Brooms
Brooms are bristled, long-handled cleaning brushes used for the collection and disposal of dust and debris in places of business, homes ,and public spaces. Brooms are the most limited of all brush varieties in terms of their use on an industrial scale. Every broom variety must be operated manually, which constrains their use to light duty cleaning applications. Within that context, though, brooms are effective and have enjoyed prominent roles as cleaning tools in homes and businesses since antiquity.
Quick links to Brooms Information
Applications of Brooms
Workshops, stores, restaurants, stadiums, and offices are just a few places where brooms can be found in use everyday because of the heavy amounts of dust, trash, and debris created in these places.
Broom Design and Accessories
Brooms come in many different styles and sizes, though their concept is very simple. Most have a long handle made out of plastic, wood, or metal and have bristles attached parallel to the handle. There are a variety of bristles to select from on today’s market, including nylon, polypropylene, tampico, bassine fiber, natural corn fibers, straw, and poly-vinyl. A broom should be selected based on the type of application and task it must complete. Indoor, outdoor, large, small, continuous use, or not, there is a perfect broom for the job.
Traditionally, brooms were made of stiff, fibrous organic materials, which ranged from dried grass to sorghum and were tied to a handle. In many developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, such broom compositions are still common. In more developed markets, brooms may be composed of organic bristles, but they are efficiently assembled and woven together in factories. Other broom varieties can feature synthetic bristles, many varieties of which are made of Nylon, PVC, or tampico. Each variety features different qualities of stiffness, durability, and liquid absorbency. Softer fibers, for example, would be more useful as push broom bristles in an auto repair shop because they are better able to absorb oil or fuel spills in small quantities than are less absorbent, rigid bristle materials.
Dustpans usually accompany a broom and can be handheld or have a longer handle to collect items easily without bending over. These can be seen in use greatly by attendants at movie theaters, stadiums, festivals, and other places that need to constantly be kept clean. A whisk is commonly used in conjunction with a dustpan to clean up a dirt pile from a push broom as the broom is too big to effectively sweep the dirt inside of the dustpan.
Notable Types of Brooms
Brooms can be assembled in a few configurations. The most common variety is the traditional sweep broom. A sweep broom is a collection of bristles connected directly to a handle. The bristles can simply be tied around the handle, as is the case with besom brooms, or they can be tied around the handle and fanned out into a flat shape by weaving them. These brooms are swept back and forth manually and are a good tool for sweeping small areas. However, these two broom varieties are not the most ergonomic and can cause neck and back discomfort after sustained use.
Push brooms all but eliminate this problem and allow for the effective sweeping of much larger areas. Push brooms differ from traditional sweeping brooms in that their bristles are connected to a strip or block-shaped mounting surface. The mounting surface can be connected to the handle by fasteners, or it can feature a threaded inlet into which a threaded handle can be screwed. Push brooms can be up to several feet in width, which allows their users to sweep large areas in a relatively short time. A push broom has a long rectangular head usually ranging from 24" to 60" and a long handle for easy use. Places such as a workshop or store most commonly use this type of broom because of their large square footage. Typical household brooms have a long handle with about six inches of bristles along the bottom. The bristles can be found cut straight across or at an angle.