By Kevin Marois

We just got back from TexCare. We spent five days in Germany, met lots of old friends, made some new ones and had a glimpse of where our industry is headed.

According to the TexCare press release, there were over 15,500 visitors to the Show. Three hundred companies had booths and there were visitors from 122 countries. It was quite impressive. It has been eight years since there was a show in Germany. People were glad to be there. It was great to be with people who are excited about their businesses and have plans to succeed.

SEE Messe Frankfurt VIDEOS FROM THE SHOW HERE!

The stands (booths) were most impressive. Some were two story, many had operating machinery and all of them had food! They were serving cappuccino, expresso, beer, wine and even champagne in some of the booths.

We had an extra day to tour Frankfurt. It was easy to get around. We used Uber once and the train system the rest of the time. The trains are fast and the TexCare badge gave us free access to them.

New Equipment

At the last Clean Show there were just a couple of robots. At TexCare, they took over. Anyplace you looked, there were mechanical arms waving/sorting/folding and moving linen. There were robots picking up little blocks and turning them before putting them down in a different spot with great precision. There were robots sorting towels and feeding sheets into ironers. Robots moving clothes and bags back and forth. Our industry is undergoing a major change.

Another amazing thing was an AI powered garment inspection station. Garments travel through on a conveyor that has multiple cameras that will detect defects in garments. It checks for stains, holes or any visible damage. It can also lift up the sleeves or spread the pant legs to examine the entire garment. Three seconds for a quick inspection, five seconds to lift the sleeves and have a look underneath. (How fast can you do it?) If there is a problem, the garment is directed to a defect line for further (human) inspection.

For linen plants there were AI powered X-ray machines that checked linen for unsafe objects. They protect the machines from damage and the workers from injury. Some of the ironers also have scanners that inspect linen as it is being processed and will reject any linen with holes or stains.

These Robots may be the solution to your shortage of skilled workers. They don’t call in sick or talk back. They can do the repetitive (boring) tasks without getting repetitive strain injuries.

Kreussler introduced a new optical brightener that works with LED lights. Normal optical brighteners work with natural light. Towels can look gray or dull under LED lights. Kreussler’s Ottalin Blanc works well under daylight or LED lights.

Another big thing this year was recycling water and heat energy. Several booths had a wide range of equipment available. Wientjens has a filter made of plastic discs that removes the lint and hair allowing you to reuse the water. You not only save the cost of the water, you also save the energy to heat it. The Wientjens machines were beautiful devices all made of stainless steel.

There were several innovations in packaging. Organix potato-based poly is catching on. They now have bags sized for mattresses. ORA has a packaging machine that uses paper to package small bundles. The paper is recyclable. It has a coating on one side that seals the package. They are coming out with a version for bagging garments very soon.

There were some changes to dry cleaning machines. Union has a new tablet control on their machine. It gives individual alarms for each motor. Böwe uses two sensors outside the still window to detect bubbles and prevent boil overs. It breaks the vacuum briefly to slow down the distillation. Böwe also has a wear-free steam trap that is made from stainless steel and has a 10-year warranty. Safechem has released Sensene Neo with a lower flash point.

There were several carpet cleaning machines on display. You can run an area rug through the machine. The carpet is brushed, sprayed and then spun to extract the water. The extractor is about 12’ long and 18” in diameter.

Many of the tensioning shirt units now have a hood to capture the heated air and recycle it back into the body form. Linen Tech was showing a program that tracks your equipment and the maintenance done on it. It will alert you when preventative maintenance is due.

Seminars

There were seminars all day long every day. Paula went to one on Circularity. They talked about innovations in textile sorting and the use of recycled fibers in textiles. One thing that I learned recently is that in 2027, sales of used clothing will surpass sales of new clothing. That is going to result in a major shift in our business.

I attended a seminar on Current Research at the wfk-Cleaning Technology Institute. They are a research group and one of their projects is into using plasma to disinfect garments. There really are new developments in our industry.

There were two new things at this Show: Guided tours and the Young Competence Program. Industry experts gave Guided Tours of booths showing new technology. The Young Competence Programme was organized by the German Textile Cleaning Association. It was for trainees in textile care. These young people all had headsets so they could hear what their tour director was saying. What a fantastic program to encourage young people just beginning their careers in our industry. We keep bemoaning the loss of people with experience. TexCare is trying to train these young people to fill that gap.

Events

The day before the Show we toured the Kreussler Factory. That is an impressive facility. It was nice to see where our products come from.

We got to see some museums. I saw enough art to last me till the next Show and a natural history museum that was amazing. (Would you like to see a photo of a stuffed anaconda swallowing a badger?) There are 39 museums all in the same area in Frankfurt.

Friends and Customers

It was great to see some friends from years ago. There are suppliers that we email month after month but never see face to face. There were a few other Canadians at the Show. We met some customers there and compared notes on the things we saw.

We met Festus from Senegal. He is looking for equipment to build a second location. David Crouse was a finalist for one of the CINET awards. Congratulations on the win, David!

We also met Michael, who runs Stark Drycleaners in Munich. His company just celebrated 200 years in business. The exciting part is that Michael’s son is learning the trade and will one day be running the business.

Chris Tebbs was there for the CINET conference and Chris White was there as a CINET judge. Frank from Wagner’s was at the Show. He was a big help translating the menu one evening. The restaurants do not demand a big tip like they do at home — but there is a 19% VAT added to your bill.

So glad I went!

This was one of the best shows we have been to. The hospitality was great. It was not a problem that we do not speak German. Most signs and PA announcements were in German and English. The people we met were helpful.

The best part of the Show, though, was meeting people who are excited about their business. People making plans and investing in their business. Yes, things have been tough for everyone the last few years, but wringing your hands and whimpering doesn’t fix anything. The future for our industry is bright, and we met the people who are going to make things happen.