The Smart Laundry concept provides the professional laundry with the advantages offered by digitalization to simplify and to optimize the washing and drying process of clothing and fabrics.
In the state-of-the-art PRO laundry, they start from the user-machine interface and they reach the cloud. The Smart Laundry was born smart, connected and intuitively user-friendly, due to electronic equipment that makes it accessible to a user with scarce experience in a self-service as well as in a professional service. And the matter is valid for both washing machines and dryers. This is the approach by Grandimpianti/Ali Group for innovation in the sector of automatic laundries, which moves the centre of gravity from mechanics to electronics for the improvement of the performances of process, control and use of machines.
The management of washing and drying appliances is accomplished through Wavy user interface, a touch display with the sizes of a 7-inch vertical tablet; formulated for a use in 36 different languages with an intuitive approach, it does not need instructions and it is based on icons. The native Wi-Fi exploits the potentialities of Industry 4.0 by receiving programmes, cycles and setups from remote and sending, in its turn, real-time information about the machine operation and condition to both end-users and to the operators called to manage maintenance programmes and activities. In particular, less expert users, «instead of the indications of the different programmes with alphanumeric abbreviations, such as the standard P1 for white garments or P2 for coloured laundry, with Wavy select the washing pre-set by means of the icon of the clothes or the textile to be treated, from jeans to the wool sweater and the coloured t-shirt – explains Gabriele Giotto, Sales and Product Manager of Grandimpianti –. An approach that from the washing machine is also extended to the dryer, automatically optimizing the drying work of clothes and linen for both the cycle duration and for temperature».
The constant dialogue between Wavy control display and TheMind.cloud dedicated platform by Grandimpianti allows the remote control of the machine’s work cycle. Accessible from PC, tablet and smartphone, it is characterized by CycleEditor Monitoring and management functions, which work together and constantly dialogue with machines to grant the efficiency and the optimization of the whole system. «All machines can be connected to the platform to monitor the activity, to trace cycles and processes, to check alarms, to create new users or to change the set-ups of one or more plants in the world without displacements, hindrances or limitations, in few minutes and at any time. The Cycle Editor function permits to create, to modify, to manage and to send customized cycles from PC, tablets or smartphones to connected machines, without needing to be physically present in the laundry».
Tailored for users
In the opinion of Giotto, flexibility is one of the key topics for state-of-the-art professional washing. «Average users of our machines exploit, to be optimistic, 10% of the available technological potentialities but this 10% differs from the one of another user, or the manager of the self-service laundry, or of a big service centre for the community». This requires the machine effort to suit the various requirements. The answer comes from the possibility of using Wavy through various access and control declinations of machines. The users of Wash&Go – Wash&Go free can choose among the pre-set programmes according to the type of linen to be treated, by exploiting the fully visual procedure through icons, selecting the type of laundry and the payment method, with cycle progress control visualized on the display. The use in Wash&Go Plus modality is similar to the previous one, with the exception of the payment method selection, which is not present. The Intermediate use addresses users provided with better knowledge of the cleaning process and able to make some changes in pre-set programmes, such as the temperature increase, the prewashing removal or the fast advance set-up, without creating new washing or drying programmes. The Professional use is oriented to users with deep knowledge of the laundry sector, who have free access to all parameters, a complete appliance control, who can modify or create new programmes for specific needs like the kind of fabric, water and detergents, and visualize the machine operation file. Technical users, generally maintenance technicians or retailers, have deep expertise and knowledge of machines and all-round access to the programming, the operation, consumption data and datalog.
«By scanning a QR code, users can control at any time if the machine is working, how much time is left before the cycle end, or if the laundry hosts some available machines for the use directly from remote on their smartphone. In brief, we replicate the washing machine’s and dryer’s display on the device to simplify and to make their use even more accessible».
In the Smart Laundry system, flexibility results also in the possible use – and therefore in a management of the machine – that can suit workloads and the weight of fabrics treated from time to time. To optimize the washing process, in particular, Grandimpianti has patented a solution (DWS or Dynamic Weighing System) that allows the washing machine to calculate autonomously the weight of the laundry loaded in the drum, by calibrating quantities of water and of detergents, washing times and mechanical actions. «The weighing system is standard on all appliances and is based on an algorithm that adjusts the drum rotation speed at the beginning of the washing programme. Said algorithm defines how much fatigue the machine uses to set the drum in motion and, with high calculation precision, every time set ups the operation routine. Users simply load the laundry as they have always done. All the rest is up to Wavy control».
