News & Innovations

Increasing the PPOH in the finishing area with fully automatic separation

Fully automatic separation of linen into single items is the first step to fully automatic feeding. Thirty years later, fully automatic feeding of large, wet linen is still a vision. However, the results from incorporating the Viking separator back in the 90s were so impressive that the Viking shaped the future of separators for decades to come. And now, the JENSEN-GROUP adds another portion of automation with the Viking 2000 Automatic. Depending on model and options, the Viking separator can deliver up to 2’200 hospital sheets per hour when separating the linen arriving in the finishing area. 

Double production with half the effort!
The high output itself is a record within separators. To fully utilize its potential, we recommend positioning a line of supply conveyors between the separator and the feeder. By using fully automatic supply conveyors, the operators positioned at the feeder always have linen to feed, ensuring a steady and consistent pace. Thanks to the supply of separated linen, the operators can quickly and easily pick up the sheets before feeding them into the feeder. Like this, the capacity per operator hour can be doubled compared with the hard physical labor work of pulling linen manually out of trolleys.  

Record high production
Several laundries around the world operating our Express feeding stations report production figures of 400 to 600 single hospital sheets per operator hour thanks to cornerless feeding of sheets. This would not be possible without the continuous supply of separated linen from the Viking 2000 Automatic separator. As a result, we see peak production rates of 2’400 hospital sheets per hour in a two-lane operation fed by four operators only.

This is a world record!

The higher the better…
One of the reasons for the extraordinary high production of the Viking separator is the height of the machine: It allows the pickers to lift the linen 2.050 mm / 81” to a high position before dropping the linen onto the supply conveyor. By using this technique, the linen separates efficiently by combining gravity and mechanical action, ensuring that even large sheets such as king-size sheets will be separated fast and efficiently.

Turnus – our newest separator
As an alternative to the Viking separator, JENSEN has introduced the Turnus separator which can separate large and small pieces along with towels and garments. The Turnus separator operates by a separator wheel which separates the items gently before delivering the items onto a supply conveyor. 

Several laundries around the world have started combining the Turnus separator and the Viking separator. By using the Turnus separator as a pre-separator for the Viking separator, the total capacity of the Viking is optimized, allowing to use one separator only to automatically supply linen to two ironer lines via supply conveyors. 

When considering replacing a feeder with a faster model, please look at the Viking or Turnus separator. You will be amazed by the record high production figures in your finishing area.