THE ROLLING DUSTPAN PRINCIPLE

A first step in the right direction

Even the beginnings of the world of sweeping technology of the time make new brooms on large surfaces look old. The Stolzenberg Company, founded in 1889 as a brush factory, has been active in the development and production of hand-operated sweepers for over 40 years. In 1965, when the main pillar “carpet sweeper” had to give way to the booming market for household vacuum cleaners,

an attempt was made to develop an “enlarged carpet sweeper” for industrial cleaning. What was initially used for individual use soon found great interest from buyers and went into serial production as a result. The function of the first German sweepers: the so-called dustpan principle.

The problem with the dustpan principle

The sweeper roller, rear mounted in the direction of travel, rotates during forward motion against the direction of travel of the sweeper. When riding over the dirt, this must be under a rubber lip throughout in order to then be swept into the front-mounted dirt container, like a sort of dustpan. In practice, however, this first development step contains some problems.

1

Problemarea 1

By necessity, attaching a support wheel to the machine, this will run constantly in the unswept area. As a result, larger particles of dirt can block the operation of the sweeper.
2

Problemarea 2

Due to the front-mounted dirt container, any garbage must initially fit through the “eye of a needle”. Thus the size of the dirt that can be taken in is greatly limited.
3

Problemarea 3

The dustpan-like slope, up which the debris is swept, must not exceed a certain distance from the ground, in order for the garbage to even enter the container. Therefore the fill volume is greatly limited, because as soon as the captured debris goes beyond the edge, it falls towards the roller again.
4

Problemarea 4

A rubber lip under which the debris must be passed in order to be taken in by the sweeper roller prevents lighter pieces such as paper or dry leaves from being taken in, especially on smooth ground.
The numerous shortcomings of this very simple sweeping principle forced further development.
The roller throw technology was developed – but only for motorized sweepers.