Several months ago, I came up with the idea of the Tailwind Equipment Design Awards. I moved forward with a bit of trepidation because there are so many excellent pieces of equipment out there and sometimes it can be unfair to highlight one model or one brand while forsaking similar models.  But, last month, I did showcase shirt pressing equipment that was introduced for the first time at the Clean Show, regardless of brand name. There were some excellent innovations. Frankly, I can’t say that there is a single innovation that I think is a bad idea. 

All this said, there are times when certain improvements knock my socks off, and I don’t own a plant. If something knocks my socks off, I’m not sure that I can imagine what it would do to someone like you.  I have made it my responsibility to share things with you that will make a significant impact on your business. So with that, I present to you to the Tailwind Equipment Design Awards.

For the past several Decembers, I have written a “Christmas Wish List” column. A few years ago, I wished for a production monitor built into a shirt press. Last year I wished for something to keep pressers cooler and something to help pressers work at a pre-determined pace (read: work faster). And we all wish for lower labor costs, are desperate to keep utility costs in line and all want to press a better shirts with little or no touch-up.

“To hit the ball, and touch ‘em all. A moment in the sun. It’s gone and you can tell that one goodbye!”

Grand Slam! Read on. You’ll see what I mean.

 Hi-Steam Turbo 483 is an outstanding example of a shirt unit that is ideal for plants that do around 1000 shirts or less per week. I think that I speak for a multitude of plant owners worldwide, so when someone grants me something from my Christmas wish list, they are going to fall into my favor. This won’t be the only time that I say this is this column. The Turbo 483 features a cuff vent press which firmly presses the sleeve pleats before the sleeve itself is blown dry. This leaves nothing to chance. The operator lays the shirt as they want it and the sleeve pleats are pressed. When that is done, the sleeves are pulled taunt and blown dry. Any imperfections in the hard press and blown out then. But Santa Claus came when the 483 was redesigned with an energy-saving and an employee comfort feature with one brilliant stroke. As you can see in Photo 1, the 483 has an air intake that draws heat and rising steam away from the operator, keeping them cooler.  This heat is stored and used to pre-heat the air for the next cycle. This lowers energy costs. The yoke press is unlike any I have seen. The steam chest comes very close to the fabric, but doesn’t touch it. The head dries the shirt shoulders using radiant heat. You are assured of a quality finish with this outstanding shirt unit. It was a pleasure to meet the owners of the manufacturer of this unit who flew in from Italy to attend the Clean Show. The is unit is featured on my website at www.tailwindsystems.com

I have seen all sorts of funky collar and cuff machines. I saw the most bizarre unit in Osaka Japan in 2001. It had little grippers that grabbed onto the ends of the collars and cuffs, bottom steam was activated to relax the fabric in a cloud of steam, then the shirt was pressed as the grippers quickly disappeared. It was quite an elaborate setup with a very important goal; nobody wants a pressed-in wrinkle in the collar or cuffs. It doesn’t need to be this complicated. Sankosha’s LP-685u is such an incredible collar/cuff press that is will be a challenge for any other manufacturer to even come close for a long time. It is so feature-packed that I can’t seem to tell you about them fast enough. And I like each feature so much, that I don’t want each individual one to get lost in the structure of a sentence so I will present them in bullet format, in random order:

· The small foot-print is important. It is more compact than similar models from other makers

· Take that advantage and trump it! This is two collar & cuff machine because the bucks are plenty deep enough to allow you to press two shirts at one time! Got that? Two collar and cuff machines in less than the space of one. This feature alone is enough for this machine to earn a place in hundreds of plants. Nah! Thousands.

· Notice the unusual, wedge shape cuff bucks. This is so that you can press ladies blouse cuffs with ease. Sankosha president Keisuke (Ken) Uchikoski explained to me (in perfect English, by the way), that his aim is to make pressing small ladies blouses and similar items, easy and inexpensive for drycleaners. He has concluded that customers will bring in more items to drycleaners if they can be processed affordably. And he knows that it is up to him to make equipment that will allow drycleaners to keep prices down.

· The collar buck includes the passive, collar stretching feature that actually allows the presser to carelessly place a collar on buck and still turn out a very well pressed collar! Amazing. This isn’t a new feature, but it surely belongs on the best collar and cuff machine.

· Vacuum. The unit has a vacuum that automatically activates during the last 10 seconds of the press cycle. This does two things: the vacuum removes any latent moisture from the fabric assuring a perfectly cured shirt and the shirt isn’t any more than warm to the touch. Even cool if you wait a few more seconds. How’s that for operator comfort? I hadn’t thought of anything like that!

This is an outstanding piece of equipment and easily the best press of its type ever made.

Several months ago, Unipress told me that they had something very special coming out in June. A couple of months later, they leaked the news about an updated version of their AP version. I was eager, of course, but I thought it odd that they could find enough room for improvements in a unit that I thought was pretty darn good as it was. Hmmm.

It’s one thing if you make an improvement to a shirt unit that improves quality. It’s one thing if you make an improvement to a shirt unit that improves productivity. But suppose that you make an improvement that does both? And suppose that you do both with an extremely simple device that can’t break and works every time with no effort? Gee.

Now suppose that this improvement is just one of the offerings in a machine that offers a cornucopia of goodies, a virtual grab bag of niceties that make choosing the Best Body Press very easy. Enter the Unipress LS2. This unit has unique features that improve quality, productivity, operator comfort and aid maintenance and management do their jobs better. One swing of the bat.

Quality: The back pull automatically and reliably pulls the back of the shirt taunt a split-second before the steam chest presses the shirt. No valves. No pneumatics. No electricity. No fuss, no muss. Way cool. With perhaps 90% of your touch-up being on the backs of your shirts, this feature will save you a ton of money and is enough to make this the body press of choice.

But wait! There’s more!

Productivity: Walk out into your plant right now. Look at your shirt presser. See how she fiddles with the back of the shirt? Wipe. Pull. Tug. Wipe. Look. Repeat. Break this habit and you’ll get 5-10 additional shirts per hour. With the Unipress LS2, its easy. None of these motions are needed. Clamp the cuffs and the collar and send it in. There is a “pace-setter” of sorts, built into this unit as well. This is Santa Claus for me. We know that, in order to get maximum productivity, any double-buck press should be either pressing or transferring. If its always doing one or the other, you are at maximum productivity. But if the heads release and the presser is not finished dressing the next shirt, production will suffer. The LS2 features an audible and visual indicator that the press cycle is nearly finished. This can be a huge help to the operator who can now quickly finish up and maintain maximum productivity. In my December 2010 column I tried to describe my vision of a device that gently nudges the operator as a help for maximum production. The single buck versions of the LS have a similar device that lets the presser know when they have held down the transfer buttons long enough. You know how the buck comes back to you as a safety measure if you fail to keep the buttons depressed for a long enough period of time. It’s a pain and eventually the presser learns to hold the buttons down for too long so that the buck doesn’t come back. Unipress fixed this. My wishes don’t do more than inspire. It takes brilliant engineering to get these goodies down the chimney!

Operator Comfort: The front console has been redesigned so that the presser can get a bit closer to the machine. This makes it easier to dress the buck.

Maintenance: Redesigning the front console also involved moving the control panel to the left side of the machine. A no-brainer when you think about it. How many times have you had to ask the presser to stop work and step aside just to check the counter or make a minor adjustment? Attention to detail means a lot to me. Has this ever happened to you? You need to change the pads and covers, so you remove the Allen bolts that hold down the collar block. You drop the bolts down into the machine and can’t find them for what seems like an eternity.  A very easy fix. Unipress bothered to deal with this. The collar block now has a slot rather than a hole. Now, all you need to do is loosen each bolt about one full turn and lift off the collar block. So simple, so easy, so overdue.

Management: The LS2 has a Production Manager. This is an LCD screen that continually and automatically measures shirts-per-hour productivity. This unit is effective and accurate, albeit a version 1.0. I am going to have a field day watching this relatively elementary device turn into something that I dream about (just kidding). 

Make a trip to my website at www.tailwindsystems.com for a comprehensive video tour of the Best Body Press. It’s worth a look.

Well, if the LS2 is so damn good, is it good enough to get Best of Show honors? No way. But the honor goes to its worthy corporate cousin, the LS2-H which adds additional features for plant cleanliness, energy savings and employee comfort. Santa hosed me on that mini-bike and the Lionel train set but I can’t help but be happy that he moved from the North Pole to a condo in Tampa!

The LS2-H has all of the features as the LS2 discussed above plus it is fully insulated; all heat exchangers, traps and piping are covered for minimum heat loss. The hood carries away any heat from the machine and away from the operator. The perimeter of the machine has clear plastic strips that keep plant dust out and heat from escaping into the plant. And all this raises the temperature of the machines intake air which lowers the amount of energy needed to the ambient air because regenerative heat from unit is drawn in. Nobody at Unipress has been able to tell me what the expected savings should be, but I don’t think that it matters. We know that I makes some sort of difference and you’ve already paid to produce that heat. We might as well make full use of it. Your pressers will thank you too. Best of Show? You better believe it.

 Surely, these manufacturers know that….

"If you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got."