Author: ynaadmin

There’s a lot that happened for Yamamoto in 2022! This year, we got to go to the Clean Show for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. At the Clean Show, we also showed off some exciting new machines and product ideas we wish to implement this year fully. However, even as Yamamoto North America is celebrating a happy end of 2022, the laundry industry is still contending with challenges from years past. As we look toward the future of the laundry industry, we have some ideas of where industry trends are heading and how Yamamoto plans on helping laundry operators adapt!

2022’s Biggest Challenges

Many of the challenges the laundry and linen services industry faced this past year (and the last few) have thankfully begun to change for the better. However, there are still issues linen cleaning and production facilities will continue to see into 2023, with an end not yet in sight. An example of these laundry industry woes has been a problem other industries have faced: labor shortages. Unfortunately, filling open positions has proven difficult due to initial pandemic restrictions and now low unemployment.

Additionally, while shipping problems and material shortages have significantly improved throughout 2022, they still have a long way to go. Both challenges have led to reduced production across the board regarding linen, machinery, cleaners, components and more. While the situation continues to improve, manufacturers are looking for ways to “future-proof” their facility if shipping is bottlenecked again.

Finally, with utility costs on the rise and inflation significantly impacting the price of goods, laundry and linen manufacturing facilities have had to adjust their finances. For some facilities, this meant raising the cost of goods. For others, this meant fewer goods produced. Overall, inflation has proven problematic for the laundry and linen service industry, as it has for everyone else.

What Does This Mean Going Forward?

It’s unfortunate to admit, but those part of the laundry industry (including Yamamoto) believe most of the same challenges will continue to plague businesses and manufacturers through most of 2023 and potentially beyond. As such, many industrial laundries have begun to shrink operations to survive and adapt. Rather than spend time and money on expanding operations outward, much of the laundry industry has begun to focus on business closer to home, serving smaller territories as a result. However, for this trend to continue and for businesses to be successful, advancements in industrial cleaning equipment must be made. Thankfully, Yamamoto NA has been thinking ahead!

How Yamamoto is Adapting

To best cater to the likely trend of laundry facilities shrinking their operations, Yamamoto is producing smaller, high-volume equipment. Our more-compact industrial washing machines will allow laundry operators to fit more into less. Furthermore, high-volume capacities lend to greater productivity, reducing the loads required to complete daily linen cleaning.

Also, Yamamoto is investing more in ”re-use” technology to reduce labor and utility usage. Our latest tech and upcoming machines include features like water reclaims, heat exchangers, multi-pass drying, etc. Although these features intend to significantly reduce the need for water, electricity and labor when operating laundry equipment, it has another benefit: a reduced carbon footprint! Yamamoto hopes to change the culture of laundry by making a significant improvement on our “green thumb” as an industry.

Lastly, Yamamoto has made recent strides in automation as we bring our new Towel Folder to market. Such automation further allows laundry operators to streamline the linen cleaning process and reduce required labor. If finding new employees continues to be a challenge for laundry facilities, some automation can fill in the gaps.

The Future of the Laundry Industry

Yamamoto has always been behind some of the best innovations in industrial cleaning technology. We continually push the envelope for what’s possible for modern-day laundry operations. Our 70-plus years in laundry machine manufacturing have led us to produce innovative, durable, and efficient washer designs for affordable prices. For the best laundry equipment that matches the direction of the laundry and linen services industries, business owners rely on Yamamoto North America. To learn more about our products and how they can help your facility survive and thrive, call today at 866-204-0519 for a quote. Our main office is located at 507 W Olive St, Bloomington, IL 61701, serving clients throughout the United States.

Although high-quality industrial laundry equipment is built to withstand extreme pressure and experiences minimal wear and tear, even Yamamoto’s machines can benefit from preventative maintenance! In previous blogs, we’ve discussed some of what needs to be done to maintain your commercial washing equipment. However, why do you need to? What are some of the benefits of preventative maintenance, professional or otherwise? Allow Yamamoto North America to show you why standard maintenance and upkeep of your washers and dryers are crucial to your business’s operation.

Staying Productive

If in charge of the laundry operations of a hospital or hotel, you likely have countless loads of laundry that need processing every day. So, when a washing machine suddenly stops working, the laundering capabilities of your facility can become compromised. And such machine downtime can significantly impact work and cleaning productivity, thus costing you valuable time and money. However, with preventative maintenance performed on your washing equipment, breakdowns are much less likely. Ensuring filters and belts are functioning and undamaged can help you avoid future repairs.

Avoiding Repair Costs

Speaking of avoiding future repairs, preventative maintenance can catch potential problems with your industrial laundry equipment before it becomes worse. Although Yamamoto washers come with a five-year ALL PARTS warranty, labor to fix severe breaks can become costly. Especially if more than one machine breaks within a short period, you begin to wrack up repair costs. Thankfully, the few steps you can take to monitor the condition of your equipment are enough to identify issues before they require fixing.

Ensuring Quality Cleaning

Yamamoto washers can provide high-quality cleaning and sanitization with every load. However, even Yamamoto equipment can fall victim to neglect. For example, if filters aren’t cleaned, they become clogged, impeding water flow into a machine. If too little water is used in washing, your linen cannot be thoroughly cleaned. Or, if you don’t keep loading doors open between periods of use, you risk your washer drum not fully drying and developing a musty smell. Ultimately, this unpleasant odor can affect subsequent loads of laundry. Monthly cleaning and inspection of your machines can avoid these problems and ensure your machine’s cleaning capabilities are to the level they should be.

Lowering Utility Costs

In addition to avoiding repair costs, preventative maintenance can help you save on your utility bill. If parts of your system become dirty or start to break, they work less efficiently. In turn, a less effective commercial washer might draw on more power or water when attempting to wash loads, resulting in increased utility costs to run your equipment. Thankfully, it isn’t difficult to optimize the efficiency of your machines. Yamamoto washers feature easy-to-access metal housing and drain valves, so operators can easily inspect and clean its most crucial components.

Less Stress with Yamamoto

While Yamamoto North America will never deny the incredible benefits of preventative maintenance for your industrial washing equipment, we strive to manufacture machines that outperform what our competitors can offer. Yamamoto washers utilize advanced tech, high-quality materials, and durable parts, making our products some of the longest-lasting on the market. Even without preventative maintenance, our machines outlast similar products from other manufacturers. Thus, with the consistent upkeep of your Yamamoto washer, you can expect it to run for decades!

If you are interested in Yamamoto North America’s line of industrial washing machines, or you’d like to learn more about the benefits of preventative maintenance, call us today at 866-204-0519. Our main office is located at 507 W Olive St, Bloomington, IL 61701, serving clients throughout the United States.

For years, Yamamoto has made great efforts to design cleaning equipment that provides the best clean and simplifies the linen cleaning process. However, once laundry loads are washed and dried, that’s as far as Yamamoto’s equipment can assist. Today, that’s no longer the case! With the introduction of the FUT10BT, Yamamoto’s automatic towel folder, we can now assist laundry operators from start to finish! Read on to learn more about our new towel folders and how your business could benefit from this small addition of automation.

How Our Machines Work

Yamamoto’s towel folders are an innovative and compact piece of equipment that can quickly and easily integrate into any business’s laundry procedure. With a range of helpful features, Yamamoto looks to set the FUT10BT apart from other auto-folders in the linen cleaning industry. From our new towel folders, laundry operators can expect:

• Auto Sorting
  • As the operator loads towels into the machine, it will fold and sort towels in a manner the operator decides ahead of time. The folder will identify the types and sizes of linen products fed into it and perform the preferred folding process based on selected settings. Once folded, the machine will sort linen by size, to different locations and using pre-determined heights.
• Precision Folding Quality
  • Other brands of towel folders blast air to lift the edges of the towel into the folding pattern. However, this method can cause inconsistent results and a lesser quality fold. Conversely, the FUT10BT uses a metal flapper blade to create sharp folds for towels and linen. Additionally, our machine uses an automatic feeder sensor that only allows the belts to move once a towel is loaded. This ensures the linen goes in smooth and flat, preventing jams and poorly finished folds.
• Multifunctional Touch Screen
  • The FUT10BT uses touch screen controls, giving operators access to customized programs for their equipment. Changes to a programmed folding process can be made on the fly without special software. Operators can also manually activate each feature of the FUT10BT independently in the unlikely event of towel jams or maintenance. Finally, the touch screen controls track each operator’s performance so staff can be audited for speed and accuracy.
• Different Unloading Positions
  • The FUT10BT has several options for unloading, which helps operators adopt the equipment into their facility. The folder’s relatively small footprint allows it to fit into smaller areas. Furthermore, the machine’s side or rear feed options allow it to be tucked tightly against other equipment without interfering with existing workflows. All machines come standard with base rollers for easy moving of equipment.

Why Does Your Business Need Auto Folders?

While the laundering process is relatively simple, it can become time-consuming without the right equipment. Not to mention, keeping up with the volume of linen needing folding requires multiple employees and significant time. Automating linen folding can solve concerns of time and labor while ensuring consistent folding quality.

• Time
  • Towel folding by hand is not challenging for laundry operators. However, a towel folder can fold more at once and at a quicker pace. Per American Laundry News, the average person can fold, sort and stack different-sized towels at a rate of 120 pieces per hour. Compare that to the 650 pieces per hour a FUT10BT can manage; you significantly increase production and save time on folding.
• Labor
  • Linen folding and sorting is the most labor-intensive part of the laundering process. While the task isn’t overly complex, it’s effort your operators could be placing elsewhere. And if you wish to help that process along faster, you must introduce more operators into the mix. Conversely, a towel folder can completely automate the folding and sorting process. Your auto-folder can cut labor hours by as much as 87%. Additionally, it only takes one operator to use your FUT10BT.
• Fold Quality
  • Leaving your towel folding to individual operators can mean inconsistent and lower-quality folds. Even the most skilled operator lacks the same consistency of an automated towel folder. With the FUT10BT, you get consistent, high-quality folds with every load. And fold quality matters when preparing fresh linen for storage and transportation.

Check Out the FUT10BT

If you’d like to see Yamamoto’s latest addition to our line of industrial cleaning equipment in action, you can watch a video of our towel folder operating on YouTube. Or, if you have any questions about the FUT10BT, its cost, and when you can begin ordering it, contact Yamamoto NA at 866-437-2550. Our main office is located at 507 W Olive St, Bloomington, IL 61701.

As a business owner that utilizes industrial washing machines, finding the right equipment can be challenging. While finding proper equipment for an affordable price is one concern, it isn’t the only factor that should matter when selecting new commercial washers. Understanding what laundry equipment aspects can help your business’s linen cleaning overall will help you select machines that work best for your facility. And with guidance from the linen and laundry experts at Yamamoto North America, you can secure the best washers for your industry. Here are some of the most crucial factors when selecting commercial laundry equipment:

Size Matters

How many loads of laundry must your facility process per day? Do you wash larger items, such as bed sheets or curtains? How much space do you have allotted for commercial laundry equipment? These are all questions you should be asking yourself before selecting an industrial washing machine. Depending on your answers, you’ll have a more accurate picture of the size of machine you’ll need to purchase. For example, Yamamoto offers smaller units for businesses with less space and fewer loads of laundry to process. Conversely, a few of our biggest industrial washers can manage the cleaning demands of large facilities, given your facility has the space for such equipment.

Utility Cost Savings

Business owners aren’t looking for commercial washers that drastically impact their bottom line. While your washer might give a quick and efficient clean, it can hamper monthly profits with the cost of water and energy it takes to operate. And during times when utility costs are on the rise, finding ways to save is crucial to running a profitable business. Thankfully, machines such as Yamamoto’s are finely-tuned to manage each wash cycle with minimum electricity and water consumption. As a bonus, machines that use less water and electricity are inherently more eco-friendly.

The Ease of Operation

When you finally receive your new commercial laundry machine, you want to have it up and running ASAP. Naturally, it will take some time to learn how to operate your washer fully. However, ideal laundry equipment should be reasonably simple to understand and not require days of reading a manual to “turn on.” Many of the latest industrial washers use touch-screen controls, smart applications, and pre-programmed wash cycles, Yamamoto machines included. Such features allow laundry operators to quickly learn machine controls, easily integrating the new tech into standard cleaning procedures.

Cost of Ownership

In discussing the utility cost savings of some laundry machines, we’ve already begun to get into the cost of ownership for industrial washing equipment. In fact, Yamamoto has discussed the true cost of ownership for your commercial washers in previous articles. The basic idea: some laundry machines implement features that can help reduce the cost of ownership. However, business owners must also consider upfront costs versus the overall cost of ownership. If only a machine existed where the cost of ownership and purchase price was equally low (hint: Yamamoto has the solution).

Your Laundry Machine Provider

Above all other factors, having a reliable laundry machine provider supply your machinery is the most crucial when selecting new commercial washers. There are plenty of manufacturers you will never hear from again after money exchanges hands. Finding a reliable and reputable dealer ensures you have reliable technicians to contact if problems ever occur with your equipment. These same laundry equipment dealers frequently offer incredible warranties, such as Yamamoto NA’s five-year ALL PARTS warranty. Give yourself greater peace of mind when purchasing washing equipment from a manufacturer you can trust.

How Yamamoto Machines Meet Your Needs

While the experienced sales reps and technicians at Yamamoto NA prefer to stay modest, the commercial equipment we sell is genuinely one of a kind. Our machines’ features purposefully target major cleaning hurdles of businesses with the highest cleanliness standards. With Yamamoto’s 70-plus years of developing and innovating cleaning technology, we understand the precise cleaning needs of any industry. Our industrial washing machines solve problems of oversized loads, excessive energy/water usage, complicated controls, and much more. Not to mention, every machine we sell at prices significantly lower than what our competitors can offer.

If interested in the ability and functions of Yamamoto’s commercial washing machines, contact us at 866-204-0519. Also, our main office is located at 507 W Olive St, Bloomington, IL 61701.