Care and Maintenance of Fabrics in Institutions: Class 12 Notes

This page pulls the essentials of Chapter 3 of the NCERT Class 12 Home Science textbook (Human Ecology and Family Sciences, Part II) into one revision resource.

You get the two aspects of fabric care, the equipment used for washing, drying and ironing, the way laundry services are organised from household to commercial to institutional levels, the hospital and hotel laundry systems, the stain-removal practical, and the career options in the field — all in the order a teacher would build them.

Use it as your revision map. Work through the two-aspects section first, then jump to the comparison tables, the worked examples and the key numbers sheet where you feel weak, and finish with the one-page recap. These notes follow the 2026-27 session. If you are studying other units of the subject, the Class 12 Home Science notes hub holds the full set.

Why Fabric Care Matters: The Two Aspects

Fabrics are chosen for a specific job — a curtain to insulate, a uniform to last the day, a mask to protect. Because the properties of the fabric are the reason it was selected, care must keep those characteristics intact for the expected life of the material (NCERT, p. 190). Good care also prolongs the product’s serviceability.

The book defines two aspects of care and maintenance (NCERT, p. 191):

1. Keeping the material free of physical damage, and rectifying any damage that occurred during use.
2. Retaining or refreshing the appearance — removing stains and dirt while keeping the fabric’s textural and visual qualities.

Laundry is both a science and an art. It is a science because it applies scientific principles and techniques; it is an art because producing aesthetically pleasing results calls for mastered skills (NCERT, p. 191). That one line explains why the chapter spends time on machines and on technique.

Care requirements are not the same for every fabric. They depend on the fibre content, type of yarn, fabric construction technique, the finishes applied, and the purpose of use (NCERT, p. 191). Commit these five to memory — they form the core of Review Question 2.

The chapter then moves in a clear order: care principles → equipment (washing, drying, ironing/pressing) → service levels (household, dhobi, commercial, institutional) → hospital and hotel systems → careers.

Key Terms and Definitions

These are the working terms of the chapter. Learn them before the equipment sections, because the machines and systems are described using them.

Washing Machines: Types, Operations and Wash Actions

The first choice in any washing machine is the loading type: in a top-loading model the garments are put in from the top, and in a front-loading model from the front side (NCERT, p. 191). Every later feature — the wash action, the extraction method — follows from these two designs.

Levels of automation

Machines are also graded by how much the operator does (NCERT, p. 192):

Six operations of an automatic washer

Every automatic washer performs the same six operations (NCERT, pp. 192–193):

1. Filling up water — the cycle starts by filling the tub.
2. Water-level control — set automatically or manually; important because load size changes the water needed.
3. Regulation of water temperature — a button, dial or panel lets you select the temperature, which may be the same for wash and rinse or different for the two.
4. Washing — the principle of all machines is to keep the fabric moving in the washing solution so the dirt is carried away.
5. Rinsing — an important phase; a poor rinse leaves clothes grey, dull and harsh-textured.
6. Water extraction — done after the wash phase and after each rinse phase.

The three wash actions

The wash action is how the machine moves the fabric in the water. There are three methods, and each is tied to a loading type (NCERT, pp. 192–193):

Memory device: top loaders Agitate and Pulsate; front loaders Tumble.

Agitators may be made of plastic, aluminium or bakelite, chosen so they are not affected by detergents, bleaches or softeners; agitation speed can also be varied according to the fabric (NCERT, p. 193).

Rinsing and water extraction

Rinsing is an important phase, not a formality. If the rinse is not thorough, the clothes come out grey, dull and harsh in texture (NCERT, p. 193).

Water is extracted after washing and after each rinse, in one of three ways (NCERT, p. 193):

• Spinning — at speeds above 300 rpm, centrifugal force throws water out, and it is pumped down the drain.
• Bottom-drain — the machine stops at the end of the wash phase and again at the end of the rinse phase, drains through the bottom, then spins to remove remaining water.
• Combination bottom-drain and spin — drains through the bottom while spinning, without stopping. This gives the best extraction because it removes both the heavy dirt settled at the bottom and the dirt in suspension.

Extraction depends on spin speed, which can vary from 333 to 1100 rpm. Spinning near dryness is avoided because it causes wrinkles that are hard to remove in ironing; the optimum speed is about 600–620 rpm (NCERT, p. 194).

Activity 1 in the book asks you to survey the washing machines available in the market and paste pictures of top-loading, front-loading and two-tub models into the boxes — an internal-assessment task that fixes the three machine types visually.

Drying Equipment and the Ironing or Pressing Finish

Drying in the open air is the household practice; commercial and institutional laundries use driers, which work on one of two circulation systems (NCERT, p. 194):

• Low-temperature air at high velocity: room air enters under the front panel, passes over the heat source, then through the clothes, and leaves through an exhaust. Because room air is drawn in and warm, moist air exits, the temperature and humidity of the room stay normal.
• High-temperature air circulated slowly: after passing over the heat source, the air is drawn by a small fan through perforations at the top of the drier, then downwards through the clothes and out through the exhaust. Since movement is slow, the relative humidity of the exhausted air is high.

After drying comes finishing. The book separates two operations that students often merge (NCERT, p. 194):

• Ironing — smoothening out wrinkles created by use or during washing.
• Pressing — putting creases into garments, such as sleeves, trouser legs and pleated skirts.

Most electric irons have an inbuilt thermostat that adjusts temperature to the fabric, and some produce steam while in use. Iron weights run from 1.5 to 3.5 kg; light irons are preferred at home, while heavier articles like curtains and bed covers may need heavier irons (NCERT, p. 194).

In India you can still see charcoal irons — a metal box with a lid, in which live coal pieces are placed for heating (NCERT, p. 194).

Beyond household level, care moves into professional services — the progression covered next.

From Household to Commercial Laundry: How Services Are Organised

Fabric care inside the family happens at three rising levels (NCERT, p. 195):

• Household laundry — clothing and small articles of daily use.
• Individual professionals (dhobis) — they collect material from households for washing and/or ironing and finishing, work from their homes, and wash at specially marked places called dhobighats. They serve households and institutions such as hostels, small hotels and restaurants.
• Commercial laundries or dry-cleaning shops — the customer deposits articles and collects them finished a few days later. Bigger laundries run several centres, and some provide transport of material to and from customers — especially for hostels, small hotels, restaurants and small hospitals or nursing homes.

How a commercial laundry is organised. Sections are arranged by job — washing, water extraction, drying, pressing and ironing (NCERT, p. 195). Beyond the basic line:

• A separate section for hospital and institutional work, and another for individual/personal work.
• Separate sections for dry-cleaning, for fibre-specific articles (woolens, silks, synthetics) and for special articles like blankets and carpets.
• Some laundries also offer dyeing and special finishes such as zari polishing.
• Most have units for inspection, sorting and pretreatments like mending, repairing and stain removal.

Equipment scale and records. Commercial machines handle 100 kg or more per cycle, against 5–10 kg in domestic machines (NCERT, pp. 195–196). The line-up includes separate dry-cleaning machines, hydro-extractors, driers, flat-bed ironing and pressing equipment, roller ironing and calendaring machines, folding and packaging tables, and trolleys to carry material between sections.

Records protect both customer and laundry: on receipt the articles are checked, any damage or special care requirement is recorded, and the customer is given an invoice for the kind and number of articles and the delivery date. Code tags matching the invoice identify the items of each customer (NCERT, p. 196).

Activity 2 in the book has you list the fabric articles at home and categorise them into those laundered at home, sent to a commercial laundry, or given to professionals.

Hospitals and Hotels: Two Approaches to Institutional Laundry

Large institutions with a constant flow of clean linen, working clothing or uniforms — hospitals, prisons, hotels — usually run their own in-house laundry departments, because organised collection, laundering and timely delivery is essential to their operation (NCERT, p. 196). The two institutions treated in the chapter are the hospital and the hotel, and they differ on almost every point.

Memory device: Hospitals hold Hygiene; hotels want Aesthetics.

The workload is larger on the hospital side. Big hotels may have up to 400–500 rooms, but larger hospitals care for 1,800–2,000 beds or more, and the quantum of bed linen handled by hospitals is much larger than that of hotels (NCERT, p. 197). Sheets in the Operation Theater, maternity ward and labour room may need five or more changes a day.

The minimum stock kept is six sets per bed, where one set is a bed sheet, a draw sheet and a pillow slip. Blankets are changed only when soiled.

Doctors’ dress is a different colour from patients’ and often of tericot; besides bed linen the hospital also launders patients’ gowns, kurta and pyjamas, doctors’ coats, gowns, kurta and pyjamas, and general items like table cloths and curtains (NCERT, p. 197).

The 10-Step Hospital Laundry Process

The book gives the hospital workflow as ten steps (NCERT, p. 197). Learn them as a sequence, each with its reason:

1. Collection — from Emergency, the main operation theatre (OT), OPD, various specialised centres, and wards.
2. Transport — the load is moved from the linen bank or directly from the hospital to the laundry plant.
3. Unloading and sorting — bed linen is split into clean, mildly soiled and very soiled; then patients’ dress, doctors’ dress and blankets are separated, because different soil levels and fabrics need different treatment.
4. Washing — done in large machines with a capacity of 100 kg per load.
5. Hydro-extraction — hydro-extractors work by centrifugal motion, which removes 60–70% of the moisture.
6. Drying — the load is readied for finishing.
7. Pressing, ironing, folding and stacking — the finishing line that prepares linen for use.
8. Mending and segregation — damaged articles are repaired; condemned articles are set aside.
9. Packing — clean, processed linen is made ready for delivery.
10. Distribution — linen is sent back to the departments that requested it.

Recording Linen: The Washable Linen Receipt

Like commercial laundries, hospitals keep a record system for the collection and disbursement of material to each department. The book’s example is the Receipt for Washable Linen (NCERT, p. 198). Its columns are serial number, name of the clothing, number and remarks.

The items covered include bed sheets and draw sheets (in the book’s specimen, draw sheets come in white and green), patients’ and doctors’ kurta and pajama, doctors’ gowns, towels (split and hand), face masks, baby frocks, blankets (big and baby), pillow covers, slings, aprons and dirty linen bags.

You do not need to reproduce all nineteen rows of the specimen — what matters is to say what the form does: it logs what every department hands over and gets back, so lost or over-consumed linen can be traced.

Careers and Business Scope in Fabric Care

Preparing for the field

Care and maintenance of fabrics is a technical field. The book lists four kinds of knowledge a candidate needs (NCERT, pp. 198–199):

• Knowledge of the material — fibre content, yarn and fabric production technique, and the colour and finishes applied, in terms of the care they require.
• Knowledge of the processes involved in laundry and finishing.
• Knowledge of the chemicals and other reagents used and their effect on the fabric.
• Working knowledge of the machinery and its functioning.

Courses, jobs and qualifications

Laundry Management courses are short-term programmes. The book lists what they typically offer: coaching, job-placement assistance, assistance to start a business, and practical training with a stipend in hi-tech laundries; job openings are in airways, ships, railways, hotels and hi-tech hospitals (NCERT, p. 199). Because every setup has different equipment and requirements, a practical training or internship is essential.

Qualifications in Textile Science, Textile Chemistry or Fabric and Apparel are extremely useful, and several Home Science institutions offer them as specialisations in the graduate degree (NCERT, p. 199).

Scope

Two paths are open. On the entrepreneurial side, specialists in Textiles and Clothing or Fabric and Apparel can set up services that end users need, especially in metropolitan areas where women work outside the home; nursing homes, small hospitals and day-care centres need such services regularly.

On the employment side, one can work in the hi-tech in-house laundries of railways, airways, shipping lines, hotels and hospitals (NCERT, p. 199). If the business side of textiles interests you, the merchandising companion chapter is a natural follow-up — see the Class 12 notes on Fashion Design and Merchandising.

Stain Removal: Reading the Practical Table Like a Pro

The practical opens with a usable definition: a stain is an unwanted mark or colouration on a fabric caused by contact and absorption of foreign matter, and it needs special treatment before the actual washing process (NCERT, p. 201).

The first step is always to identify the stain — the right procedure cannot be chosen until you know what you are dealing with.

The control-sample method. Take two samples of each stain on a white cotton cloth of 4 ft by 4 ft. Treat one sample and keep the other as a control; after the practical, stick both the treated and the control samples in your file (NCERT, pp. 201, 203). The untouched control is the proof that the treatment — not the fabric itself — removed the mark.

Where the full table lives. The chapter prints the stain-removal table in full and also directs you to Chapter 17 of the Class XI textbook — see the Class 11 Home Science notes for that fabric-care chapter (NCERT, p. 201).

How the table is read. It is organised as a grid with three fibre columns and two condition rows:

1. Identify the stain — blood, ball pen ink, curry, grease, ink, lipstick, tea or coffee.
2. Choose the fibre column — cotton and linen; silk and wool; or synthetics.
3. Choose fresh or old — the treatment changes completely between the two rows, then apply what the cell says.

Here are the treatments worth memorising from the grid (NCERT, pp. 201–202):

Three rules tie the whole table together. First, fibre matters — silk and wool take gentler treatment, and the boiling-water shortcuts prescribed for cotton and linen do not appear in the silk-wool column. Second, fresh versus old changes the method — an old stain generally needs steeping or a stronger reagent, not a quick pour.

Third, the control sample proves the treatment worked — it is your comparison against the untouched stain.

Worked Examples: Linen Stock and Stain Decisions

The chapter has no equations, but its norms behave like formulas: a hospital must keep a minimum of six sets of linen per bed, with one set equal to a bed sheet, a draw sheet and a pillow slip (NCERT, p. 197). Here is how to apply that norm in a calculation-style answer.

Example 1: Minimum linen stock for a 250-bed hospital

Example 2: A 120-room hotel (same norm, clearly labelled as an application)

Example 3: One fresh tea stain, two different fibres

Common Mistakes Students Make — and the Fix

These are the confusions that weaken writing-based answers. Each pair shows the wrong claim, the correct rule, and a way to check yourself.

Key Numbers to Remember: This Chapter’s Revision Sheet

The chapter has no formulas, but these figures behave like formulas in answers — a complete answer carries the number and what it refers to.

How to Answer the Textbook Review Questions

If you need the exact wording of any section while revising, the official NCERT PDF of this chapter (lehe203.pdf) on ncert.nic.in carries the original text, tables and page references. For each review question, a complete answer needs the structure below.

Q1. “What are the two aspects of care and maintenance of fabrics?”

State both aspects and attach one concrete example to each: (1) keeping the material free of physical damage and rectifying damage that occurs during use — for instance, a fabric damaged in wear is mended; (2) retaining or refreshing the appearance by removing stains and dirt and keeping textural and visual qualities — a stained garment is washed so it looks clean and crisp again (NCERT, pp. 190–191).

Q2. “What are the factors which affect the process of cleaning of fabrics?”

Split the answer in two. Fabric-related factors first: fibre content, type of yarn, fabric construction technique, finishes, and purpose of use (NCERT, p. 191). Then the process-related list the chapter gives beside them: the role of water, suitability of soaps and detergents, methods of washing, finishing treatments, ironing and hot pressing, and folding (NCERT, p. 191).

A complete answer names both sets because cleaning depends on what the fabric is and on how it is processed.

Q3. “How are the different sections organised in a commercial or institutional laundry?”

Answer in process order: receiving, inspection and sorting (with pretreatments such as mending, repairing and stain removal), washing, water extraction, drying, pressing and ironing (NCERT, pp. 195–196). Then add the special sections — dry-cleaning, fibre-specific articles (woolens, silks, synthetics), special articles (blankets, carpets), and dyeing and zari polishing where offered.

Close with the record system: articles checked on receipt, invoice for kind and number of articles, and code tags matching the invoice (NCERT, p. 196).

Q4. “What are the differences in processing laundry work in commercial laundries and hospital laundries?”

Answer point by point, using the same rows as the hospital-vs-hotel comparison: priority (commercial = finished article and final finish; hospital = hygiene, cleanliness, disinfection), fibre variety, starching and whitening (present in commercial work, absent in hospital), perfection of pressing and folding, and the hospital’s extra practices such as burning disposables and segregating condemned articles (NCERT, pp. 195–196, 197).

Use the chapter’s own terms — hydro-extraction, calendaring, disinfection — wherever they apply.

Revision Recap: The Chapter in One Page

If you have five minutes, run the chain below.

Two golden distinctions to lock in: ironing (smoothens) vs pressing (sets creases), and hospital (hygiene, no starching) vs hotel (perfect finish). For the rest of the subject, browse the Class 12 notes and the main CBSE notes library.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between agitation, pulsation and tumbling in washing machines?

Agitation and pulsation are the two wash actions of top-loading machines; tumbling belongs to front loaders.

An agitator’s blades rotate or oscillate and create a current that forces water into the fabric; a vertical pulsator makes very rapid vertical movements; in tumbling, a horizontal perforated cylinder carries the clothes to the top and drops them through the wash water — so in tumbling the clothes move through the water, not the water through the clothes (NCERT, p. 193).

Why is rinsing an important phase in the wash cycle?

Because a poor rinse leaves clothes grey, dull and harsh-textured. Rinsing clears the soiled wash solution and suspended dirt after the wash phase, and the chapter explicitly calls it an important phase, not a minor step (NCERT, p. 193).

How is hospital laundry different from hotel laundry?

Hospital laundry puts hygiene, cleanliness and disinfection first, works mostly with cotton, skips starching and whitening, and does not demand perfect ironing. Hotel laundry puts aesthetics and final finish first, handles varied fibre contents, and emphasises starching, ironing, pressing and correct, perfect folding — plus guests’ personal laundry (NCERT, p. 196).

What is a hydro-extractor and what does it do?

A hydro-extractor is a machine that works by centrifugal motion and removes 60–70% of the moisture from a washed load (NCERT, p. 197). In the hospital process it sits between washing and drying as step 5, and in commercial laundries it is standard equipment alongside driers and pressing machines.

How do you remove a fresh blood stain from a cotton cloth?

Soak the stained cloth in cold water, then wash it in dilute ammonia (NCERT, p. 201). For silk and wool the table prescribes sponging with cold water, and for synthetics washing in cold water — so the fibre column still decides the exact method.

What career options does the care and maintenance of fabrics field offer?

Airways, ships, railways, hotels and hi-tech hospitals all employ laundry professionals (NCERT, p. 199). Short-term Laundry Management courses offer coaching, placement assistance, business-start-up help and stipend-paid practical training. Qualified specialists can also start their own services for nursing homes, small hospitals and day-care centres, especially in metropolitan areas (NCERT, p. 199).

Reference: NCERT Class 12 Human Ecology and Family Sciences (Part II) textbook, chapter “Care and Maintenance of Fabrics in Institutions”.