which primarily regulate hygiene , occupational safety, structural requirements and environmental compatibility of the company.
Healthcare hygiene
For laundry from health care facilities that are z. B. busy with the care of people, there are numerous regulations for laundry preparation. These include the Infection Protection Act, the Medical Devices Act, the Biological Agents Ordinance and the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The recommendations of the RKI have a quasi-legal character. The textiles that have to be processed there according to strict criteria include not only surgical textiles and bed linen, but also the work clothing of carers and nurses.
Hygiene in the food industry and gastronomy
Food has become the world's most important vector of infectious diseases in humans. According to a study by the WHO, the transmission of germs and pathogens by humans, together with insufficient cooling and heating of food, are among the main reasons for the contaminated foodstuffs examined. However, they can almost always be avoided through simple hygiene measures such as suitable and perfectly hygienic clothing for employees. Well-groomed and hygienically perfect clothing is also standard for the service staff in order to avoid the contamination of prepared dishes with pathogens.
Monitored hygiene
There are several systems for ensuring hygiene in laundries.
- The RABC system is the youngest and most modern system. It is a quality management system that contains a risk analysis and a control system for the bio-contamination of the textiles processed in laundries. It was published as the European standard EN 14065 in 2002. One of the advantages of this system is that several independent institutes are able to certify this system. The wfk institute has carried out several research projects on the RABC system.
- The organization "Gütegemeinschaft sachgemäßliche Waschepflege eV" brings together all companies in Germany that have been awarded the RAL quality mark 992 (992/1 household and contract laundry, 992/2 hospital laundry and 992/3 laundry from food processing companies). The strict regulations of the RAL quality mark ensure that all relevant German and European regulations, standards and laws are adhered to and that changes are immediately implemented in the specification catalog. The RAL quality mark is only awarded to companies where compliance with these requirements is ensured by seamless monitoring of processes and products by an independent institute. In Germany, the Hohenstein Institute takes on this control function.
- Another alternative is control examinations according to certain standards. For example, a hygiene certificate can be awarded to laundries that meet the requirements of the Robert Koch Institute for the preparation of hospital linen.
Laws and Regulations
(This list does not claim to be exhaustive)
- RAL quality and test regulations RAL-GZ 992.
- DIN EN 14065 (RABC system): Textiles processed in laundries . Beuth Verlag, Berlin 2002.
- DIN 11905: Laundry and dry cleaning machines: washing machines, terms, machine designs, requirements. Beuth Verlag, Berlin 1975
- Articles of Association of the Quality Association for Proper Laundry Care e. V.
- Hohenstein Research Institute Laws, regulations, guidelines and provisions for laundry and textile hygiene. Bönnigheim 2003
- Trade association rule BGR 500, operation of work equipment , including Chapter 2.6 "Operation of laundries"
- Professional association rule BGR A1, principles of prevention
- GUV-R 250 / TRBA 250 Biological agents in health care and welfare
- List of disinfectants and methods tested and recognized by the Robert Koch Institute , 15th edition
- Disinfectant list of the VAH ( Association for Applied Hygiene )
- Formerly called DGHM list resp. List of the disinfection processes tested according to the guidelines for testing chemical disinfectants and found to be effective by the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology
- RKI guideline: Guideline of the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention of the Robert Koch Institute, Annexes to Numbers 4.4.3 and 6.4, "Requirements for laundry from health care facilities, laundry and the wash cycle and conditions for awarding hospital laundry commercial laundries "
- Infection prevention in homes . Recommendation of the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI)
- Requirements for hygiene when cleaning and disinfecting surfaces . Recommendation of the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI)
- Infection Protection Act (Act to Prevent and Combat Infectious Diseases in Humans)
- Biological Agents Ordinance (Ordinance for the implementation of the EC Directive on the protection of employees against risks from biological agents at work)
- Leaflet TA 2048, BG information for laundries with laundry items from which there is a risk of infection for employees
- Medical Devices Act
- Ordinance on the recording, evaluation and defense of risks in medical devices ( Medical Devices Safety Plan Ordinance - MPSV)
- Ordinance on setting up, operating, etc. Use of medical devices ( Medical Device Operator Ordinance - MPBetreibV)
- Hygiene requirements for the reprocessing of medical devices . Recommendation of the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM).
- Ordinance on Medical Devices ( Medical Devices Ordinance - MPV)
- Council Directive on Medical Devices
- Food Hygiene Regulation, Article 1: Regulation on Food Hygiene
- Directive of the Council for Personal Protective Equipment (manufacturer's directive)
- Directive of the Council for Personal Protective Equipment (User Directive)
- Eighth Ordinance on the Equipment Safety Act, announcement of the new version of the Ordinance on Bringing Personal Protective Equipment into circulation
- Harmonization guideline for CE conformity marking
- For the discharge of waste water from the reprocessing of laundry into the public sewer system, the requirements of the approval of the water authority or according to the respective local statutes apply. These follow the minimum requirements stipulated by statutory ordinance in accordance with Section 57, Paragraph 2 of the WHG, as well as the information sheet DWA-M 115 of the German Association for Water Management, Wastewater and Waste
- Ordinance on workplaces of August 12, 2004. Federal Law Gazette I 2004: 2179
prose
The trade of laundresses is dealt with in a tongue twister , known in different versions :
"We Viennese laundry workers want / would wash white linen, [...]"
See also
- Different washer
- Beuel laundries
- Ironing machine
- Former wool warehouse and laundry
- RABC system
- Laundry hygiene
- washroom
- Laundromat / coin-operated laundry
- Washing day
Web links
Sources and references
- ↑ Information on training opportunities in the field of textile cleaning from the German Textile Cleaning Association DTV Bonn
- ↑ Is it rental or leasing laundry? Technical article on www.waescherei-suche.de
- ↑ Commercial laundries - What services do you offer? In Fundus 2/2004 from June 1, 2004 the article can be downloaded from www.waeschereien.de ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Introduction to the Leonardo da Vinci research project of the wfk Institute
- ↑ site from wfk Institute: Certification of laundries
- ↑ RAL quality mark for proper laundry care eV ( Memento of the original from June 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ wfk Research Institute for Cleaning Technology eV: Investigations to establish as well as to ensure safe and economical compliance with appropriate RABC limit values in the processing of textiles from areas with special hygienic requirements
- ↑ Robert Koch Institute: List of the disinfectants and processes tested and recognized by the Robert Koch Institute , 15th edition ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Robert Koch Institute: Hygiene requirements for the reprocessing of medical products ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Directive 93/42 / EEC
- ↑ Directive 89/686 / EEC
- ↑ Directive 89/656 / EEC
- ↑ According to Section 58 (1) WHG in conjunction with Annex 55 of the Waste Water Ordinance, a permit is generally required for waste water from washing hospital and home laundry, cleaning cloths, carpets and mats, as well as work clothing from the meat and fish processing, metalworking sectors , Engineering, automotive and chemical companies.
- ↑ The waste water ordinance issued in accordance with § 7a WHG old version with the relevant Annex 55 continues to apply.
- ↑ We Viennese laundry women want to wash white linen, ... sprueche-suche.de, updated April 28, 2014, accessed on August 31, 2017.
