Sweepers
Sweepers are floor cleaning machines used in many industrial, commercial and
public settings to provide safer work environments, professional work areas
and tidy public squares, sidewalks and streets. Industrial sweepers may be
used indoors or out on a variety of surfaces, including tile, carpet, concrete,
asphalt and cobbled stones. Some sweepers are designed specifically for street
sweeping and can collect large items such as bottle or cans, or they may also
be designed to accommodate the pickup of wet substances. Indoor sweepers and
scrubbers can vacuum, wash, buff or polish warehouse floors.
Industrial vacuum sweepers may be large street trucks with sweeping attachments,
they may be much smaller riding models for sidewalks, street gutters and large
warehouse floors, or they may be even smaller walk-behind models only for indoor
floor cleaning. Sources of power include electric batteries, gasoline, diesel,
LP and, in several European cities focusing on green technology, vegetable
oil powered engines. As the sweeper moves across a surface, several heavy-duty
cup brushes on the front and sides of the sweeper push debris into the center
of the sweeper. Once debris is trapped under the unit, brooms and suction fans
use throwing action to transfer dust into a hopper. After the hopper is full
of debris, it must be emptied. Emptying the hopper can be done manually in
smaller models, and larger models have mechanical arms which raise their dump
hopper high enough to clear the lid of a dumpster.
Types of sweepers range from long-distance street sweepers to hand-held motorized
indoor brooms, but all sweepers have one element in common: sweeping brushes.
Industrial brushes are used in all types of sweepers to sweep dirt and debris
towards the sweeper's vacuum. Different types of brushes are designed
for street sweeping, indoor sweeping, floor scrubbing, buffing and polishing,
all of which are done far more quickly and with far less labor cost when performed
with industrial sweepers than when performed by hand.