JP7652501B2 - Construction site sweeper - Google Patents

Description

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a construction site sweeper.

There are a variety of autonomous sweepers available. Most sweepers mainly suck up and collect relatively fine and light debris such as dust on the floor. On the other hand, the debris (construction waste) generated at construction sites includes not only dust, but also relatively large and heavy debris such as concrete blocks, scraps of wood, metal pieces, scrap metal, glass fragments, and glass waste.

As a result, it was difficult to collect and store this construction waste by suction.

In addition, construction waste is so voluminous that the dustbins of conventional sweepers quickly fill up. Even if a large-capacity dustbin is installed, it becomes very heavy when filled with construction waste, making it difficult to transfer the construction waste from the dustbin to a garbage collection site. Furthermore, during construction work, the sweeper needs to be transported to a location away from the work site, but it is not easy to transport a large, heavy sweeper by hand.

It is also possible to scrape up the construction waste with a rotating brush rather than suctioning it, but the surface of the concrete slab to be cleaned has structural irregularities such as piping spaces, grooves, and support posts, and is not completely flat, so it is not easy to scrape out the construction waste from these irregularities, especially in the grooves, with a brush and collect it in a dustbin.

Thus, there is a demand for sweepers that can handle such situations on construction sites.

There is a demand for sweepers suitable for use on construction sites.

The sweeper according to this embodiment comprises a sweeper body having front and rear wheels for traveling and for collecting construction waste while moving on the floor surface, and a dust box for storing the collected construction waste. A pair of disc brushes having brush bristles in a truncated cone shape are disposed at the front of the sweeper body in the traveling direction. A pair of motor drive shafts are connected to the pair of disc brushes. A sweeping plate is inclined within the sweeper body so that the rear portions of the disc brushes partially overlap with each other and are aligned with the bristles of the disc brushes. A cylindrical roller brush is installed within the sweeper body to send rearward the construction waste swept up by the disc brushes along the upper surface of the sweeping plate and to collect dust on the floor surface. The dust box has a box shape with an inlet opening at the top of its front plate, and is attached to the sweeper body behind the roller brush so as to receive the construction waste and the collected dust sent out by the roller brush from the inlet and drop them into the dust box at the rear. The pair of motors are commonly attached to a single mounting plate so that the brush bristles partially overlap each other across the center line of the sweeper body. The mounting plate is rotatably attached at its rear end to the front part of the sweeper body via a hinge so that the pair of disk brushes are in a forward tilted position and the tips of the bristles of the pair of disk brushes are pressed against the floor surface by the weight of the pair of disk brushes and the pair of motors.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sweeper according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a side view of the sweeper of FIG. FIG. 3 is a front view of the sweeper of FIG. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line E--E of FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along line E--E of FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the sweeper body of FIG. 1 with the dust box removed. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the sweeper body of FIG. 1 with the dust box removed. FIG. 8 is a side view showing the movable range of the disk brush of the sweeper of FIG. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing how the disk brush of FIG. 8 follows the unevenness of the floor surface.

Hereinafter, a construction site sweeper according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.
Figures 1 to 3 show the appearance of a sweeper 1 according to this embodiment, Figure 4 shows a cross-sectional view taken along line E-E of Figure 3, and Figure 5 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the sweeper 1 according to this embodiment. The sweeper 1 has a sweeper body 3 that moves on the floor surface of a construction site and collects relatively large and relatively heavy garbage (construction waste) such as concrete blocks, scraps of wood or the like, metal pieces, metal scraps, glass pieces, and glass scraps scattered on the floor surface. A dust box 5 that contains the construction waste collected by the sweeper body 3 is detachably fitted into the sweeper body 3 (see Figures 6 and 7).

The sweeper body 3 has a chassis 15. On the left and right sides of the chassis 15, a moving mechanism 13 is installed with tracks (crawlers) 11 stretched across front and rear drive wheels 7, 9 for self-propulsion, making it suitable for traveling on rough ground at construction sites. The moving mechanism 13 causes the sweeper body 3 to travel in the direction toward the left side of the paper in Figures 2 and 5.

A pair of motors 19 are arranged at the front of the sweeper body 3 in the direction of travel, with the center line DS of their rotation shafts (drive shafts) tilted forward with respect to a vertical line perpendicular to the floor surface in a side view. A pair of disk brushes 17, in which flexible synthetic resin brush bristles are planted in a base material 18 in a truncated cone shape, are connected to the rotation shafts of the pair of motors 19. The pair of disk brushes 17 are directly connected to the rotation shaft of the motor 19 so that the center line RR of the truncated cones coincides with the rotation center line DS of the motor 19. For ease of explanation, the rotation center line RR and the rotation center line DS of the motor 19 that is aligned with it are collectively referred to as the rotation center line RA. When the sweeper 1 is placed on the floor surface, the front brush bristles of the disk brushes 17 are curved to come into close contact with the floor surface.

The pair of motors 19 are commonly attached to a single mounting plate 61. The rotational center lines DS of the pair of motors 19 are perpendicular to the plate surface. The distance between the pair of motors 19 is set so that the relative positions of the pair of disc brushes 17 are such that the brush bristles of each of the pair of motors 19 partially overlap each other across the center line CL of the sweeper body 3 in a plan view.

The rear end of the mounting plate 61 is rotatably attached to the front projection 71 of the sweeper body 3 via a hinge 69. As a result, the pair of disk brushes 17, the pair of motors 19, and the weight of the mounting plate 61 rotate the mounting plate 61 around the hinge 69, and the pair of disk brushes 17 are in a forward tilted position, and their bristles are pressed against the floor surface. By shifting the position of the fulcrum of the rotation of the mounting plate 61, the motor 19, and the disk brush 17, that is, the pin of the hinge 69, from the rotation center line RA to the rear, the rotation radius R from the fulcrum to the front end of the bristles of the disk brush 17 can be lengthened (see Figure 2). By lengthening the rotation radius R, the disk brush 17's ability to follow the unevenness of the floor surface is improved, and the brush bristles of the disk brush 17 can reach the bottom of deeper grooves (see Figure 9 (c)).

As shown in FIG. 8(a), the rotation radius R from the pin position (rotation fulcrum) of the hinge 69 to the front end of the bristles of the disk brush 17 is a static posture (reference posture) in which the pair of disk brushes 17 rotates around the hinge 69 as a fulcrum due to the weight of the pair of disk brushes 17, the pair of motors 19, and the mounting plate 61, and the bristles are pressed against the floor surface, resulting in a stable static posture (reference posture). In other words, the rotation radius R is designed in advance with the weight of the pair of disk brushes 17, the pair of motors 19, and the mounting plate 61, and the radius of the disk brush 17 as the characteristic values, so that the rotation center line RA of the disk brush 17 intersects with the vertical axis of the floor surface at 27° in the reference posture when the moment determined by the weight of the pair of disk brushes 17, the pair of motors 19, and the mounting plate 61 and the rotation radius R is balanced against the restoring force (reaction force) generated by the curvature of the brush bundle of the disk brush 17.

As shown in FIG. 7, fasteners 63, 65 for fastening the mounting plate 61 to the sweeper body 3 are provided on the mounting plate 61 and the sweeper body 3, respectively. The fastener 63 has a movable hook structure attached to the mounting plate 61, and by manually tilting the fastener 63 backward and hooking it onto the fastener 65 having a hook receiving structure protruding forward from the overhanging portion 71 of the sweeper body 3, the mounting plate 61 is prohibited from rotating and fixed in the reference position. By manually tilting the fastener 63 forward and removing it from the fastener 65, the rotation prohibition state is released and the mounting plate 61 is permitted to rotate.

Under the control of a control unit (not shown), the sweeper 1 can selectively operate in a room cleaning mode suitable for cleaning a wide area of a floor surface with relatively few irregularities, and a groove cleaning mode suitable for cleaning linear recesses, i.e., the inside of grooves along the linear direction. In the room cleaning mode, the mounting plate 61 is fixed, while in the groove cleaning mode, it is preferable to release the mounting plate 61 from its fixed state and allow it to rotate freely.

2(a) shows a side view of the sweeper 1, and FIG. 2(b) is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 2(a). The mounting plate 61 is provided with a limiting structure 73 for limiting its rotation to a predetermined movable range including the reference position. Any structure may be adopted as the limiting structure 73, and for example, it may be composed of an upper abutment plate 74 and a lower abutment plate 76 connected to the rear edge of the mounting plate 61. The upper abutment plate 74 and the lower abutment plate 76 rotate together with the mounting plate 61 and abut against the front edge of the overhanging portion 71 of the sweeper body 3, thereby locking the rotation. The intersection angles of the upper abutment plate 74 and the lower abutment plate 76 with respect to the mounting plate 61 are preset, and the lower limit (lower limit) of the movable range is determined by the intersection angle of the lower abutment plate 76, and the upper limit (upper limit) of the movable range is determined by the intersection angle of the upper abutment plate 74. At the lower limit of the movable range, as shown in FIG. 8(b), the rotation center line RA of the disc brush 17 intersects the vertical axis of the floor surface at an angle of 39°. At the upper limit of the movable range, as shown in FIG. 8(c), the rotation center line RA of the disc brush 17 intersects the vertical axis of the floor surface at an angle of 22°.

To sweep construction waste from both sides of the sweeper body 3 toward the center line CL, a motor driver (not shown) rotates a pair of disc brushes 17 in opposite directions in a plan view. The left disc brush 17 rotates clockwise, and the right disc brush 17 rotates counterclockwise.

Inside the sweeper body 3, the rear portions of the pair of disc brushes 17 partially overlap, and the sweeping plate 21 is tilted so that its rear is higher than its front so as to follow the forward-tilted bristle surfaces of the pair of disc brushes 17 (forward tilt). The forward-tilted position of the pair of disc brushes 17 and the sweeping plate 21 realizes that when the pair of disc brushes 17 rotates, they sweep the construction waste toward the center line CL, and also sweep the construction waste up along the sweeping plate 21 (see Figures 4 and 5).

Inside the sweeper body 3, behind the sweeping plate 21, a cylindrical roller brush 23 is installed with its rotation axis perpendicular to the center line CL. The roller brush 23 is made of flexible synthetic resin brush bristles densely planted radially on the circumferential surface of a cylindrical or columnar support. When the sweeper 1 is placed on the floor surface, the brush bristles that come into contact with the floor surface at the bottom of the roller brush 23 are curved and come into close contact with the floor surface. A motor driver (not shown) drives the motor of the roller brush 23. The roller brush 23 rotates in a direction in which the brush bristles in contact with the floor surface oppose the direction of travel. As a result, dust on the floor surface is captured and swept up by the brush bristles of the roller brush 23. The construction waste swept up by the pair of disc brushes 17 and swept up along the sweeping plate 21 is sent backward by the brush bristles at the top of the roller brush 23.

Inside the sweeper body 3, behind the roller brush 23, a guide plate 25 is installed in a backward tilted position. The leading edge of the guide plate 25 is, for example, comb-shaped. Dust collected by the roller brush 23 is scraped off by the leading edge of the guide plate 25.

The construction waste sent backward by the roller brush 23 is handed over to the guide plate 25, slides on its top surface, and is guided backward. The dust collected by the roller brush 23 and scraped off by the tip of the guide plate 25 also slides along the guide plate 25 and is guided backward. The construction waste and dust guided backward by the guide plate 25 are received in the dust box 5, where they drop and are stored. The construction waste is swept up along the sweeping plate 21 (see Figures 4 and 5). Because the pair of disc brushes 17 sweeps the construction waste upward along the sweeping plate 21, the dust box 5 can be constructed taller, and its capacity can be increased.

The dust box 5 has a rectangular box shape with the top of the front panel open as an inlet 27 for construction waste and dust. The front-to-back length of the dust box 5 is about half the length of the sweeper body 3. The left-to-right width of the dust box 5 is almost the same as the width of the sweeper body 3. The height of the dust box 5 is configured to be equal to or higher than that of the sweeper body 3. The sweeper body 3 has a recess (fitting portion) 60 (see Figure 7) above the moving mechanism 13 for fitting the dust box 5 detachably. When fitted into the fitting portion 60 of the sweeper body 3, the upper surface and the upper rear end surface of the dust box 5 are exposed, and a handle 33 described later is attached to the exposed upper surface of the dust box 5, and a base 43 described later is attached to the upper rear end surface. The dust box 5 is fitted into the fitting portion 29 of the sweeper body 3 and fixed by the fixing device 31. When the fixing device 31 is released, the dust box 5 can be removed and separated from the sweeper body 3.

By concentrating the disc brushes 17 and roller brushes 23 at the front of the sweeper body 3 and placing the dust box 5 and moving mechanism 13 behind them, it is possible to configure the dust box 5 to be about half the length of the sweeper body 3, which makes it possible to increase the capacity of the dust box 5 and also prevents construction waste from getting between the bottom of the sweeper body 3 and the floor, making it impossible to move.

In addition, by placing the dust box 5 above the moving mechanism 13, the load-bearing capacity is improved, allowing for an increase in the amount of construction waste stored. Furthermore, no matter how the construction waste falls into the dust box 5, the center of gravity of the dust box 5 and the entire construction waste is located between the front and rear wheels 7, 9 of the moving mechanism 13, so fluctuations in the posture of the sweeper 1 can be suppressed.

The dust box 5 has a handle 33 attached to its upper surface. The handle 33 is divided into two parts, a handle portion 35 fixed to the dust box 5 and a handle portion 37 connected to the handle portion 35 by a hinge 39 so that the handle 33 can be folded. The total length of the folded handle 33 is shorter than the total length of the sweeper 1 so that it fits within the front-to-rear range of the sweeper 1. As a result, when the handle 33 is folded, the handle 33 does not interfere with the movement of the sweeper 1. When the handle 33 is unfolded, the handle 33 is extended. The extended state of the handle 33 is locked by a hook-structured fastener 41 and a hook receiver 42. An operator can grasp the handle 33 and transport the dust box 5 separated from the sweeper body 3 by itself, and can also transport the sweeper body 3 together with the dust box 5, that is, the entire sweeper 1, with the dust box 5 attached to the sweeper body 3.

The base 43 is provided at the rear end of the dust box 5. The base 43 has a base body 45 in the shape of a truncated pyramid. Wheels 46 are attached to one side of the base body 45. Four legs 47 made of an elastic material such as rubber are attached to the bottom of the base body 45. The base body 45 is rotatably attached to the rear upper surface of the dust box 5 via hinges 49. The base body 45 can be flipped up to the top of the dust box 5 and removed. A hook-shaped fastener 51 is attached to the rear upper surface of the dust box 5, and the base 43 can be fastened to the rear upper surface of the dust box 5 by hooking it onto the hook receiving portion (not shown) at the bottom of the base body 45. This ensures that the base 43 does not interfere with the movement of the sweeper 1.

When the fastener 51 is removed, the base 43 can be rotated toward the rear end surface of the dust box 5 and lowered. A fastener 48 is provided on the rear end surface of the dust box 5 to fasten the base 43 lowered to the rear end surface of the dust box 5. The worker releases the fixing device 31 to remove the dust box 5 from the sweeper body 3, rotates the base 43 toward the rear end of the dust box 5, and fastens it with the fastener 48. Then, the worker grasps the handle 33 and gradually lifts the base 43 until the wheels 46 of the base 43 touch the ground. The legs 47 and wheels 46 are configured and positioned so that the wheels 46 touch the ground before the legs 47 during this lifting action.

By pulling the handle 33 with the wheels 46 on the ground, the wheels 46 roll and the dust box 5 loaded with construction waste and the like can be easily transported by itself. By lifting it further upright, the wheels 46 leave the floor and the legs 47 touch the ground, allowing the dust box 5 removed from the sweeper body 3 to be placed upright on the floor by itself.

With the dust box 5 still attached to the sweeper body 3, the sweeper 1 can be easily transported by grasping the handle 33, lifting it, and moving it with the wheels 46 of the base 43 on the ground, as the wheels 46 roll. By lifting it further upright, lifting the wheels 46 off the floor and placing the legs 47 on the ground, the entire sweeper 1 can be placed upright on the floor.

As shown in Figures 8(a) and 9(a), in the standard position, the cleaning device is suitable for cleaning a wide area of a floor surface with relatively few irregularities. When cleaning the entire room, it is preferable to fix the mounting plate 61. When the mounting plate 61 is released from its fixed position, the mounting plate 61 can rotate freely within its movable range, and can follow the irregularities of the floor surface.

As shown in Figures 8(b) and 9(b), when there is a convex part such as a groove edge on the floor surface, the mounting plate 61 rotates upward from the standard position. During this process, the disc brush 17 can scrape up construction waste at the corner of the boundary between the floor surface and the convex part, and can further rotate upward according to the height of the convex part to scrape up the construction waste at the top of the convex part. By setting the upper limit of the movable range to 22° and allowing it to rotate upward by only 5° from the standard position, the bristles of the disc brush 17 are never horizontal or nearly horizontal with the floor surface, and the front bristles of the disc brush 17 are always in contact with the floor surface without leaving the floor surface, so that the function of scraping construction waste toward the center line CL can always be performed, and a situation in which construction waste is caught between the bristles of the disc brush 17 and the floor surface and operation is stopped can be avoided.

As shown in Figures 8(c) and 9(c), when a recess such as a groove is present, the mounting plate 61 rotates downward from the standard position. By making the lower limit of the movable range 39° and allowing it to rotate downward by 12° from the standard position, the bristles of the disk brush 17 can reach the bottom of deeper grooves to scrape up construction waste within the grooves, and because the bristles of the disk brush 17 are never in a position perpendicular or nearly perpendicular to the floor surface, the disk brush 17 can always perform its function of scraping construction waste within the grooves toward the center line CL.

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to realize a sweeper equipped with functions suitable for construction sites, such as increasing the capacity of the dust box, separating it from the sweeper body to transport only the dust box and reducing the transport burden, reducing the transport burden of the sweeper as a whole, reducing the possibility of an inability to move, easily placing the dust box alone and minimizing the area occupied, and easily placing the entire sweeper and minimizing the area occupied, without complicating the structure. Furthermore, by providing a tiltable disc brush, it is possible to sweep and collect construction waste at the boundary between the floor surface and the convex part and at the bottom of the groove by following the unevenness of the floor grain. Moreover, by optimizing the movable range of the disc brush, it is possible to sweep and collect construction waste even at the bottom of the deeper grooves, and it is possible to prevent the disc brush from being unable to return to its forward tilt, or from falling into a situation where construction waste is caught between the disc brush and the floor surface, making it impossible to sweep or impossible to move.

Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented as examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, substitutions, and modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention. These embodiments and their modifications are within the scope of the invention and its equivalents as set forth in the claims, as well as the scope and gist of the invention.

1...Sweeper, 3...Sweeper body, 5...Dust box, 7, 9...Drive wheels, 11...Crawler tracks, 13...Moving mechanism, 15...Chassis, 19...Motor, 17...Disc brush, 21...Sweeping plate, 23...Roller brush, 25...Guide plate, 31...Fixing device, 33...Handle, 35, 37...Handle portion, 39...Hinge, 41...Fastener, 42...Hook receiver, 43...Base, 45...Base body, 46...Wheels, 47...Leg, 48...Fastener, 49...Hinge, 51...Fastener, 61...Mounting plate, 63, 65...Fastener, 69...Hinge, 71...Protruding portion, 73...Limiting structure, 74...Upper abutment plate, 76...Lower abutment plate.

Claims (7)

A sweeper body having front and rear wheels for running and moving on the floor while collecting construction waste;
and a dust box for containing the collected construction waste.
A pair of disk brushes having brush bristles in a truncated cone shape are disposed at the front of the sweeper body in the direction of travel,
A pair of motor drive shafts are connected to the pair of disk brushes, respectively;
A sweeping plate is inclined in the sweeper body so that the rear part of the disk brush partially overlaps the rear part of the disk brush and the sweeping plate is inclined along the tip of the disk brush.
A cylindrical roller brush is installed in the sweeper body to send the construction waste swept up by the disk brush along the upper surface of the sweeping plate to the rear and to collect dust on the floor surface.
The dust box has a box shape with an inlet opening at the top of the front panel, and is attached to the sweeper body behind the roller brush so as to receive the construction waste and the collected dust sent out by the roller brush from the inlet and drop them into the dust box at the rear.
The pair of motors are commonly mounted on a single mounting plate such that the brush bristles partially overlap each other across a center line of the sweeper body;
The mounting plate is rotatably attached at its rear end to the front part of the sweeper body via a hinge so that the weight of the pair of disk brushes and the pair of motors causes the pair of disk brushes to lean forward and press the bristles of the pair of disk brushes against the floor surface. The sweeper according to claim 1, wherein fasteners are provided on the mounting plate and the sweeper body to fasten the mounting plate to the sweeper body so that a reference position in which the tips of the bristles of the pair of disk brushes are pressed against the floor surface by the weight of the pair of disk brushes and the pair of motors is fixed. The sweeper according to claim 2, which has a limiting structure for limiting the rotation of the mounting plate to a predetermined movable range including the reference position. The sweeper of claim 3, wherein in the reference position, the center line of rotation of the disk brush intersects with the vertical axis of the floor surface at an angle of 27°. The sweeper of claim 3, wherein at the lower limit of the movable range, the center line of rotation of the disk brush intersects with the vertical axis of the floor surface at an angle of 39°. The sweeper of claim 3, wherein at the upper limit of the movable range, the center line of rotation of the disk brush intersects with the vertical axis of the floor surface at an angle of 22°. A sweeper body having front and rear wheels for running and moving on the floor while collecting construction waste;
and a dust box for containing the collected construction waste.
A pair of disk brushes having brush bristles in a truncated cone shape are disposed at the front of the sweeper body in the direction of travel,
A pair of motor drive shafts are connected to the pair of disk brushes, respectively;
The pair of motors are attached to a mounting plate so that the brush bristles partially overlap each other across a center line of the sweeper body,
The pair of disk brushes are pressed against the floor surface with the tips of the bristles of the pair of disk brushes in a forward tilted position due to the weight of the pair of disk brushes and the pair of motors ,
The sweeper rotates the pair of disc brushes to sweep the construction waste toward the center line of the sweeper body and sweeps the swept construction waste up along a sweeping plate that is tilted forward .