CHICAGO, Ill. — The majority of operators (58.1%) are using tensioning pant toppers, forms and shirt units to process some of their work, according to the most recent survey appearing in the Wire, American Drycleaner’s e-mail dispatch.
Asked how much of their plants’ work is processed with tensioning equipment, 41.9% of operators responding to the survey said “None.” One-fifth (22.6%) of respondents use tensioning equipment on 25% to 50% of their work, while slightly fewer (19.4%) use it to process half to 100% of their work.
Growth looks good for tensioning equipment. Whether or not they now use it to process their work, 41.9% of respondents plan to add a tensioning form finisher in the next year, 35.5% said they plan to add a tensioning pant topper, and 29.0% plan to add a tensioning shirt unit. Only 29.0% didn’t have plans to add any pieces of tensioning equipment in the next year.
Demand is getting stronger all the time, marketers say—most still have a backlog of orders from Clean ‘07. “It used to be something nobody cared about, and it’s now something everybody’s looking for,” says John Tipps, president of Clean Concepts in Dallas, Texas. “The more the equipment gets out there, the more testimony there is on what it will do.”
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].