The Influence of Industrial Laundering of Hospital Textiles on the Properties of Cotton Fabrics

Abstract

Every laundry is determined to maintain or constantly improve the quality of its services. This quality is defined by parameters that are determined by standard methods. With the help of different industrial laundries some research on the influence of laundering procedure on the quality of laundered fabrics was conducted. For this purpose standard cotton fabrics were laundered 50 times or 25 times, respectively, by certain procedures. After laundering, the quality was assessed by determining the decrease in breaking strength, chemical wear, incineration residue, Ganz degree of whiteness, lightness and the Ganz—Griesser tint deviation. It was found that higher chemical and mechanical damage was mainly due to higher concentrations of hydrogen peroxide used at higher temperatures in longer laundering procedures with lower bath ratios. The quality of the investigated laundering procedures could be improved by adapting the dose of detergents, bath ratio, temperature and duration as well as the sorting before laundering.