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PowerClean Equipment Application Guide

Application Guide & Benefits of Cleaning

Having a committed housekeeping program brings many benefits to your company including:

  • Company image provides a good impression to visitors and prospective customers
  • Cross contamination in the plant is reduced and offices are kept cleaner
  • Employee morale increases
  • Absenteeism is reduced through cleaner, healthier work environment
  • Employees buy in on company safety programs, operational organization and cleanliness
  • Lighting increase of up to 30% improves facility appearance & productivity
  • Productivity and throughput increased
  • Pick order errors decrease
  • Organized work areas
  • Inventory loss reduction
  • Accidents may be reduced and workers compensation savings realized
  • Air Quality improvement
  • Quality Control improvements
  • Insurance ratings improvement
  • Plant maintenance costs reductions
  • Material handling fleet uptime increased
  • Material handling fleet maintenance costs reduced

Level of cleanliness desired:

  • Sweepers best use is to pick up volumes of debris in a dry environment. They will capture about 90% of floor surface dust. Sweepers are 2-3 times faster than scrubbing and cost less to operate. They do not typically leave a high shine on the floor.
  • Scrubbers best use is to completely remove all dust, oils & debris from the floor. Scrubbers will restore the shine of a high gloss coated floor or the natural luster of an untreated floor. Just scrubbing a floor alone can increase your effective lighting by 10-30%
  • Understand that there are times when more than 1 machine is necessary to accomplish your desired end goal so keep an open mind.

Click any of the links below to learn more:

It is because of these many variables we highly recommend both our onsite survey & professional assessment of your methods AND an equipment demonstration by one of our professionals. There is no cost or obligation for this service!!

Request a Free Site Survey & Professional Assessment

  • 513-202-0001
  • 1-800-710-2987
  • 513-202-1444
  • 5945 Dry Fork Road • Cleves, Ohio 45002

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Types of Sweepers

  • There are 2 kinds of machines classified as sweepers. The 1st type relies on high volume of vacuum airflow only, with no brushing, to accomplish the debris pickup. The debris is collected in a canvas type bag. These units work for bulky litter (i.e. fast food parking lots or paper debris in a plant) but have no dust control system and tend to create a lot of airborne dust when operating. We do not recommend them for indoor applications that have any kind of dust present. They are typically less expensive than a broom type sweeper.
  • The 2nd type of sweeper (and more common) utilizes both a broom to aggressively sweep all types of debris and possess a dust containment system to trap airborne dust generated by the machine. This is the best performing and most effective type of sweeper.
  • Productivity of hand sweeping with a push broom is about 750-1,000 sq ft per hour and there is no dust control. Walk behind sweepers productivity is about 500 sq ft per inch of width per hour (i.e. 20” machine = 10,000 sq ft per hour). Battery ride on sweepers productivity is about 750 sq ft per inch of sweep width per hour (i.e. 20” rider machine = 15,000 sq ft per hour). Large battery or engine powered units approach 1,200 sq ft per inch of sweep width per hour (i.e. 40” = 48,000 sq ft per hour). Power sweepers trap and control dust, which hand sweeping does not. With ride on types there are smaller sizes with debris hoppers you manually empty and keep maneuverability and acquisition costs low. Mid and large size sweepers come with automatic dumping debris hoppers that are controlled from the operator’s seat and raise to empty directly into trash containers. These require larger aisles to operate in and can have significantly higher acquisition cost but can handle large amounts of debris and be 40+ times faster than hand sweeping
  • High performing, effective dust control systems are imperative to achieve your goals and PowerClean Equipment only offers sweepers that meets this criteria.

Types of Scrubbers

  • Hand mopping maximum productivity is about 1,000 sq ft per hour. Walk behind scrubbers productivity is about 500 sq ft per inch of scrub width per hour (i.e. 20” machine = 10,000 sq ft per hour). Battery ride on scrubbers productivity is about 750 sq ft per inch of scrub width per hour (i.e. 20” rider machine = 15,000 sq ft per hour). Large battery or engine powered units approach 1,000 sq ft per inch of scrub width per hour (i.e. 40” = 40,000 sq ft per hour).
  • Traditional disc type scrub brush scrubbers have the lowest maintenance and acquisition costs. They do not possess any sweeping capabilities and do require presweeping to achieve successful operation and results.
  • Scrubbers with integrated cylindrical type scrub brushes use the scrub brushes to provide wet sweeping as it scrubs to control dust but have limited debris pickup capabilities. They cannot be used as a dry sweeper only. In light debris applications they can most times minimize or eliminate the need for presweeping. Their operational cost will be higher than a disc type but lower than full size combination machines with separate sweep and scrub systems.
  • Orbital or oscillating type scrubbers use replaceable rectangular pads that can be used to scrub or strip finishes from floors (without chemicals) and are more prevalent in facilities with waxed or finished floors.
  • As you increase in size the scrubbers are equipped with larger water tanks and battery packs for increased scrubbing time between refills and longer runtimes before recharging, and typically with larger, more powerful scrubbing and vacuum motors for maximum performance and results.

Sweeper Scrubber large
combination machines

  • Full size combination machines are larger and have the capabilities to run as a sweeper only, as a scrubber only, as a water recovery only or all together at one time. These machines are designed for larger facilities, typically requiring at least 5-6’ aisles to operate in and 10’ aisles to U-turn. With their powerful sweeping and effective dust control many companies find they can sweep 3-4 days and scrub 1 day thereby saving labor hours and operational costs per use. They can also be used to periodically sweep +/or scrub outside dock areas further increasing the versatility and return on investment.

Size of areas to clean

  • Scrubbing small spaces like break or locker rooms, around production area cells or machinery the smallest 13-17” scrubbers are ideal. Several work in forward and reverse for tight to wall scrubbing and excellent results. Once in open areas they become limited by the water tank capacities and battery run time. These are also great complements to facilities owning larger equipment as a way to clean areas the big machines can’t reach.
  • Scrubbing facilities under 25,000 sq ft, the 20-26” units are ideal. They have the tank/sweep hopper/battery capacities for higher production rates and run times to match. Typically these units clean more aggressively if needed and are great complements to the larger machines as well.
  • Sweeping facilities under 25,000 sq ft the 28”-41” walk behinds are most common, though if the aisle areas are open the 46” rider units with the manual empty hoppers work very well.
  • Scrubbing facilities 15-40,000 sq ft, the 26”-38” walk behind units and the smaller 22”-36” riders are ideal. A little more debris is typical in these applications and the considerations of sweeping needs becomes more prevalent. Machines in this category, using the cylindrical sweeping scrub systems are most common and offer stronger performance, larger capacities and more run time enabling you to clean more areas quicker. For some applications a separate sweeper and scrubber are appropriate.
  • Sweeping facilities over 25,000 sq ft can be a rider application and over 50,000+ the larger self dumping hopper type sweepers become more common, depending on the amount of debris to be swept in the application.
  • Facilities over 40,000 sq ft open up the applicability of almost all machines and will vary depending on the desired end result, budget, the time available to spend cleaning (man hours), the total square footage of cleanable area, sweeping needs, facility congestion and aisle widths among other considerations. While many times large combination machines are used, battery rider units in the 34-46” widths and tank capacities in the 35-100 gallon range are the most common.