Panasonic’s Sustainable Maintainer is located behind reflective glass at the company’s booth at IFA 2017.
Ashlee Clark Thompson/CNET
A concept machine from Panasonic makes a big promise to complete every step of laundry — from sorting to folding and everything in between.
Panasonic displayed the appliance, called the Sustainable Maintainer, at the IFA 2017 trade show in Berlin. Here’s how it worked during a demonstration:
- You place clothes inside the machine.
- Grabbers lift each garment, and the machine scans it in search of stains and product care information.
- The machine lays the garment flat and sends it across a conveyor belt. The machine finds the previously identified stains and washes only those.
- The machine sucks the clothing dry, then grabs the garment and folds it.
The Sustainable Maintainer is just a concept, so it’s not clear whether it will ever make its way into stores. But it shows that Panasonic, like many other companies at IFA 2017, has a growing concern for clothing care.
Find out what else is happening at IFA 2017.
