Girbau worked with the Naval Hospital in Ferrol to fully overhaul its laundry, in order to boost productivity by fitting out a new facility separate from the location of the old laundry. To do this, in a public tendering process Girbau drew up a turnkey project in which it took charge of the every aspect of this project, from coordinating and supervising civil engineering, including demolition, construction and safety on site, through to fitting out all the facilities and installing a full range of latest-generation machinery and theoretical and practical training to get the most out of the machines and achieve savings targets.
Through this model it was possible to create a new, highly automated laundry to provide the best possible washing process in a shorter time, but without sacrificing cleaning quality and delivering substantial improvements in ergonomics for staff. This new facility was built in the location of some former kitchens and adjoining rooms, in a different building from the existing laundry. To do this, the whole area, including walls, had to be demolished and completely new facilities built. New water, electricity and gas supplies were put in, together with a steam boiler, a compressed air system and air conditioning for the laundry. This involved a complete redistribution of the space (floors, walls, ceiling, ventilation, lighting, etc.) for the new laundry, which was equipped with changing rooms, kitchen, dining room, bathrooms, store, chemicals room and control room.
At the same time, some washing machines were kept for the washing area and new Girbau equipment installed: a TBS50 batch washer with capacity for about 50 kilos of linen every three or four minutes, approximately, and featuring the Drain Intercooler system, a water-water exchanger to exploit the heat energy in waste water to preheat incoming water, achieving a 30% saving in energy in the process. An SPR50 water extraction press makes it possible to work with shorter drying cycles, so saving energy, a CED+ 11.4 shuttle lifting conveyor ensures efficient distribution of linen cakes coming from the water extraction press and three ST1302 dryers finish drying the linen efficiently and very quickly.
As regards ergonomics, two of the three ST1302 dryers are equipped with the Suction Loading system, which allows simple, easy and ergonomic loading in little more than 30 seconds, independently of the batch washing process, so making drying more flexible. Installing several folders and the uniform finishing system has facilitated work that used to be done manually.
In the words of Belén González, head of the laundry department at the Naval Hospital in Ferrol, "We are currently washing some 3,000 kilos of linen a day. It was a very big change, as we went from a very domestic laundry going back over 30 years where everything was washed in machines with no sanitary barrier and folded by hand. Now it's changed totally and automation of all the processes is making the employees' job much easier.