Gadget That Can Fold Your Laundry Perfectly with Robot Arms and Even Steam out Creases

A Robo-Helper – Automatically Folds Laundry

A San Francisco start-up has revealed a robo-helper which tends to automatically fold the laundry. Known as `Your laundry folding friend’ FoldiMate tends to use a conveyor belt, many robotic arms together with an adjustable tray that tends to push our skilfully folded clothing in less than a minute. FoldiMate had mentioned on its website that `FoldiMate is a robotic clothes and laundry folding machine and the only way it knows to fold, is like an expert’

It is 32 inches tall and 28 inches wide, weighing only 65 pounds and fits in most laundry rooms and can be moved about easily in different rooms FoldiMate Family, the home targeted robotic laundry folder, will quickly become `a must have’ in every household around the world.

The device is said to be designed to be placed on top of the washer, dryer or a strong table. The firm provides a wheeled table which can be moved where you can fold normally. One can just clip the laundered garment to the integrated rack placed on the outside of FoldiMate and using the available buttons, you can select what type of clothing it is, like a pair of pants or shirt.

FoldiMate Senses Fabric, Once Pulled in the Machine

FoldiMate tends to sense the fabric, size, thickness and if it is a long-sleeved or short sleeved and adjust according to those characteristics, once it is pulled inside the machine. Sensing the kind of garment and with a series of robot arms, it folds the garment into place. Besides taking over folding duties, the device also diminishes wrinkles with a built-in steamer.

It de-wrinkles the clothing by steaming them as they tend to exit the machine. It takes about 10 seconds to fold most of the items and an extra 20 to 30 to steam out the wrinkles from the garment. Towards the end of the process, the garments are released from the machine in a well-ordered pile. The rack tends to hold around 15 to 20 pieces at a time.

But there are some items which cannot be folded with the machine and it is unable to handle everything in the laundry basket such as undergarments, socks and towels. Though the concept is easy, FoldiMate has been developing the machine for years with the help of a team of experienced roboticists.

Developed Patented Robotic System to Fold Clothes

Since 2014, the machine had been available commercially though the firm has been working on a family friendly style that is likely to hit the market in 2017. Presently, on the site, FoldiMate is accepting pre-orders which are predicted to run around $700 to $850. Over 11,000 people have already registered on the company’s website.

However, the company is providing a 10% discount to those who tend to make a down payment of $10 or more for the unit. FoldiMate has explained that they had developed a patented robotic system to fold clothes which could decrease the size of the machine by one third or less while at the same time keep the target price which would be affordable to the consumers as well as business – less than one fifth of their direct competitors’ price.

FoldiMate seems to have competitorsin the laundry folding field and a group of Japanese companies had unveiled in October last year `The Laundroid’ that tends to wash, dry as well as fold clothes.