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Lights out, System on: The Dark Factory revolutionizing laundry automation

What is a Dark Factory?

The concept of a Dark Factory represents a groundbreaking shift in laundry automation, with a fully automated laundry operation that can run throughout the night without any human intervention. This innovative approach allows laundries to keep production flowing continuously, without being limited by labor availability or shift schedules. In practical terms, the Dark Factory operates by having an operator manually load unsorted soiled linen bags into a designated primary storage area whenever soiled linen returns from customers outside normal operating hours. This is common in rental laundries serving hotels in major city centers, where linen collection and deliveries often take place overnight. Once loaded, our advanced automated system takes complete control, sorting and classifying the linen based on predetermined criteria. The system then stores the sorted bags precisely in front of the tunnel washer, staged and ready for production. When the morning shift begins, operators find all laundry already sorted and prepared, allowing them to start the washing process immediately. This eliminates delays typically caused by manual sorting and staging, effectively turning the soil side of the laundry into a fully autonomous, efficient “dark” operation.

Addressing labor and efficiency challenges

The labor shortage in the laundry industry is a temporary issue that also reflects broader demographic trends and changing workforce expectations, requiring long-term, sustainable solutions. Night shifts are often the hardest to staff because they require employees to work outside of regular hours, which many find undesirable. This staffing difficulty leads to increased reliance on overtime, higher wage demands, and in some cases, understaffed shifts that impact productivity and product quality. Moreover, manual sorting processes are slow, repetitive, and prone to human error, which further limits throughput and increases operational costs. Our Dark Factory solution directly confronts these challenges by automating the sorting and storage tasks that would otherwise require human operators during off-hours. By shifting these labor-intensive tasks to an automated system, laundries can continue running their soil-side operations throughout the night without interruption. This addresses staffing shortages and also creates a more efficient, reliable, and predictable workflow that makes better use of existing infrastructure and increases overall throughput.

How the Dark Factory solution works

The operational flow of the Dark Factory solution is straightforward and highly effective. In the evening, operators load unsorted soiled linen bags into a primary buffer or storage area. Once the loading is complete, the system seamlessly takes over. Utilizing a patented sorting and classification process integrated with Inwatec’s advanced soil sorting technology, the system automatically sorts the linen based on article category and wash program requirements, or other criteria set by the laundry’s operational needs. Sorted bags are then returned to the same storage area, but this time they are precisely organized and staged in front of the tunnel washer, fully prepared for the production line. This eliminates the need for operators to manually sort and move laundry in the early hours of the morning. When the next shift starts, production can start immediately since all laundry is already sorted and staged, enabling a continuous and efficient workflow with zero downtime. This automation improves operational speed and also reduces errors and variability, ensuring consistent quality in every batch.

Benefits of the Dark Factory approach

Implementing the Dark Factory approach brings a wide array of tangible benefits to industrial laundries looking to modernize and improve their operations. First and foremost, it significantly reduces dependence on manual labor for the sorting process and allows this task to be performed fully automatically at night, after normal working hours. This reduction directly lowers labor costs and decreases staffing-related issues such as operator absence and turnover. Through the targeted implementation of robotics, the approach addresses these staffing challenges while enabling a smarter use of existing infrastructure. This lowers the financial barrier to automation and makes robotic solutions available sooner.

By fully automating sorting and storage, laundries can extend their sorting capacity into a second or even third shift and consistently achieve their daily sorting goals. With a Dark Factory, a smaller robotic sorting system can handle the same production volume as larger systems and easily adapt to fluctuations in daily demand. This ensures a smooth start to the day with an organized and full production buffer for tunnel washers.

Soiled sort automation minimizes human error, regardless of whether your linen is chipped or not, and improves process reliability and product quality. With continuous operation during extended hours, laundries can process higher volumes without interruptions or the need for costly facility expansions. The optimized workflow removes bottlenecks and increases efficiency, leading to a faster return on investment and helping laundries move closer to full automation while remaining competitive in the long term. Furthermore, if the storage for unsorted and sorted linen is large enough, you save floor space and reduce your linen inventory, which shortens the total lead time of your linen process.

Why choose our solution?

Our solution stands out in the laundry automation market because of its unique combination of patented technology and deep industry expertise. Unlike many competitors who offer partial or standalone automation components, our system integrates both primary and classified sorting processes into a single, seamless workflow. This integration is made possible by incorporating Inwatec’s industry-leading soil sorting technology, which ensures the highest accuracy and efficiency in classifying all types of textiles, whether chipped or not. With more than 150 Inwatec soil sort systems installed worldwide, our technology has been proven across diverse laundry operations, demonstrating reliability and superior performance. Our commitment to innovation means we continuously refine and improve our solutions to meet the evolving needs of industrial laundries. 

By choosing our Dark Factory system, customers gain access to cutting-edge technology and also partner with a market leader dedicated to driving the future of laundry automation. We go beyond supplying equipment by helping laundries revolutionize their soil side operations to achieve greater efficiency, cost savings, and scalability.

Dark Factory: The future of soiled sorting starts at night

As the laundry industry evolves, embracing automation is no longer a luxury but a necessity to remain competitive and efficient. The Dark Factory concept offers laundries a way to overcome persistent labor challenges, increase production capacity, and improve operational reliability by automating critical overnight processes. By enabling a fully autonomous operation during hours when staff availability is limited, laundries can maximize their throughput and reduce costs while preparing themselves for a future dominated by smart, connected, and automated solutions.

If you want to see the Dark Factory in action and learn more about how this innovative solution can transform your laundry operation, watch our detailed video on YouTube or get in touch to explore how to create a smarter, more efficient, and future-ready laundry.