Laundry and Dry Cleaners: What's the Difference?
- Laundries mainly take care of linen of hotels, restaurants, hospitals, fitness and wellness centers, schools and care facilities, food and pharmaceutical companies
- Dry cleaners take care of clothing and textiles that require special care. Their customers include, for example, theaters, film productions and the general public who have their winter coats, dance dresses or work shirts cleaned.
- It is said that the results of our invisible field can be seen every day.
From the stream to the automatic washing machine
- Laundry is almost as old as humanity itself. In the past, washing was done in the stream by pounding the clothes against stones. However, the biggest leap in the development of washing came in the first half of the 18th century with the invention of the washing machine.
- In the first half of the 19th century, the American James King patented a hand-operated drum washing machine. A few years later, his compatriot Hamilton E. Smith in the USA built a washing machine with a vertically mounted drum driven by crank-driven paddles.
- The first washing machine powered by electricity was made in 1906 by the American engineer Alva John Fischer, who placed the washing drum horizontally. The first automatic washing machines did not appear until 1930.
- Washing machines began to be produced in the Czech Republic in 1957 in Fulnek.
Laundries and dry cleaners in the Czech lands
- During World War II, our field almost ceased to exist. The only businesses that survived were those that worked for the troops and hospitals, which provided them with laundry detergent.
- After the war, the industry did not even have time to recover and the era of communism came, which represented an intervention in private business. Laundries and dry cleaners did work, but suffered from a lack of chemicals and outdated technology.
- Just like for other disciplines, the velvet revolution represented a big turning point for ours. Nowadays, our field is highly automated and digitized.
- However, the human factor still plays an irreplaceable role, and it will not be any different in the future.
Ecology
- Modern laundries and dry cleaners try their best to combine meeting the needs of their customers with consideration for the environment.
- In practice, this means using ecological detergents, purchasing energy-saving technologies, reducing the production of packaging and recycling it.
- The alpha and omega of our field is water. We are all the more dealing with the global water crisis that threatens society. Industrial laundries save resources. In the years 2007-2015 they reduced energy consumption by 16%, in the years 2001-2011 they reduced water consumption by 24%. The investigation is in their interest, as it reduces costs. The advantages of industrial washing compared to home washing have been proven by a number of studies.
- Members of the Association have a permanent interest in improving the quality of the environment. They actively participate in eliminating the consequences of their business activities and by adjusting technological procedures, they try to minimize the impact of the production process on the environment. In the course of their business activities, they fully respect and fulfill the relevant environmental standards and, upon request of the Association, inform about their environmental program.
