Street Sweeper - Modern Sweepers

Modern Sweepers

Newer street sweepers are capable of collecting small particles of debris. Many street sweepers produced today are PM10 certified, meaning that they are capable of collecting and holding particulate matter sized less than 10μm. Despite advancements in street sweeping technology, the mechanical broom type street sweeper accounts for approximately 90 percent of all street sweepers used in the United States today.

Modern street sweepers are equipped with water tanks and sprayers used to loosen particles and reduce dust. The brooms gather debris into a main collection area from which it is vacuumed and pumped into a collection bin or hopper.

A regenerative air street sweeper uses forced air to create a swirling effect inside a contained sweeping head and then uses the negative pressure on the suction side to place the road debris inside a hopper. Debris is removed from the air by centrifugal separation and reused, keeping particulate matter inside the hopper. Many regenerative air sweepers are AQMD certified by the company who manufactures them and can pick up particles as small as 10 micrometres or less (PM-10), a leading cause of stormwater pollution.

• Grader-style vehicle using sweeper

• Elgin Megawind

• Vegetable oil (Pflanzenöl) powered vacuum cleaner truck (Laubsauger - "leaf sucker"), Aachen, Germany

• A Canadian "Madvac" compact streetsweeper in Mexico City Paseo de la Reforma

• Eagle Model

• Street sweeper in Cumbria, England

• An MX - 450

• Sweeper - Whirlwind

• An Italian "Dulevo" street sweeper in Saint Peter's Square

• Pelican street sweep

• Single-engine Scarab Sweepers street sweeper in the pictured at the Dubai Autodrome, November 2006

• Truck in New Jersey, June 2001

• Bristles underneath truck are made of metal

• Sweeper in New Jersey, 2012