Seven Disinfection Processes in Laundry Shops: Ensuring Garment Cleanliness and Sterilization

In the laundry industry, clean and tidy clothes are the basic requirements, and hygiene and safety are the core to winning customers’ trust. As a professional place for clothing cleaning and care, laundry shops not only need to ensure that clothes are washed clean and ironed flat, but also do comprehensive sterilization and disinfection work well to prevent bacterial growth and cross-contamination. This article will analyze various kinds of disinfection measures in laundry shops and help stores to enhance their hygiene management level.

Disinfection of a Laundry Shop’s Inner Environment

Many professional laundry shops install ultraviolet lamp disinfection devices in their production workshops. Every time during the night when the business is closed, this lamp will automatically activate the disinfection function and do an overall disinfection of the whole workshop. The ultraviolet lamp can effectively kill bacterial vegetative forms, spores, mycobacteria, coronaviruses, fungi, rickettsiae, chlamydiae, and other pathogens. The surfaces of items, water, and air that are contaminated by these viruses can be purified through UV disinfection.

Currently, UV disinfection has been the main disinfection method in places with high hygiene requirements, such as food production workshops and medical workplaces. It also plays an important role in the environmental disinfection of laundry shops. 

The Application of Laundry Disinfection Cabinet

Some laundry shops purchase a laundry disinfection cabinet for disinfection. The cabinet mainly adopts the mode of disinfection lamps and ozone disinfection. Ozone disinfection is a lytic-level method, which can achieve complete sterilization without residues and has a broad bactericidal range. It can eliminate bacterial vegetative forms, spores, viruses, fungi, etc., and can also destroy botulinum toxin, while also being effective in killing mold.

In addition, the stability of ozone is poor, and it will rapidly decompose into oxygen or individual oxygen atoms. Then, individual oxygen atoms combine and form an oxygen molecule without leaving any toxic residue, so it is a pollution-free disinfectant. Also, as a gas, ozone can quickly spread throughout the sterilization space, achieving sterilization without blind spots.

The Sterilization Function of Dry Cleaning Solvents

Currently, 81.2% dry cleaning shops choose Tetrachloroethylene as a dry cleaning solvent. Tetrachloroethylene is an organic chemical that exists as a non-flammable liquid at room temperature. It is highly volatile and has a pungent, sweet odor. Humans can detect its smell when the concentration of tetrachloroethylene in the air reaches 1 part per million (ppm). First synthesized by Michael Faraday in 1821 through the thermal decomposition of hexachloroethane, it has important functions such as killing bacteria and their eggs, and removing dirt and oil. During the dry-cleaning process, it can simultaneously achieve the dual effects of sterilization and stain removal.

The Sterilization Function of Detergents

The detergents that many laundry shops use have functions of disinfection and sterilization. Some detergents even have antibacterial effects. (Sodium hypochlorite contained in bleach) When washing cotton and linen white clothes made of cotton and linen, laundry shops usually use this kind of bleach to achieve sterilization, disinfection, and dirt removal. The sodium hypochlorite only exists in solution. Its concentrated solutions are yellow, and dilute solutions are colorless. It has a pungent odor and is extremely unstable. Though it is classified as a weak acid, it has strong oxidizing properties and bleaching effects. Its salts can be used as bleaching agents and disinfectants, among which the calcium salt of hypochlorite is the active ingredient in bleaching powder. Bleaching powder can be produced by the reaction of chlorine with slaked lime.

Standard of Tools’ Regular Disinfection 

Many good laundry shops have strict operating requirements. All tools should be disinfected with alcohol. In the categories, there are clear labels and remarks on the classification of washing basins and brushes. By professional categories and regular disinfection, people must ensure the hygiene and safety of the operating tools.

The High-temperature Ironing Kills Bacteria

High-temperature ironing is an important method for removing the residual stains and bacteria after the clothes are washed. The ironing temperature should be different for clothes of different fabrics. The ironing temperature to kill the bacteria on velvet garments is about 120 degrees Celsius. The ironing temperature for cotton and linen garments should be 150 to 180 degrees Celsius. The ironing process of the clothes can achieve an overall treatment without any blind spots. Normal bacteria can basically be killed in the high temperature of the ironing. The ironing process combines reshaping and disinfection. It is an important way for laundry shops to ensure the hygiene of the clothes, and it is also a hygiene requirement that most laundry shops can basically meet.

Individual Packaging Avoids Bacterial Contamination

Laundry shops pack each piece of clothing after washing and ironing in a separate plastic bag to prevent the washed clothes from being contaminated by dust, droplets, and other bacterial dust again. Some laundry shops even adopt the fully automatic packaging equipment to reduce the chances of people touching clothes, so as to reduce the secondary contamination. 

Conclusion

Doing the disinfection is an important link for laundry shops to maintain the hygienic quality and ensure the safety of the customers’ clothes. By the above multi-dimensional disinfection methods, laundry shops can provide a safer and more confident clothes cleaning service. This is not only the requirements for the industry standard, but also an important action for improving the competitiveness and reputation of the stores. The global laundry industry practitioners can optimize the disinfection process according to their own conditions and make hygiene the solid foundation of the development of their shops.