Patent Application
20140053611
The disclosure relates to cleaning machine systems and processes.
Institutional laundry facilities, such as those employed in hotels, nursing homes, hospitals, other on-premises laundry establishments, and commercial laundry establishments often employ institutional washing machines that are larger and wash greater volumes of laundry over time than standard consumer washing machines. A traditional washing machine cycle for a typical 100 pound industrial washing machine may include a wash or “suds” cycle using hot water (e.g., 40 gallons at 140° F.), a bleach cycle using hot water (e.g., 20 gallons at 140° F.), one or more rinse cycles using warm/cold water (e.g., 40 gallons each at 100° F.), a sour/soft cycle using warm/cold water (e.g., 20 gallons at 100° F.), and an extraction cycle in which excess water is removed from the textiles. As a result, a typical 100 pound industrial laundry machine may use up to 200 gallons/CWT (hundredweight) or more for a single washing machine cycle.
Automated cleaning product dispenser(s) may be set up to automatically deliver cleaning products, such as detergent, bleach, rinse agent, etc., to one or more of the washing machines. For example, a dispenser may be programmed to run a given “formula” for a particular type of item being washed. The formula for sheets may be different than the formula for towels, which may again be different than the formula for other types of linens or textiles. The formula may include specified amounts of one or more cleaning products, along with specified times during the washing machine cycle at which the specified amount of each chemical product is to be dispensed. The formula (s) may be customized for a particular location based on water hardness, pH, alkalinity, total dissolved solids, or other factor that might impact the effectiveness of the cleaning products. For example, the levels of detergent, bleach, or rinse agent may be modified, and/or various water conditioning agents such as water softeners, pH neutralizers, laundry sours, etc. may be employed to counteract any inherent qualities of the water supply that may reduce the effectiveness of the cleaning products and result in stiff or dull colored linens.
In general, the disclosure is directed to laundry systems and methods using ingredient water having a defined specification.
In one example, the disclosure is directed to a system comprising an ingredient water generator connected to receive water from a water supply, the ingredient water generator configured to treat the supply water and to output ingredient water meeting a defined specification, and a wash machine having a cavity into which articles are placed for cleaning, and configured to receive the ingredient water into the cavity at specified times during a wash cycle, the defined ingredient water specification including at least one of a Total Dissolved Solids specification and a Hardness Ion specification.
In another example, the disclosure is directed to a system comprising an ingredient water generator connected to receive water from a water supply, the ingredient water generator configured to treat the supply water and to output ingredient water meeting a defined specification, a holding tank that receives and stores the ingredient water for subsequent delivery to the wash machine, a holding tank sensor positioned to sense whether the amount of ingredient water in the holding tank is below a threshold level, an ingredient water generator controller configured to manage generation of ingredient water based on information received from the holding tank sensor, a wash machine having a cavity into which articles are placed for cleaning, and a wash machine controller configured to manage delivery of ingredient water from the holding tank into the cavity at one or more specified times during a wash cycle, the defined ingredient water specification including at least one of a Total Dissolved Solids specification and a Hardness Ion specification.
The details of one or more examples are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
In general, the disclosure is directed to systems and methods using ingredient water having a defined specification in cleaning machine applications. The cleaning application may include, for example, a laundry or dish washing application. The ingredient water specification may include, for example, a maximum total dissolved solids (TDS) and/or a maximum TDS from water hardness ions. Use of ingredient water having a defined specification may allow for more effective cleaning using less water and at lower water temperatures. Use of ingredient water may also allow for improved detergency at lower wash temperatures, which may further result in the potential for shorter wash cycles and less chemistry to achieve equivalent results.
In this example, ingredient water generator 106 receives raw source water from a water supply 104 and outputs ingredient water meeting a defined specification via ingredient water supply line 110. A holding tank 112 may store ingredient water 114 produced by ingredient water generator 106 for later delivery to one or more laundry machines 102. However, in some examples, ingredient water 114 may be generated on-demand and supplied directly from ingredient water generator 106 to one or more laundry machines 102, and it shall be understood that the disclosure is not limited in this respect. In such examples, system 100 may not necessarily include a holding tank 112, and the ingredient water may be supplied directly from ingredient water generator 106 to laundry machine 102, or some combination of stored and on-demand ingredient water may also be used. The ingredient water may be supplied via a mixing valve.
Supplying ingredient water directly to the machine from the ingredient water generator may provide one or more advantages. For example, this may help the system to provide a higher output in a smaller package. In addition, this may help to provide the ingredient water at the proper utilization temperature so that no post heating is necessary. In addition, it may help to reduce size of pumps and related equipment, resulting in a reduced footprint and reduced electrical energy costs.
In addition, although the example system 100 shown in
In operation, water source 104 provides the source water supply for ingredient water generator 106. Water source 104 may deliver water from a local water supply, whether provided by a municipality's public water system, a private well, a dedicated water supply, or other water supply. In this example, a mixing valve 105 receives raw hot and raw cold water source 104 before it enters the ingredient water generator 106. Mixing valve 105 mixes the raw hot and raw cold water to reach a predetermined temperature (or within a predetermined temperature range). The predetermined temperature may be chosen such that the efficiency of ingredient water generator 106 may be increased, and that the pressure required to push the source water through the ingredient water membrane(s) goes down. This may result in reduced cost of equipment. In addition, once the ingredient water is passed through the membrane, it may be not require further heating for those applications where the ingredient water is sent directly to the end use application.
After passing through mixing valve 105, the raw source water enters the ingredient water generator 106, which produces ingredient water 114 by treating the source water to reduce a variety of contaminants found in the water supply to meet a defined specification. A drain line 108 is provided for flushing of the contaminants from ingredient water generator 106. Once generated, the ingredient water flows from ingredient water generator 106 through an ingredient water supply line 110 into holding tank 112. When called for by laundry machine 102, ingredient water 114 may be drawn by a pump 116 from holding tank 112 and supplied to laundry machine 102 at the appropriate times during the wash machine cycle. Laundry machine 102 includes a drain line through which waste water may be delivered from laundry machine 102.
System 100 may further include an automated chemical product dispenser 120. Dispenser 120 may automatically dispense appropriate amounts of various laundry chemicals (indicated generally in this example by reference numerals 122A-122C) such as detergents, bleaches, fabric softeners, de-stainers, alkalinity agents, sour/soft agents, neutralizing agents, wetting agents, etc., at appropriate times during the wash machine cycle. Such automated chemical product dispensers 120 typically include a controller that interfaces with the laundry machine controller to provide metered amounts of the appropriate chemical products at specified times during the wash machine cycle. The dispensers may be programmed with a plurality of “formulas” each of which may correspond to different type of linen being laundered (e.g., sheets, towels, hospital linens, restaurant linens, etc.) and/or to different types of cycles provided by the laundry machine (e.g., light, medium, heavy, etc.).
Ingredient water 114 may also be provided to automated chemical product dispenser 120 for use during dispensation of the chemical products. System 100 may include a pump 115 and ingredient water delivery line 128 for this purpose. Ingredient water may alternatively or in addition to be provided to the dispenser directly from ingredient water generator 106, if desired. Dispensing using ingredient water may be employed for, as an example, those chemical products that are manufactured and sold as solid blocks of chemical product concentrate. The chemical product may be dispensed by spraying or otherwise applying a diluent to the solid block of chemical concentrate. Application of the diluent erodes and/or dissolves a certain amount of the chemical product. The resulting use solution, including the applied diluent and the eroded/dissolved amount of chemical product is then dispensed into the wash tub of the laundry machine 102 via line 124 at the appropriate time during the wash machine cycle. The amount of chemical product dispensed in this manner may depend upon a variety of factors such as the temperature of the diluent, the water pressure at which the diluent is applied, the amount of time the diluent is applied, the chemical and/or physical properties of the solid product concentrate, etc. Providing ingredient water to a chemical product dispenser may help to reduce service problems and damage due to scale buildup or corrosion on chemical dispensers and input valves and ports on wash machines.
Ingredient water generator 106 may take any one of several forms. In one example, ingredient water generator 106 may implemented using a reverse osmosis (RO) system. A typical RO system includes a semipermeable membrane designed to permit passage of water (the solvent) and prevent passage of certain contaminants (the solutes). Pressure is applied to the incoming side of the membrane. The pressure may be supplied by the incoming water pressure and/or may be further adjusted using a pressure pump or other mechanism for increasing the incoming pressure. The contaminants are retained on the incoming side of the membrane and the purified water is allowed to pass through to the output side of the membrane. The contaminants may be flushed down a drain or otherwise disposed of. Alternatively, the contaminated water may be used as a prewash to remove bulk solids soils before actual wash cycle, may be reclaimed and treated for future use. In addition, the heat from the contaminated water may be reclaimed heat for reducing energy costs on reuse water or infeed streams. The resulting ingredient water may then be stored in some type of storage container, such as tank 112 or provided directly to the end use application.
A typical RO generator may include one or more pre-filters, the RO membrane, and one or more post filters. The pre-filters remove particles such as sand, dirt, rust, and other sediment. The pre-filters may also include filters to remove chlorine, which may damage certain types of RO membranes. The RO membrane itself may include, for example, a TFC/TFM (thin film composite/material), a spiral wound CTA (cellulose tri-acetate). One or more post-filter(s) may be included to capture other chemicals not removed by the RO membrane.
Ingredient water generator 106 may further include an automatic shut-off valve. For example, when holding tank 112 is full, the automatic shut-off valve may stop any further supply water from entering ingredient water generator 106 and stop production of further ingredient water. Conversely, the shut-off valve may open when ingredient water 114 is drawn from the holding tank 112, allowing additional supply water to flow through ingredient water generator 106 and additional ingredient water to be produced. Ingredient water generator may also include a check valve that prevents the backward flow of ingredient water from holding tank 112 into ingredient water generator 106. Ingredient water generator 106 may also include a flow control device that maintains a flow rate required to obtain the ingredient water having the defined specifications. In the case of an RO system, ingredient water generator 106 may also include a pressure pump to increase the pressure to the RO membrane. This may help to increase the performance and production efficiency of the RO system, and/or to provide an optimum operating pressure to the RO membrane.
The so-called production efficiency of an RO system describes the percentage of purified water produced on the output side of the RO system relative to the total volume of water applied on the incoming side. The remainder is discharged as waste water along with the rejected contaminants. For purposes of the present disclosure, ingredient water generator 106 of system 100 may have a production efficiency in the range of 50-90%. In addition, the production rate of the ingredient water generator 106 may be at least 1.0-10.0 gallons/minute.
Although ingredient water generator has been described with respect to an RO system, those of skill in the art will readily understand that any system capable of producing ingredient water meeting the predefined specifications may be substituted for the RO system described herein, and that the disclosure is not limited in this respect. For example, mixed resin bed deionizers, distillation, or electrolytic deionization, or other technologies may also be used.
In some examples, ingredient water generator 106 may produce ingredient water meeting one or more of the following example ingredient water specifications:
As shown in the table above, for ingredient water to meet the first specification, the ingredient water must include between 0-400 parts per million (ppm) total dissolved solids with not more than 60 ppm solids contribution coming from water hardness ions such as, but not limited to, calcium and magnesium. For ingredient water to meet the first specification, the ingredient water must include between 0-200 parts per million (ppm) total dissolved solids with not more than 20 ppm solids contribution coming from water hardness ions. For ingredient water to meet the first specification, the ingredient water must include between 0-100 parts per million (ppm) total dissolved solids with not more than 10 ppm solids contribution coming from water hardness ions. However, it shall be understood that other ingredient water specifications may also be defined, that the above ingredient water specification are for example purposes only, and that the disclosure is not limited in this respect.
Laundry machine controller 206 may communicate with ingredient water pump 212 to cause appropriate amounts of ingredient water to be drawn from a holding tank into the laundry machine at various times during the laundry machine cycle. If the ingredient water for the laundry machine is being generated on demand, laundry machine controller 206 may communicate with ingredient water generator controller to cause appropriate amounts of ingredient water to be delivered from ingredient water generator to the laundry machine at various times during the laundry machine cycle.
Laundry machine controller 206 may further communicate with dispenser controller 208 to cause specified amounts of one or more chemical products to be dispensed at specified times during the laundry machine cycle. Dispenser controller 208 governs operation of chemical product dispensers 210 to dispense the chemical into the laundry machine.
Dispenser controller may communicate with an ingredient water pump 214 so that one or more of chemical product dispensers 210 may use the ingredient water during dispensation of the associated chemical product. If the ingredient water for the chemical product dispenser is being generated on demand, dispenser controller 208 may communicate with ingredient water generator controller 206 to cause appropriate amounts of ingredient water to be delivered directly from ingredient water generator to one or more chemical product dispensers 210 at the appropriate times during the laundry machine cycle.
The data shown in
During cycle 352, the appropriate volume of ingredient water is delivered to laundry machine 102. In addition, an appropriate amount of detergent and/or other laundry chemicals may also be dispensed into laundry machine 102. After completion of the wash cycle 352, the laundry tub is drained and wash cycle proceeds to a bleach cycle 354.
Example bleach cycle 354 may use warm/cold water (e.g., 20 gallons at 100° F.). An intermediate extraction cycle 356 removes excess water, along with any laundry chemicals and removed soils, from the textiles via spinning or other extraction method. A rinse/finish cycle 358 may use warm/cold water (e.g., 52 gallons at 100° F.). During cycles 354 and 358, the appropriate volume of ingredient water is delivered to laundry machine 102 and an appropriate amount of laundry chemicals relevant to each cycle may also be dispensed into laundry machine 102. A final extraction cycle 360 may remove excess water from the textiles before the end of the wash machine cycle to speed drying.
In this example, one laundry machine cycle uses approximately 112 gallons/CWT (hundredweight), approximately 56 gallons of which is hot (e.g., 120-140° F.) water and approximately 56 gallons of which is cold (e.g., 65-85° F.) water. It shall be understood, however, that the specific water volumes and temperatures for each cycle of laundry machine cycle 350 are described for example purposes only, and that other water volumes and/or water temperatures may also be used, and that the disclosure is not limited in this respect. In addition, the cycles may be performed in a different order, one or more cycles may be removed, or one or more additional cycles may be added, and the disclosure is not limited in this respect.
Various examples have been described. These and other examples are within the scope of the following claims.
