 | |
| Company type | Privately owned |
|---|---|
| Industry | Home automation |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founders | Gal Rozov |
| Headquarters | Silicon Valley, California, US |
| Products | Laundry folding robot |
| Website | https://foldimate.com |
FoldiMate was a California-based company developing a robotic laundry-folding machine founded in 2012. Their clothes folding machine was aimed to enter the market by the end of 2019. In 2021, the company ceased operating.[ citation needed ]
Foldimate was founded by Gal Rozov, an Israeli software engineer who decided that folding laundry was a tedious chore that could be done effectively by a robot. [1] In 2010, Rozov quit his job as a software developer and product manager and spent two years developing his laundry-folding device. In 2012, he moved to the United States to work with a robotic team in Silicon Valley. By 2013, he had a patented technology. In 2016, after an initial round of investment, he produced the first prototype. [2] The prototype presented at CES 2017 generated much interest. [3]
The company exhibited an updated prototype of Foldimate at CES 2018. [4]
In January 2018, BSH Hausgeräte expressed an interest in partnering with Foldimate. [5]
On August 30, 2021, the company sent an email to customers who submitted the $85 deposit informing them that the company has gone bankrupt and is requiring customers to submit a form to get the $85 deposit back.[ citation needed ] The email was titled "Cessation of Business - Deposit claim NOTICE" and began with the line "I hereby inform you that FoldiMate, inc. (“FOLDIMATE”) ceased its business operations". Customers were required to submit the form by February 1, 2022, with disbursements beginning after February 1, 2022. The customer was asked to supply the deposit amount and date. Payments were offered via PayPal or credit card.
The FoldiMate is slightly larger than a standard washing machine. According to the developers, it can fold a full wash in less than 4 minutes. [6]
The user clips the piece of clothing on two hooks and the item is pulled into the machine. Then a series of rollers and arms moves in all directions to straighten and fold it. [7] The machine can fold shirts, tops, trousers and dresses, but not small pieces of clothing like underwear or large items like sheets. [8] [9] The folded items are returned in a stack through a window at the bottom of the machine. [10]
Previous versions included anti-wrinkling technology and fragrance features, but the product was redesigned and simplified with the aim of readying it for the market by the end of 2019. [10] [11]
Laundry is the washing of clothing and other textiles, and, more broadly, their drying and ironing as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with this universal human need are of interest to several branches of scholarship.
A washing machine is a machine designed to launder clothing. Modern-day home appliances use electric power to automatically clean clothes. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning or ultrasonic cleaners. The user adds laundry detergent, which is sold in liquid, powder, or dehydrated sheet form, to the wash water.
Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a solvent other than water. Clothes are instead soaked in a water-free liquid solvent. Perchloroethylene is the most commonly used solvent, although alternative solvents such as hydrocarbons, and supercritical CO2 are also used.
Washing is a method of cleaning, usually with water and soap or detergent. Regularly washing and then rinsing both body and clothing is an essential part of good hygiene and health.
A clothes dryer is a powered household appliance that is used to remove moisture from a load of clothing, bedding and other textiles, usually after they are washed in the washing machine.
A laundry room or utility room is a room where clothes are washed, and sometimes also dried. In a modern home, laundry rooms are often equipped with an automatic washing machine and clothes dryer, and often a large basin, called a laundry tub, for hand-washing of delicate clothing articles such as sweaters, as well as an ironing board. Laundry rooms may also include storage cabinets, countertops for folding clothes, and, space permitting, a small sewing machine.
A clothes line, also spelled clothesline, also known as a washing line, is a device for hanging clothes on for the purpose of drying or airing out the articles. It is made of any type of rope, cord, or twine that has been stretched between two points, outdoors or indoors, above ground level. Clothing that has recently been washed is hung over the line to dry, held in place using clothes pegs or clothespins. Washing lines are attached either from a post or a wall, and are frequently located in back gardens, or on balconies. Longer washing lines often have props holding up the mid-section so the weight of the clothing does not pull the clothesline down to the ground.
Intermediate bulk containers are industrial-grade containers engineered for the mass handling, transport, and storage of liquids, semi-solids, pastes, or solids. The two main categories of IBC tanks are flexible IBCs and rigid IBCs. Many IBCs are reused or repurposed.
A laundry ball or washing ball is a product made of solid, insoluble material promoted as a substitute for laundry detergent. Producers of laundry balls often make pseudoscientific claims about their mechanisms of action and exaggerate the extent of their benefits.
A combo washer dryer is a combination in a single cabinet of a washing machine and a clothes dryer. It should not be confused with a "stackable" combination of a separate washing machine and a separate clothes dryer.
A self-service laundry, coin laundry, or coin wash, is a facility where clothes are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, and in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as laundromats. In Texas and other parts of the south central United States, the term washateria is still used by some older speakers. The first laundromat opened on April 18, 1934 in Fort Worth, Texas.
An online grocer is a supermarket or grocery store that allows ordering via websites or mobile apps. The order can either be collected by the customer or delivered to the customer by drivers engaged by the grocer, a food delivery service, or by delivery drones and robots.
Ironing is the use of an iron, usually heated, to remove wrinkles and unwanted creases from fabric. The heating is commonly done to a temperature of 180–220 °C (360–430 °F), depending on the fabric. Ironing works by loosening the bonds between the long-chain polymer molecules in the fibres of the material. While the molecules are hot, the fibres are straightened by the weight of the iron, and they hold their new shape as they cool. Some fabrics, such as cotton, require the addition of water to loosen the intermolecular bonds. Many modern fabrics are advertised as needing little or no ironing. Permanent press clothing was developed to reduce the ironing necessary by combining wrinkle-resistant polyester with cotton.
A domestic robot or homebot is a type of service robot, an autonomous robot that is primarily used for household chores, but may also be used for education, entertainment or therapy. While most domestic robots are simplistic, some are connected to Wi-Fi home networks or smart environments and are autonomous to a high degree. There were an estimated 16.3 million service robots in 2018.
Laundroid was a laundry-folding machine and home robot, used to automatically wash, dry, iron, sort and fold clothes to a dedicated closet. It was dubbed to be the world's first laundry folding robot, and was planned to go on sale in Japan first, and subsequently, in a limited number, in the United States. Release date was set to 2017, with pre-orders starting in March 2017.
A missing sock, lost sock, or odd sock is a single sock in a pair of socks known or perceived to be permanently or temporarily missing. Socks are usually perceived to be lost immediately before, during, or immediately after doing laundry.
A laundry-folding machine or laundry-folding robot is a machine or domestic robot which folds apparel such that they can be stored compactly and orderly.
Poplin is an American company which allows people to hire independent contractors to wash, dry, fold, and deliver laundry. SudShare was co-founded in 2018 by Mort and Nachshon Fertel in Baltimore, Maryland, and operates through a mobile app of the same name. The service is available in over 400 American cities.
Pressbox is an on-demand dry cleaning and laundry service company founded by Vijen Patel and Drew McKenna in 2013 and acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2018.