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Saudi Airlines Catering Company (SACC) is now building the largest industrial laundry of Saudi Arabia and has teamed up with the JENSEN-GROUP, the leading supplier to the heavy-duty laundry industry.
Located in the industrial zone of King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) - the mega-city project north of Jeddah - this 8,000 sq. m. industrial laundry will have a washing capacity of 45 tonnes of linen per day. This is the second industrial unit for SACC, which is operating laundry services under the name of “Saudi Laundry Service” (SLS) since January 2013 in Riyadh. In the capital city of Saudi Arabia, SACC is operating a 20 tonnes/day unit and offering laundry services to hotels, airlines, healthcare and industrial companies.
The industrial laundry market is still emerging in Saudi Arabia, and SACC is now taking the lead, bringing the latest technology and international standards to the Kingdom.
Versatile laundry technology
Two tunnel washers, Senking Universal P50-12, are scheduled to process 45,000 kg per day. Thanks to its bath rinsing method, the Senking Universal P50-12 boasts complete load separation throughout the entire system, making it very versatile for washing loads with different colours. This increases the capacity and reduces the media consumption. The patented rinse process ensures that the consumption of fresh water is reduced by up to 10 per cent. Furthermore, the tunnel washers reuse the energy and the water internally, making it a very ecological solution. This is especially important in areas where water is a scarce resource - and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia belongs to such an area.
The Project Team
The same vision is also valid for the two high-performance water extraction presses Senking SEP50 Plus with the patented TopDrain System. This closed drainage system of stainless steel is mounted on the base plate, which is made of a solid steel block and is provided with a durable anti-corrosive. The extracted liquor is fed into the rinse process of the tunnel washer without the use of any intermediate buffer tanks. Standing water is avoided, and outstanding hygiene is guaranteed. Seven batch transfer drying tumblers of JENSEN Senking DT60 complete the washroom area, along with a JENSEN CakeBreaker. Two stand-alone dryers are equipped with a Vacutrans vacuum loading system. VacuTrans is one more piece in the puzzle of total automation: it speeds up the production flow between the machines, thus increasing the productivity and making optimal use of the space available.
In a nutshell, this is what sustainable laundry automation is all about - increasing productivity by synchronising the product flow within the laundry and by reducing the resources. Together with the project team of SACC, JENSEN has succeeded in designing a modern laundry that will be able to cope with requirements of today and tomorrow.
The finishing touch
Three high-performance ironer lines are in charge of adding a finishing touch to all flat linen with a wide range of material and sizes. The feeding machines as well as the folding/stacking machines are adapted to the specific needs of each category. At the centre of each line, a Jenroll EXP12 with two rolls is installed. The Jenroll EXP12 makes efficient use of the evaporation capacity through its flexible chest and guarantees top-quality finishing. The key to optimum heat transfer is namely a turbulent steam flow inside the steam distribution channels, combined with a flexible chest made of carbon steel. The turbulent steam flow flushes away the condensate from the surface, ensuring that no insulation water film will arise, while carbon steel gives optimum thermal conduction and a low friction with wet linen. The flexible chest adapts to the roll like a band-brake. A full contact angle is maintained, resulting in a higher capacity compared to a fixed chest of a traditional ironer. All JENSEN finishing lines are designed and built according to our philosophy that the entire line should form one single system - easy to install, easy to control, easy to maintain, easy and safe to operate, and above all, with a very high availability.
Those items that cannot be ironed are folded on two small piece folders by Jenfold Tematic Pro - predominantly terry towels - and a Jenfold Blanket for the blankets that are offered to guests on long-haul flights.
Professional garment finishing
From the washroom section, the garments are transported into a tunnel finisher via the automated conveyor system for garment handling and sorting, by JENSEN Metricon. A Metricon conveyor system is customised with standard proven components and built to obtain optimum solutions for all kinds of requirements. A unique system for buffer accumulation of garments that can also be placed under the ceiling of a laundry to make best use of the available space makes the synchronisation between the various workstations redundant. The computer control system controls all movements and handles the sorting of garments by delivery route, account, customer, size, locker bank and wearer. As such, there will be no mix up of the garments of the cabin crew working for Saudi Airlines and those working for other airlines utilising the same linen services from SACC.
The Jenform Omega Pro tunnel finisher guarantees top quality finishing of garments. The conveying system is based on the Greek ‘Ω’ sign. This simple and, at the same time, ingenious solution considerably increases the processing time. The drying zone and the air circulation system have been noise-insulated, and the thermal insulation minimises the heat loss. The air from the drying zones and outlet zone is recirculated into the inlet zone. Incoming garments are heated up in the inlet zone using this recirculated hot air. The exhaust air is reduced to a minimum. Once finished, the garments are folded and stacked in a Jenfold Butterfly Fox - an automatic folding machine with a constantly high performance. This versatile, highly reliable system processes up to 1,000 garments per hour.
OTC - from offer to commissioning
Complex projects of this size require more than the mere lining up of highly productive laundry machines. The overall success of a turnkey project is more than just the sum of its parts: From the initial idea to the final layout of the laundry, the project team at SACC teamed up with the local laundry experts from JENSEN. The company has been operating a sales and service company in the Middle East for many years. General Manager, Peter Furnell and his colleagues manage the turnkey project from the JENSEN office in Dubai following the OTC (offer to commissioning) principles. The OTC process is an aligned method of managing large and complex projects within the JENSEN-GROUP, with a common approach that is applied to all international key accounts. Laundry managers highly appreciate the OTC process that comprises clearly defined key deliverables and supporting templates for each phase of the project.
Ready for take-off
Saudi Airlines Catering Company (SACC) is a national leader in catering solutions for airlines since its creation in 1980. SACC serves Saudi Arabian Airlines as well as a number of foreign airlines with onboard catering services for flights operating from airports based all over the Kingdom. Since its privatisation in 2008, the company started a strategic diversification, also offering catering and housekeeping services to non-airline businesses. Amongst their customers are factories, schools, hospitals and travel agencies taking care of people visiting the Kingdom during Umrah and Haj - the annual Islamic pilgrimages to Mecca.
Ceremonial signing with CEO
The contract between Saudi Airlines Catering Company and the JENSEN-GROUP was signed on January 29, 2015 by their respective Chief Executive Officers, Gerhard Marschitz, and Jesper Munch Jensen - the grandson of the company’s founder. The ceremonial signing took place at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Dubai, not far from the JENSEN Dubai offices. It was a perfect setting for both project’s teams to celebrate the successful completion of the design phase, and to kick-off the installation and commissioning phase. “The laundry is expecting to be completed by end of 2015, and the start of operation will be in the first quarter of 2016,” confirms Peter Furnell, who is extremely excited about the successful co-operation with SACC for this and the future stages of the project.
