Cleaning process for high-visibility clothing

The Hohenstein Group, Boennigheim, Germany, is developing new processes for cleaning high-visibility clothing in order to maintain its value and functionality over time.

Employees in high-visibility situations like road or railway workers are protected by the clothing they wear. This clothing can become contaminated by, for example bitumen, tar or buffer grease. Current cleaning processes damage the material and diminish the garments’ effectiveness as elements like reflective stripes are compromised. The Hohenstein research is focused on washing processes that are designed to be gentle to the textiles, while removing persistent contaminations. Laundries will be able to use the results as basic principles and apply them to their individual work in practice.