The Lapauw Hinged Chest

Lapauw has seen a steady increase in orders for steam-heated ironers in recent years.
Steam boilers and systems are becoming more efficient, making operations with steam-heated ironers more energy-efficient as well. These ironers also offer numerous advantages, one of the most important being ease of maintenance.

However, steam heating is not compatible with thin, flexible chests. High steam pressures exert strong forces on thin chests, which can lead to cracks and deformation.

That’s where Lapauw comes in. Lapauw is one of the very few manufacturers that still produces chests in-house. Moreover, it is the only manufacturer with a dedicated chest design for both gas heating and steam heating.

The Lapauw steam chest consists of two thick chest halves joined with a hinge:

• Strength and durability: The thickness of the chest halves provides the necessary robustness to withstand high steam pressures of 8–15 bar without bending or leaking.
• Flexible ironing path: The hinge offers the same advantage as a flexible ironing plate—an ironing path just as long as with a thin, flexible plate.
• Efficient heat transfer: Made from carbon steel, the chest ensures optimal heat transfer and a uniform temperature across the entire ironing surface.

Like the thin, flexible chest in Lapauw’s gas ironers, the steam ironer is also equipped with parallel steam circuits to ensure maximum efficiency.

Naturally, the gas ironer with its thin, flexible chest remains an important part of the Lapauw range, as does the electrically heated ironer. The heat exchanger of the electric ironer has exactly the same shape and dimensions as the gas-heated version, allowing a gas-heated ironer to be easily converted into an electric model—and vice versa—even on-site in the laundry.