Across the developed world, labor for today’s laundry operators is growing increasingly scarce and costly. Vendors have responded with technology that’s using AI and engineering advances to automate aspects of washing and finishing, including soil sorting and flatwork feeding. Below we highlight two European operators that are now using these systems, plus a U.S. supplier partner that’s developing a system for automated garment hangering.

Automated Soil Sorting

For a view from Europe, we recently interviewed Paavo Martikainen, the CEO of Puro Tekstiilihuoltopalvelut Oy, the largest publicly-owned laundry in Finland. Last fall, Inwatec/JENSEN installed an automated soil-sorting system that’s saving ...