INDUSTRY NEWS
Regenerative Air Sweepers
Generally, regenerative air systems
are considered more environmentally
friendly than are vacuum or mechanical
broom sweepers. There are several rea-
sons why.
Regenerative air sweepers employ a
closed loop, ‘cyclonic effect’, to clean.
They re-circulate (regenerate) their air
supply internally. To accomplish this,
the re-circulating air is blasted into the
sweeping head on the side opposite the
pickup, or inlet, tube.
Essentially, the air ‘blasts’ down onto
the pavement on one side of the head,
travels across the width of the head
(gathering debris with it as it goes),
and then travels up the pickup hose on
the other side with the debris. It swirls
the air, so it retains the collected debris
within the airstream as it moves from
the blast to the intake side of the head.
Like any other sweeper type, regener-
ative air machines can be equipped with
gutter brooms to brush material accu-
mulated against the curb into the path
of the sweeper.
Because of the way they operate, re-
generative air sweepers are recognized
as providing a more thorough clean-
ing action because they ‘air-blast’ the
pavement across the entire width of the
sweeping surface. The amount of ex-
hausted, pollutant-laden air is typically
much less than with a vacuum sweeper.
Because of this, and the fact that regen-
erative-based machines also tend to pick
up the small micron particles across
the entire sweeping head, regenerative
air sweepers are usually a better choice
where either air quality or storm water
runoff pollution are concerns.
The blast-and-pickup cycle also makes
these machines more capable at picking
up heavy debris, since the blast is more
able to dislodge heavier materials and
get them into the airflow.
Today’s air machines, which include
regenerative air and vacuum sweepers,
are able to supplant mechanical broom
sweepers for most applications.
Regenerative air sweepers are more
This is a great entry level sweeper as this compa-
ny already owned this truck and they sent it to
Masco to mount a new 1600.
suitable for most everyday sweeping
needs, and also cost significantly less
to maintain. Generally considered the
best all around, multi-purpose sweeper
because it can clean a wide range of de-
bris in a large variety of situations. Its
air system makes them better for leaves
than mechanical broom sweepers, and
larger intake hoses makes them better
than vacuum sweepers for leaves. With
fewer moving and wear parts than me-
chanical sweepers they can be used to
clean catch basins by adding hand hose.
“I hear frequently that many con-
tracts are only won if you take on the
sweeping portion of the project,” Dyck
said. “It seems like sweeping can some-
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