Street Cleaning remains high on the agenda
Across the UK it is clear that street cleaning ranks highly with the public. Regular customer surveys confirm this as authorities compete against each other to raise standards and improve customer satisfaction. The fact is the public care how clean their streets, car parks and public areas are.
In addition to pure aesthetics there is the important issue of health and safety. Car chemicals, road salt, debris and street sediment all have the potential to pollute our waterways and block storm drains. Street and walkway sweeping also makes surfaces less slippery in light rains and reduces the risk of slips and trips.
Certainly a far cry from the ‘old’ days but with budgets tightened how do authorities and their contractors improve services and standards with fewer personnel?
Equipment choice, efficiency and productivity are critical. World leading manufacturers such as the Nilfisk Group have focused product development, honing in on the many faceted and detailed elements of the application. The result – a full menu choice for the discerning client looking to improve standards and reduce costs.
Products like the diesel powered RS502 vacuumated sweeper which copes well with litter, even picking up full coke cans and bricks. The pressure washer facility on board can be used to clean bin areas and remove chewing gum and graffiti from hard surfaces.
With a sweeping width of 1600mm the RS502 operates up to 15cm high kerbs onto pavements and manoeuvres easily around shelters. The machine is fitted with a powerful 40.8HP 4 Cylinder engine and has an impressive climbing ability of 22%.
Contaminated hard surface areas including precincts and walkways however often call for the deep cleaning ability of a pressure washer.
The Cyclone 4500 from Nilfisk is a diesel driven truck combining high water pressure performance with the ease of use of the Scrubber Dryer. Cleaning at 4000 psi with water heated to 71 degrees C it is easy to see why it does the job of 8 men.
All water utilised is recovered and reused after being filtered down to 30 micron in stainless steel filters.
The Cyclone is also proving very successful on synthetic sports surfaces such as hockey pitches and athletic tracks.
The machine features a hand wand that can be operated from the cab and a kerb cleaning facility. An impressive product demonstration can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duiAZIs1_Fs
Graffiti and chewing gum removal is a constant battle that can only be addressed by first class products. Nilfisk-ALTO recommends the hot water Neptune 7-72DE; combined high pressure and high flow rate makes the machine extremely effective in removing offending gum and graffiti. The compact diesel driven design features a 57 litre fuel tank and can be truck mounted for ease of transport. The Neptune has even been known to clean down the road sweepers when they come in at the end of a long day.
Domenico Coppa, Nilfisk Group Product Manager commented on the on-going street cleaning development within the Group: “if we look to the future, the biggest change in the European market is the multi-functional use of sweepers; sweeping, washing, scrubbing, grounds and winter maintenance. A true multi function machine would reduce purchasing volume and fleet sizes. The client would enjoy a large range of benefits including lower financial investment, reduced spare parts and operator and technician training. The year round unit would be transformed via fast hydraulic connections; from road sweeper to grass cutter in minutes. There would however be a trade off from a product development point of view. Meeting current standards and performance levels has been a real challenge so far, it has not been easy to design the efficient stand-alone machines we have today.”
“Another important factor for the future, particularly in inner cities, is the PM10 (and PM2.5) particles issue. Today’s vacuum sweepers are unable to cope with fine particles despite having ecological Euro5 engines fitted. Mounting an efficient filtration system remains a challenge as the filtration creates problems with vacuum performance.
Meeting the future needs of the market however remains our focus here at Nilfisk. We aim to build on our continued success with focused product development; the future looks bright.”
Nilfisk are one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial and industrial cleaning equipment. From small commercial vacuum cleaners to road sweepers Nilfisk offer a complete and affordable solution to all cleaning challenges. Demonstrations, on-site training, service, hire and finance options are offered from a direct sales team. www.nilfisk.co.uk
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