National Clothesline

Nine professional wetcleaners from California visited Germany recently to meet with Miele Inc, Veit GmbH and Kruessler GmbH, the founding manufacturers that began the professional wetcleaning process in 1990.

The visit was part of an ongoing certification program for the professional wetcleaners to meet, learn and discuss wetcleaning directly with each manufacturer its chemistry, manufacturing process, quality control procedures and improvements to meet the specific needs of the growing wetcleaning industry.

The trip was sponsored and organized by Hans Kim of Nature’s Best Cleaners, LLC, Miele GmbH, Veit GmbH, and Kreussler GmbH.

Participants included several wetcleaners from Southern California: Hans Kim, Sung Park and Shung Kalin of Nature’s Best Cleaners in Rancho Cucamonga; Peter and Shawna Jung of Plaza Cleaners in Thousand Oaks; and Paulo Neves of Miele USA.

Participants from Northern California were Sung Lee of Hesperian Cleaners, Inc., in San Lorenzo; Peter Xu of Nature’s Best Cleaners in Sunnyvale; Karl Huie of Pacific Heights Cleaners in Sausalito; and Julianna Mo of Snow White Cleaners in San Mateo.

The first stop was Veit GmbH near Munich, a leading manufacturer of finishing and tensioning equipment. Veit provided a tour of the manufacturing process, displayed the past, present and the future of tensioning equipment, and ended the tour with a special meeting for the participants to discuss possible improvements with Veit’s future tensioning equipment.

The next stop was at Miele, Inc., a family-owned and operated company with a 110-year old history. The participants had a first-hand opportunity to witness the vertical manufacturing process of professional wetcleaning washers and dryers. Miele implements quality control over all aspects of its production, from the plastic knobs to the motors used for their final products. The company does not use or depend on any parts from other manufacturers.

The engineering and production departments are in the same building to ensure quality control and rapid adjustments to any issues. For instance, if there is a problem in the process or design, an employee can walk to the engineering room to check or modify and return to the production line.

During the tour, the California wetcleaners witnessed how the new honey comb design basket was produced. Miele has pioneered a green manufacturing practice by minimizing the welding procedure. Stainless steel rolled drums are placed inside the highly pressurized water chamber to shape and form the basket without the use of welding.

Miele designed and produced its own production machines to prevent any cracking during high extraction, an efficient and innovative method of production.

Lastly, Miele stores old templates and molds for a minimum of 15 years to ensure that its customers can obtain replacement parts long after the specific models are no longer in production.

The final stop was at Kruessler GmbH in Wiesbaden.

Since the late 1980s, Kruessler has been a partner with Miele in developing professional wetcleaning.

Based on extensive research, Kreussler launched the Lanadol product line which processes “Dry Clean Only” labeled garments with the wetcleaning process.

Twenty years ago, there were over 10,000 drycleaners in Germany. Since then, they have reduced to 3,000. Many drycleaners did not survive tougher regulations and changes in the industry. Of the 3,000 remaining today, many are searching for alternative methods.

Visiting these pioneers of professional wetcleaning, confirmed in the minds of the California wetcleaners that professional wetcleaning can serve the future of the drycleaning industry.