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ALL THINGS FABRICARE
The complete web addressbook for drycleaners, allied trades, industry associations and publications -- with a few other links thrown in for good measure.
COURSES
A variety of courses are offered year-round at the International Fabricare Institute in Laurel, Maryland. IFI also provides correspondence courses and certification programs for drycleaners. In addition, IFI has a Cyberspace Learning Center with nine courses available over the Internet.
The New York School of Drycleaning, operated by the Neighborhood Cleaners Association in New York city, offers evening classes.
The Southwest Drycleaners Association, based in Texas, offers classes throughout the year at the International Textile Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.
On the West Coast, classes are offered by the California Cleaners Association.
Seminars and classes for drycleaners are offered around the country by the various regional, state and local trade associations. Check our Trade Association Directory for information about these groups. Upcoming courses and seminars are also listed on the calendar page of the National Clothesline web site. BOOKS
National Clothesline, the industry's leading publication, has a series of books and instructional guides available on various topics ranging from beginning to advanced levels.Stan Caplan has produced an instructional package on "The Caplan Method of Stain Removal" that includes a book, a video and a spotting board manual. The Caplan Method of Stain Removal. Cost: $199.
Also available, is Caplan's 45-minute video on Shirt Laundering and Finishing, which includes a comprehensive text in loose-leaf form outlining each procedure for a single-operator cabinet shirt unit and a two-operator cabinet shirt unit. Both units are demonstrated using a cabinet sleever and a single, or triple, heated collar former. This procedure was developed by Caplan for top quality with no touch-up (regular sizes) together with maximum production without overexertion by the operators. Cost:$149.
Spanish-language versions of both the stain removal and shirt laundering videos are available. The cost is $99 each, or both for $149.
Orders can be placed through the Golomb Group, c/o Dennis McCrory, 7664 Plaza Court, Willowbrook, IL 60527; phone (800) 679-5856.Dan Eisen, long-time National Clothesline columnist and former chief garment analyst of the Neighborhood Cleaners Association, has distilled his decades of experience into two books, "The Art of Spotting" and "The Art of Wet Cleaning." For more information or to order, contact Eisen at 772/340-0909 or e-mail him at cleandan@adelphia.net.
An all-around reference to all things drycleaning. Bowe Permac's Textile Cleaning Book, 1993 edition. Cost: $25. Contact Bowe Permac, (800) 287-0870.
CLEAN AIR ACT
A guide to the rules for perc drycleaners.CLEAN WATER
If you are a drycleaner, cleaning up soil and groundwater contaminated with cleaning solvents could cost you more money than you have. What has the industry been doing to address the cleanup issue?ON WETCLEANING
- The executive summary of the Center for Neighborhood Technology's final report on The Greener Cleaner project combines data from a year of operation at the 100% wetcleaning plant with recommendations for future directions.
- The practical boundaries of aqueous cleaning are examined in a report by Ken Adamson on the implementation of wetcleaning processes at one of his plants in Ontario, Canada.
- Textile Care Technology Spectra and Care Labeling Issues are discussed by Dr. Manfred Wentz in a paper he presented at international conferences on cleaning technolgy.
ON PERC
- Two reports issued in the summer of 2001 reached contradictory conclusions about the safety of perc.
- The Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance's White Paper on perchloroethylene.
ON PETROLEUM
- Some cleaners are switching to petroleum solvent systems to escape ever tougher regulations on the use of perc. But petroleum solvents are far from unregulated. An EPA document lists a myriad of rules to live by for petroleum solvent drycleaners.
EPA'S ASSESSMENT
- In 1998, after several years of study, US EPA published its Cleaner Technologies Substitutes Assessment for drycleaning.
FAST LAUNDRY
- If "fast food" is such a roaring success with time-pressed consumers, why not "fast laundry?" That's the question David Porter has been asking and, working with the U.S. Department of Energy's Kansas City Plant, he's finished Phase One of research that seeks to bring the dream to reality.
- UPDATE: FEBRUARY 1998: A technology development center is looking for an industry partner to build a prototype of an ultrasonic cleaning system.
To go with Fast Laundry, Porter also seeks to facilitate home pick-up and delivery with his "Smart Box" prototype.
THEIR $.02 WORTH
What some have said...
- A "good" drycleaning process
- Dow's drycleaning industry development leader and perchloroethylene product steward offers her views on what makes a good drycleaning process.
- The case for perc
- Stan Golomb appeals to the Court of Public Opinion "to cease and desist the harassment of the drycleaning industry."
- There's No Business Like No Business
- Obssessed with productivity? Give yourself a break! Ray Colucci's prescription for making money by doing nothing shows the easy way to contribute to the common good.
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