Final Report Summary - WASH&LOAD (Enabling an innovative and affordable multi-functionality loading service for functional protective clothing that leverage on the textile service companies while increasing safety for the operators) Executive Summary:The WASH&LOAD project goal was to scientifically characterize latest achievements in science and technology for the development of Guidelines and Pre-normative research aimed at supporting the more than 20,000 SMEs involved in the functional clothing value chain in implementing cost-effective practices for reloading protective functionalities in protective clothing and bed linen textiles during life cycle, going beyond scattered attempts so far.The current solution for the PPEs is a level of functionalisation that can last a predetermined number of washing cycles (e.g. 50). The PPE is supposed to be disposed after this number of cycles, independently on the real state of the equipment, although there are wide evidences that discrepancies between expected and real degradation may be substantial according to conditions of use. It may indeed be the case that protective functions have already declined before the number of standard washing cycles, because of excessive abrasion or other damages specific to end use. This drastically reduces the level of protection and furthermore exposes the employer to liabilities in case of accident or illness.The project aimed at a new product/process/service system where new functionalities are applied to protective clothing, after which they can be monitored and renewed during textile care. The new WASH&LOAD laundry system is based on a monitoring system controlling the concentration of chemicals in the bath during the re-functionalisation process ensuring that the correct level of functional agent is released on the textile; the re-functionalised garment is checked again after the process to assess the functionality level and validate the process. These elements provide the combination of a new product/process/service system, drastically extending the business model of the laundry business.Addressing these challenges was beyond the capability of a single SME and required a collective R&D effort lead by SME groupings and associations at European and national level. For this reason the WASH&LOAD consortium was composed by 14 partners including 5 SME Associations, 4 SMEs and 5 RTD Performers from 4 different European countries and it was led by the Italian engineering company D’Appolonia. CINET, in her position as international umbrella organization for the textile care and Technological Knowledge Center Textile Care (TKT), in the Netherlands, had a leading role in defining the requirements for the development of the processes. D’Appolonia developed the WASH&LOAD concept, together with TKT and IRIS-SW (Switzerland) replaced then by the Italian company IDP srl. University of Twente was responsible for the identification of the chemical agents able to functionalise the PPE. Federation Textile Care Netherlands (FTN) disseminated the project results and cared for trainings as well as IPR for the developed system. Deutscher Textilreinigungsverband (DTV) and VTI both from Germany had a leading role in building and spreading the project and the developed processes. Lavans and Varo srl performed a special role in the development of pilots and their validation. WSP Systems was responsible for the implementation of the textile identification system and the monitoring software. Texclubtec (Italy) with STFI (Germany) faced the standardization aspects.WASH&LOAD will have a relevant impact in the Textile care sector enabling the transformation of the laundry industry from a washing business, often based on low skills and routine management into a full provider of comprehensive product service systems based on a thorough understanding of the scientific and technical background.WASH&LOAD expected impact will be twofold. On one side, the project, supporting the introduction of a new business model in the laundry, PPE and functional clothing care sector by shifting the PPE and functional clothing paradigm and replacing the actual fixed life cycle approach with monitoring of functionalities and consequent re-functionalisation, will open new economic perspective for the thousands of SMEs of the laundry sector and rationalising the whole protective clothing value chain, from functionalisation, to care and final use. This will lead to a saving within the overall value chain, thanks to the prolonged life cycle of the PPE and their extended use, demanding for higher quality clothing manufactured in EU-27. On the other hand, the WASH&LOAD approach, by means of a tracing and monitoring tool through the whole PPE life cycle, will encourage the introduction of new standards and norms for PPE and functional clothing functionalities, ensuring a high level protection of workers with important impact on safety and efficient use of resources.Project Context and Objectives:The WASH&LOAD project aimed at introducing a new paradigm in the Textile Care sector by developing a refunctionalising process for PPE. Refunctionalisation is applying functionalities to protective clothing, after which the functional properties can be monitored and validated by the textile service company.The WASH&LOAD project goal was to scientifically characterize latest achievements in science and technology for the development of Guidelines and Pre-normative research aimed at supporting the more than 20,000 SMEs involved in the functional clothing value chain in implementing cost-effective practices for reloading protective functionalities in protective clothing and bed linen textiles during life cycle, going beyond scattered attempts so far.The current solution for the PPEs is a level of functionalisation that can last a predetermined number of washing cycles (e.g. 50). The PPE is supposed to be disposed after this number of cycles, independently on the real state of the equipment, although there are wide evidences that discrepancies between expected and real degradation may be substantial according to conditions of use. It may indeed be the case that protective functions have already declined before the number of standard washing cycles, because of excessive abrasion or other damages specific to end use. This drastically reduces the level of protection and furthermore exposes the employer to liabilities in case of accident or illness.The project aimed at a new product/process/service system where new functionalities are applied to protective clothing, after which they can be monitored and renewed during textile care. This process is called re-functionalizing. Because of the large diversity of functionalities in the PPE of different employees, it has been decided that the project would be aimed at three specific features: flame retardancy, soil repellency and antibacterial qualities. The new WASH&LOAD laundry system is based on a monitoring system controlling the concentration of chemicals in the bath during the re-functionalisation process ensuring that the correct level of functional agent is released on the textile; the re-functionalised garment is checked again after the process to assess the functionality level and validate the process. These elements provide the combination of a new product/process/service system, drastically extending the business model of the laundry business.The main objectives of the project have been the scientific characterization of the latest achievements in chemical agents able to provide the target functionalities, the development of an integrated in-process monitoring system and the adaptation of the laundry process to include refunctionalisation by privileging approaches that require the minimum modification to the existing laundry equipment in order to guarantee the economical feasibility of the proposed system. Moreover the project targeted the development of the pre-normative research tasks instrumental for the introduction of future standards as well as the implementation of a web based Service and Knowledge Transfer infrastructure. Specific objective of the project has been also to perform a detailed Life Cycle Cost Analysis enabling a sustainable business model, ensuring the large scale implementation of the new laundry process after the end of the project taking into account the needs of SMEs, keeping initial investments affordable and pursuing a short time payback by offering to customers a better performing service.Addressing these challenges was beyond the capability of a single SME and required a collective R&D effort lead by SME groupings and associations at European and national level. For this reason the WASH&LOAD consortium was composed by 14 partners including 5 SME Associations, 4 SMEs and 5 RTD Performers from 4 different European countries and it was led by the Italian engineering company D’Appolonia. CINET, in her position as international umbrella organization for the textile care and Technological Knowledge Center Textile Care (TKT), in the Netherlands, had a leading role in defining the requirements for the development of the processes. D’Appolonia developed the WASH&LOAD concept, together with TKT and IRIS-SW (Switzerland) replaced then by the Italian company IDP srl. University of Twente was responsible for the identification of the chemical agents able to functionalize the PPE. Federation Textile Care Netherlands (FTN) disseminated the project results and cared for trainings as well as IPR for the developed system. Deutscher Textilreinigungsverband (DTV) and VTI both from Germany had a leading role in building and spreading the project and the developed processes. Lavans and Varo srl performed a special role in the development of pilots and their validation. WSP Systems was responsible for the implementation of the textile identification system and the monitoring software. Texclubtec (Italy) with STFI (Germany) faced the standardization aspects.In a nutshell, the objectives of the project have been:• To addresses the common challenge of SMEs in the textile and PPE value chain to face environmental concerns and growing low quality imports, helping the 20,000 European enterprises belonging to this sector to keep their added value;• To introduce expertise and know-how on the latest scientific achievements for loading functionalities and traceability used in more RTD intensive sectors, as life sciences or electronics, thus reinforcing the technological basis of the textile service industry, through technology validation and transfer;• To provides a platform to make the technology developed in the project available and easy exploitable during the demonstration and dissemination phase;• To supports the introduction of cost-effective innovative technologies and processes which allow a reliable loading of functionalities during laundering, thus providing a scientific base for future norms and standards in this sector which could introduce a completely new business model with benefits and higher value for the end users.Project Results:At the end of the project, the target objectives of WASH&LOAD have been fully achieved. In the first period of the project, during the requirement phase, the work has been focused on an analysis of the trends in textile care service and PPE sectors, through the analysis of relevant patents and literature, as well as on the identification of routes/patterns for innovative approaches, enabling to focus the efforts towards the most promising and highest potential fields for the development of WASH&LOAD service.The opportunities for re-functionalisation technology of textiles and the most promising functionalities in relationship with targeted end-products of high interest for future competitiveness of the sector have been also identified by RTDs and SMEs. In this way, the fields promising the highest added value have been highlighted for following efforts concentration.An accurate preliminary analysis of the market for textile service and the PPE market as well as an analysis of the developments in these markets has been carried out by month 3 of the project. From these analyses it has been concluded that the functionalization of textiles in the PPE market, but also in the textile service market as a whole, will be of major importance in the future. Especially a trend to a market demand for multifunctional textile products of guaranteed level of functionality dedicated to the end-user was visible. Refunctionalisation as proposed in the WASH&LOAD process appeared since the beginning an excellent solution to meet with these demands, offering the textile service industry to become a full-service provider to its customers creating a larger added value. Furthermore, a detailed overview of the present-day laundry technology and process, including logistics and quality demands has been performed. Most quality systems are based on the concept of a validated process. Especially in the PPE-market, the use of international standards is very important, to guarantee the customer that the PPE-products meet with his demands. From the analysis of the scientific literature, it has been concluded that a large number of chemical and physical techniques were available for the functionalisation of textile materials. However, most literature was aimed at a more or less permanent functionalisation of textile materials instead of a refunctionalisation or reloading of textiles which is the main target of WASH&LOAD. The same can be concluded after having analyzed the patent databases. A number of suggestions for product opportunities has been defined for the three selected functionalities (antibacterial, soil repellancy and flame retardancy) as a starting point for the following research activities in the project.Special attention has been paid in the definition of requirements and specifications for the WASH&LOAD product-service system identifying strengths and weaknesses of the current approach and physical constraints. The objective of this work has been the adaptation of the laundry process to include re-functionalisation service, privileging approaches that require the minimum modification to the existing laundry equipment in order to make easier the exploitation of the WASH&LOAD results and convenient from an economic point of view. This phase oriented the research activities during the project which have been focused on: 1) The scientific characterization of the chemical agents able to provide the targeted functionality to the PPE: The functional agents for the 3 envisaged functionalities (antibacterial, soil repellancy and flame retardancy) have been selected and characterized. 2) The development of a monitoring system able to control the functional agent concentrations during the laundry process and to assess the functionality level assessment: a prototype of the monitoring system have been developed and implemented in industrial washing machines. 3) The overall reengineering of the laundry process.4) The definition of guidelines for the implementation of the refunctionalisation process in industrial laundries for the 3 selected functionalities.5) The development of the Knowledge based Platform as well as the of life cycle monitoring tool based on RFID technologies and able to monitor the overall process and the level of functionalisation on the PPE after the process.6) The validation of the overall concept in an industrial laundry during the demonstration activities.All these tasks have been successfully completed. More in details, at the end of the project, 9 chemical agents have been fully characterized at laboratory scale and a theoretical model able to enable the use of these chemical for the purpose of WASH&LOAD has been developed. As envisaged since the beginning of the project, three different pilot cases for the given functionalities (disinfection/antimicrobial, flame retardancy, water/soil repellence) have been realized during the RTD activities and after the selection of the two best cases out of three, the final validation in industrial setting has been carried out. As this part of the results of the project is confidential (as the detailed description of the design of the monitoring system as well as the operational procedures for the implementation of the process) the information provided in this context on these topics is limited. The owner of WASH&LOAD results are the SME Associations involved in the project. Through the private section of the web based Knowledge platform they will exploit commercially after the end of project the WASH&LOAD system by providing licences to the interested SMEs.Concerning the monitoring system, two different devices have been developed: -the first one had the scope to control the functional agent concentrations in the bath during the functionalisation process in the industrial washing machine.-the second one had to assess the level of functionality on the dried garments after the functionalisation process. A suitable model has been developed in order to correlate the chemical agent concentrations and the level of functionality. Moreover the monitoring system was fully integrated with the web life cycle monitoring tool based on RFID technologies developed for tracing\tracking of the garment. As a matter of fact, the web based life cycle software monitoring tool aims at monitoring the PPE along its lifecycle by tracing it and by gathering information about the functionalization process. The tool will allow also getting information on-line about the re-functionalisation process and the assessment of the functionality level.The web tool for life cycle monitoring comprehends the definition of the control interface and the data transfer process between the two devices of the monitoring system and the user-friendly software interface. When functionality drops below a warning threshold, the web tool will alert the user; this way the tool will help the SMEs in providing their customers with better service.The overall reengineering of the laundry process has been carried out according to the requirements fixed during the first phase of the project and the essential objective of privileging approaches requiring minimum modifications to the existing laundry equipment has been fully achieved guaranteeing in this way remarkable commercial perspectives for the WASH&LOAD results. A fundamental part of the work has been the development of the web Knowledge based platform and the Decision Support Tool (DST) as main means of exploitation for the SME Associations owners of the project results.The aim of the web based Knowledge Management Platform and the associated Decision Support Tool is to rationalize the knowledge developed in the frame of the project in order to support the users to exploit this knowledge. The Knowledge Management Platform to be owned by the participating industrial associations, containing information about the research developed in the frame of the project, costs, performance, applicability of the different technological options, thus supporting SMEs in the selection of the most appropriate methods for their products and their production, enabling a novel business model. The sections of the knowledge based platform are accessible from internet and will feature a continuously updated database of chemical products that can be used within the re-functionalisation system divided by function, application, suitable textiles etc. with the purpose (Decision Support Tool) of guiding the SMEs in choosing the most suitable functionalisation solution for each specific application. More in details, the purposes of Knowledge Management Platform are: -To organize the knowledge developed by the RTD performers in a structured approach and in a structured way-Informing the partners and the users about available information, amongst others intellectual property rights, standards and legislation. -Guiding SMEs from a demand oriented perspective in choosing most suitable functionalization method for each specific application.The table of contents of the knowledge based platform is provided below: (for confidentiality reason the information provided is limited).1) Section A: Process knowledge-Standard process -Modifications in process -Machines -Chemicals -ICT -Monitoring2) Section B: Functionalities covered by WASH&LOAD-Anti-microbial activity-Fire retardancy-Soil repellency 3) Section C: The products covered by WASH&LOAD-Products-Material knowledge-Product quality -Quality control4) Section D: Support life cycle stages:-Purchase (customer)-Advising (SME)-Leasing (customer, SME)-Servicing (customer, SME)5) Section E: Legislation, norms and standards-Legislation on chemicals, waste and waste water, soil, air-Norms and standards related to products/materials -Norms and standards related to functions6) Section F:-Knowledge database (index, reference guide, search machine)-Reference guides-List of guidelines and procedures for correct operation of the system7) Decision Support Tool (DST)The Decision Support Tool (DST) is a wizard user friendly software based on the guidelines for the implementation of the refunctionalisation process in industrial laundries for the 3 selected functionalities defined in the frame of the project and taking into account in the decision process also the business model outcomes. The DST includes in the analysis the 9 chemical agents investigated during the project and it can be extended as soon as additional functional agents to be used will be identified. During the project, an inventory of all relevant rules, standards and policies at national and international level in the PPE and textile care sectors has been carried out. Then the compliance to standards of all project results have been analysed and the activities aiming at the definition of the need of new standards have been completed by producing guidelines for the new process/product/service. As a matter of fact, WASH&LOAD is a novelty and therefore laundries implementing WASH&LOAD must validate their processes to make sure that antimicrobial and/or soil repellent (the two functionalities selected for the validation at the end of the project) but also all other functionalities reach the required levels and meet the requirements. It is expected that WASH&LOAD will improve in this respect the properties of garments. Refunctionalisation aspect is not taken into account in the current standards. However, the development of new standards or revising existing ones are long-lasting processes and private parties must have an interest in participating and funding these projects. Next to this, WASH&LOAD is a new, innovative concept yet to be introduced on the market. It is reasonable to expect that evaluations may lead to modifications of requirements. Therefore it has been proposed at the end of the project to set up guidelines for the WASH&LOAD system and properties so the suppliers and customers have insight in the requirements and the minimum level of performance. This approach can fill the lack of suitable standards for the functionalities and the WASH&LOAD system.Special attention during the last year of the project has been paid to the demonstration activities in order to fully validate the WASH&LOAD process/service/system. The task “full scale demonstration of the process” was devoted to the development of full scale demonstrator processes for two of the three target functionalities starting from the results of research activities carried out in the previous phase of the project. The functionalisation process has been validated by Lavans and VARO with the support of the SME-AGs and with the significant contributions from all the RTD partners, to fruitfully transfer the knowledge developed.The textile identification process operated fine without problems during all the demonstration activities. The integration of the monitoring system in the Lavans washing machine worked well.The measurements of the concentration of the chemicals on the fabric went well and the results appeared since the beginning to be well reproducible. The model to be used has been refined during the demonstration activities. All treatment data of the individual garment pieces were properly stored and connected to the treated pieces of garment. Furthermore, all information of the individual batches was also properly stored. Uploading of treatment and scanning data in the ICT-system went smoothly without any problems.In order to validate the overall WASH&LOAD refunctionalisation process and the quality control, a specific experimental procedure was prepared. The results related to the large amount of data acquired during the demo phase have been carefully analysed and in particular the effectiveness of the functionalisation process and of the quality control system have been confirmed by the final tests carried out in laboratory according to the selected reference standards for the antibacterial activity and for the soil/water repellency validating in this way the WASH&LOAD functionalisation processes/service for the selected functionalities.In order to protect the WASH&LOAD concept a special attention has been paid to the IPR issues before disseminating the project results. The dissemination activities have been performed at national and European level in particular through fairs, conferences, workshops, article, WASH&LOAD website and press releases allowing the raising of awareness about the WASH&LOAD project result impact. Special attention has been paid to the training activities targeting the SME-AGs as well as the end-users. The last phase of the project has been devoted to the definition of the business model based on specific business cases and to the Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) aiming at demonstrating the economical sustainability of the new process/service with respect to the traditional approach. In particular, the goal of the WASH&LOAD LCCA analysis was to perform a comparative LCCA (i.e. Life Cycle Cost Analysis) among the functionalised garment washed with State of the Art (SoA) process (i.e. existing solutions) versus the Innovative process/service (i.e. functionalization process) developed within WASH&LOAD project framework. The existing solution foresees the washing of an already functionalised garment in a washing machine (including the drying phase) up to 50 times and then it has to be disposed in landfill.In the functionalization process, instead, the garment to be re-functionalised is inserted into a system which is composed by a washing machine (including the drying phase) having embedded a device that allows to monitor the functionalization of the garment and a sensor (i.e. sensing device) for monitoring the level of functionality on the dried garment after the process. The garment can be treated up to 100 times if it is a white workwear, such as for the food sector, or 150 times if it is a colored workwear washed on 60 °C. In the performed LCCA analysis both cases have been considered.The results showed that the economical impacts of the innovative WASH&LOAD process are lower than those of the SoA process. In fact, even if the utilities and the investment costs are higher than in the SoA process, the functionalised garment cost significantly influences the SoA process final cost. The consequence is that the final cost associated with the SoA washing process is a higher value than those associated with the innovative WASH&LOAD washing process. Potential Impact:The final result of the WASH&LOAD project is a new concept of a product service system in which PPE is functionalised and monitored during the use life through concepts of renewing of functionalities in the care and maintenance process. The functionality and the process are adjustable to the context of use and to the profile of the user; monitoring can validate the effect of functionalisation and degradation. In order to achieve this objective and to allow the implementation of the new concept, the work carried out by the RTD performer provided to the SME associations involved in the project the following 4 results:1) Fully scientific characterization of chemical and functional agents 2) Monitoring System to control the functionalization process3) Reloading process & related guidance 4) Knowledge Management Platform and Life Cycle Monitoring Tool to be exploited by the SME Associations and enabling the selection of the most promising candidate solutions for a given functionality and end-use.WASH&LOAD will have a relevant impact in the Textile care sector enabling the transformation of the laundry industry from a washing business, often based on low skills and routine management into a full provider of comprehensive product service systems based on a thorough understanding of the scientific and technical background.WASH&LOAD expected impact will be twofold. On one side, the project, supporting the introduction of a new business model in the laundry, PPE and functional clothing care sector by shifting the PPE and functional clothing paradigm and replacing the actual fixed life cycle approach with monitoring of functionalities and consequent re-functionalisation, will open new economic perspective for the thousands of SMEs of the laundry sector and rationalising the whole protective clothing value chain, from functionalisation, to care and final use. This will lead to a saving within the overall value chain, thanks to the prolonged life cycle of the PPE of each garment and their extended use, demanding for higher quality clothing manufactured in EU-27. On the other hand, the WASH&LOAD approach, by means of a tracing and monitoring tool through the whole PPE life cycle, will encourage the introduction of new standards and norms for PPE and functional clothing functionalities, ensuring a high level protection of workers with important impact on safety and efficient use of resources.The societal impact of the project comprises both an enhancement in workers’ safety thanks to the validated re-functionalisation of workwear and possible benefits for the whole industrial chain from the higher competitiveness of European manufacturers and from the extension of the PPE and functional clothing value chain. The project aimed at a market of 140 million users of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Europe. Despite the Commission’s great efforts in workers’ health care and accident prevention, in Europe there are 4 million accidents on workplace every year, causing the death of 7,400 people. The main objective of the project was to increase protection for workers through an integrated product-process service system. The project focused on a number of business cases for which the technologies developed can be relevant: healthcare, catering and food industry workers (hygiene and skin protection); maintenance services and utilities (soil repellancy). Moreover the project could have relevant perspectives for work wears for chemical and manufacturing industries. These sectors combined represent 90% of PPE currently used covering almost 60% of workers in industry. From the point of view of social impact, it is important to underline that setting up an improved new standard for PPE production, as fostered by WASH&LOAD initiative, will help European PPE manufacturers in overcoming the competition from low labour cost countries, an issue of utmost importance considering that PPE exports are forecast to grow by 50% in the next few years. As far as the dissemination of WASH&LOAD is concerned, the goal of communication and dissemination activities performed within the project was to reach the widest impact on European textile care sector, as well as on operational activities to exploit innovative processes and services to improve European competitiveness.As such, an efficient overall communication strategy has been set up in order to realize the targeted impact.With this respect, the WASH&LOAD Consortium developed different contents and selected different information channels and events, formulated ad-hoc communication strategies targeting the different industries to be addressed, thus giving qualified answers to all different types of target audiences.Within this framework, the following criteria have been fulfilled:-Contents have been carefully selected and implemented in function of the target audience;-Information channels have been carefully selected in order to best perform in function of target audience and contents. Project partners have been the communicators with the aim to contact target groups. Each partner played a specific role in communication activities. As international umbrella association CINET prepared, organized and coordinated execution of the activities plan at an international and European level. At the same time the national associations (TexClubTec, VTI, DTV, FTN) communicated also, each for their own country, with their members markets. Partners directly involved in the R&D activities, have been invited and stimulated since the beginning of the project to communicate on – specific – subjects within their field of R&D. SMEs involved in the project have contributed to the publicity and promotion of WASH&LOAD project results as part of the overall Communication Plan. Target Groups considered essential in pursuing the objectives of the proposed actions during and also after the end of the project are:1) SME Members of the Associations owner of the project results:-They can exploit the public knowledge developed by the WASH&LOAD project (documents labelled as PU, any kind of dissemination event, trainings, Internet Knowledge Database and other eventual public Knowledge Platform features);2) Other European SMEs in the field of laundry and textile service industry. -In line with the overall aim of the project, that is also to make the whole European textile care sector aware of the importance of innovation and technological development in this field, they can be interested in the public activities created around the project and participate to public dissemination events like fairs, conferences and/or workshops;-They have also the possibility to contact participating SME Associations and ask for membership or other kind of agreements, in order to access the project contents dedicated to SME-AGs members.3) End users in market segments for textile services varying per country. -Project partners supported the possibilities of free publicity for SMEs by the use of press contacts from and mutual press releases with RTD within the framework of the overall Communication Plan which is organized, coordinated and supported by CINET. WASH&LOAD used a mix of communication tools and products. The basis of all communication is the website which offers specific project information to all project partners within a restricted area. The public area informs interested partners in all information authorised to be publicly published. The website functions also as a library in which all information and communication activities and tools can be found. CINET organised communication activities on an international level and SME-AGs on a national level. General activities and tools have been made available in English entrusting the national SME-AGs for translations (e.g. DTV translated the brochure in German language for its members). As already mentioned, the communication activities consisted of a mix of tools and products: E.g. for a workshop invitations, leaflets and editorials are usually developed and published to raise interest. Afterwards press releases are prepared and web publications are considered (prior to raise interest and afterwards to report).WASH&LOAD partners have been warmly invited to use these agreed publications for inserts using scientific-technical contents (agreed publication materials) form the website.This strengthens the position of the WASH&LOAD concept in front of textile care community paying in any case special attention to the confidential information.Moreover, publications on specialized technical journals allow disseminating the WASH&LOAD concept among the relevant communities of textile care end users.Fairs, exhibitions and international meetings are deemed to be another interesting channel for contacting and communication with the European Industry on the opportunities offered by WASH&LOAD. Moreover, these events offer an optimal framework towards networking with the final objective of identifying potentially interested users that may become themselves promoter of the WASH&LOAD contents in Europe.As such, all WASH&LOAD Partners have been warmly invited to represent the WASH&LOAD project at fairs and exhibitions by using agreed information from the website as well as no confidential information made available by the coordinator and the exploitation manager. A wide participation to the fairs has been guaranteed in particular by the SME Associations. One of the main objectives since the beginning of the project has been a strategy oriented to an easier identification for the public as well as a better visibility to be obtained for WASH&LOAD during the dissemination activities. In this viewpoint, WASH&LOAD consortium characterized all the internal and external actions of the project through a specific graphic design. A project logo was created at the beginning of the project in order to define a project identity, thus clearly identifying any kind of internal or public document such as deliverables, reports, internal communications, publications, and any other kind of document within the framework of the project. The project has been always identified during the first 3 years with its logo. The project logo has been used in particular in the following cases:-In all documents developed under the framework of the project and in particular in documents to be submitted to the EC such as deliverables, reports, minutes etc.;-In PowerPoint presentations used for communication and dissemination activities carried out by each participant under the framework of the project;-In the project websiteIn all the dissemination materials-In the Knowledge Management Platform developed in the frame of the projectIn the last three months of the project, once that the achievements of the technical targets have been successfully proved, CINET started to investigate about a restyling of the project logo in order to facilitate the real commercial exploitation after the end of the project. The official WASH&LOAD logo has been very useful during the project as it was suitable to illustrate at glance the project concept but once that the technical feasibility has been demonstrated and the validation of the results succeeded, a more business orientated logo (more focussed on the target groups) has been considered necessary. CINET launched the new logo the last month of the project before the final review meeting. A restyling of all the dissemination materials (website, brochures, leaflets etc) has been carried out according to the new logo. Within the framework of dissemination activities, it was realized a video clip illustrating the overall WASH&LOAD concept as well as the different phases of WASH&LOAD innovative laundry process/service/product during the demonstration activities carried out in the premises of SME Lavans. The video has been realized by CINET. The WASH&LOAD video clip is built up for showing the concept and the main phases of WASH&LOAD innovative laundry process/service as well as the target applications.Concerning the exploitation activities, at the end of the project the SME Associations defined an exploitation agreement in order to indicate the exploitation route of the project results. The content of the exploitation agreement are confidential. Only general information is provided in this context:The involved SME AGs (CINET, FTN, TexClubTec, VTI and DTV) are the owners of the key project results and foreground knowledge originated from the project; their SME members and the participating SMEs (LAVANS, FRANZ, WSP and VARO) as key contributors with their practical experience and needs are the pilot beneficiaries for the validation of the project results. Concerning the WASH&LOAD Market application, protection, health and safety for employees and customers are increasing important features of business in general and workwear specifically. The project WASH&LOAD is aimed as already mentioned before at a market of 140 million users of PPE in Europe, with a total market size of over 10 billion euro. The results will benefit about 20.000 small and medium sized European entrepreneurs working in the PPE chain. There is a huge spectrum of garments that protect against health and safety risks, but only a few protective solutions which are generated and controlled by laundries as part of their specific value creation. WASH&LOAD has worked out technology and business opportunities for industry (in general), food industry specific, hospitality and health & care, which serve as innovative solution and stimulate ongoing development of new services for the textile service industry. Increased market requirements for workwear, like comfort or protection, are becoming more important and result in the request of new functionalities. Performances, such as antimicrobial, breathable properties, soil repellent, waterproof and water resistant technologies etc. make the difference between traditional workwear and the new needs of the market.Besides the usual function of washing (to clean and remove stains), the WASH&LOAD system also includes the refunctionalisation of textile and the quality control and validation of the functionality. The WASH&LOAD project demonstrates the refunctionalisation system for two specific functionalities:• Soil repellent functionality• Antimicrobial functionalityIn the industrial environment, soil and stains can lead to risks or even accidents or injuries. Flammable soils, chemical spills or other soiling should therefore be repelled. Of upcoming importance in workwear is the comfort aspect. Repellency of water and oil protects the users against spill accidents and increases the level of comfort. Serving food and beverages often leads to spots and stains, which harm images of restaurants, bars and caterers, and which need washing. The lifetime of garments with soil repellency functions can be extended, because the number of washing cycles can be reduced. The soil repellent functionality is applied on the textile by the WASH&LOAD system. Soil repellency is a combination of water repellency and oil repellency. These functionalities are characterized by international standards related to the surface energy. The WASH&LOAD system consists of a quality control system based on measuring the amount of chemical agents present. The results are validated by the system using the characterization of the functionalities. This ensures the proper functionality to guarantee protection, health and safety.Antimicrobial functionality is important because it protects against cross contamination which is one of the most important health risks in hospitals, homes for the elderly, the food industry or even the hospitality sector. Antimicrobial function of workwear protects employees in hospitals and homes for the elderly, patients and inhabitants of the homes. Food processing is in many European countries under critical observation of consumers and governmental institutions. Hygiene is a key factor underlined by laws and industry standards such as the International Food Standard (IFS). Workwear is an important building block in the HACCP-concept of food processing companies. Up to now, antimicrobial functions of workwear in health & care, food industry or hospitality are negligible. The antimicrobial functionality is applied on the textile by the WASH&LOAD system. The antimicrobial activity is validated for applications in industry and healthcare. Test methods for antimicrobial activity are time consuming and costly. Therefore the WASH&LOAD system consists of a quality control system based on measuring the amount of the present functional chemical agents. The results are validated by the system using the characterization of the antimicrobial functionality. This ensures the proper functionality and guarantees protection, health and safety.WASH&LOAD will have a substantial effect on the PTC sector supporting the transformation of the laundry industry from a washing business into a provider of comprehensive product service systems. WASH&LOAD expected impact will be the introduction of a new business model in the laundry, PPE and functional clothing care sector. This will encourage the introduction of new standards and norms for PPE and functional clothing functionalities, ensuring a high level of protection of workers with important impact on safety and efficient use of resources.The societal impact of the project will comprise both an enhancement in workers’ safety thanks to the validated refunctionalisation of workwear as well as possible benefits for the whole industrial chain from the higher competitiveness of European manufacturers and from the extension of the PPE and functional clothing value chain.Finally, in the perspective of the commercial exploitation of WASH&LOAD, the general advantages of the system as well as the Market specific advantages are reported.General advantages of the WASH&LOAD System:• One system for different functionalities• Refunctionalisation• Validation and quality control of performance• Increase product lifetime (environmental friendly & cost reduction)Market specific advantages• Safety – guaranteed to meet standards to protect users• Hygiene – guaranteed to meet standards to ensure health and safety• Meeting certification and quality requirements• Representative look• Reduction cleaning costs / effort of laundering increasing lifetime of textilesList of Websites:http://www.washload.eu/Project Coordinator: Mr. Giannicola Lorigaemail: gianni.loriga@dappolonia.it Related documents final1-wash-and-load-consortium-logo-contact-details-video.pdf
