Even though the global market for compact and purpose-built skid sweepers is highly competitive, three new designs underline how important it is for end-users to keep up to speed on new developments.
Have you ever wondered what processes are involved when a major motor vehicle manufacturer introduces a new design of car, panel van or truck? Such are the demands placed on manufacturers to confirm to various road traffic regulations, exhaust emissions and crash test standards that it’s a wonder designers and stylists ever manage to make the end result to look even remotely attractive.
Over the last couple of months, I’ve been testing a number of new trucks and lighter-duty commercials and have been struck by how well they’ve been ‘packaged’. But a better driver environment (manufacturer-speak for ‘nice new cab’) and ergonomic control layouts aren’t there just to look good. They’re essential in busy, overcrowded highways so that the driver can work safely without fatigue.
‘Good design’ and how new improved driver environments might be put into production - and whether the technology should be shared with other ‘production partners’ around the world - have become as significant for manufacturers as meeting legislative demands and emission standards. Though you might think all this would slow down new product development, the exact opposite seems to be the case.
 With a brand new cab design, numerous specification enhancements and the use of ABS body panels, the Johnston C200 is designed to be a compact sweeper for world markets |
After a flurry of design activity resulting in several new generations of machine over the last five years or so (most notably from German-based manufacturer Hakowerke), I had expected the market for small vacuum sweepers to flatten out while the other players took stock and maybe considered a round of product rationalization and even mergers, before climbing the commercial mountains outlined above all over again.
True, there have been some mergers and rather dramatic realignments since we last looked at highway and precinct sweepers in any detail in Waste Management World January-February 2006. But even so, the end results haven’t been as negative in terms of customer choice as was predicted. By most established criteria, the takeover of UK-based Johnston Sweepers by Swiss-based Bucher Schörling could have resulted in job cuts in the UK, a streamlining of the extensive combined product lines and the rationalization of key components and fabrications. When a major brand takes over its closest rival, ‘dual branding’ often results in the closure of at least one design department and an overall loss of market share. Some of that may happen in the future, but in the case of Johnston, the reverse currently seems to be the case. More resources have been put into product development and there’s a new confidence in the future. Following the announcement of the new C200 Compact back in the spring, the whole Johnston product range is now less than four years old.
Looking beyond first cost
If you’re operating vacuum sweeping machines and are looking to meet future operational demands, it’s going to be even more essential to look past the initial purchase price (the ‘first’ cost) and consider added value features that may influence whole life costs. Manufacturers have finally caught on to the fact that a driver environment with air conditioning (full climate control can’t be long in coming), precise and easy-to-use controls, and the ability to work a whole shift without fatigue are key factors in the purchasing decision. Comfort is no longer a luxury, it’s a health-and-safety ‘must have’.
You could argue that such matters have always been at the heart of the process. But based on the time I recently spent on three new models of vacuum sweeper, I’d say the improvements you can expect today, as each new generation of sweeper is announced, makes the notion of buying or costing a sweeper over its maximum working life worth examination.
Contract hire might not be the accepted convention in all world markets, but ‘getting more spec’ for your budget makes the idea of using this option to ensure that ‘front line’ machines are to the latest design and meet the latest emissions standards on noise, vibration and exhaust an increasingly compelling one. Even if finding another use for an existing four-year-old machine is going to be far from easy.
Starting work
So, let’s get specific. While driving down to the Johnston plant at Sittingbourne in southern England to try out the latest C200 Compact, I reflected on the fact that the original Compact machine was designed and built in the same town by Babcock Sweepers in the 1980s and that I was then the first ‘outsider’ to drive the prototype out of the shop for an earlier magazine test. The machine became part of the Johnston product range a few years later and, over the last two decades, the Compact has been progressively improved with more refined power, machine suspension and numerous other changes.
Before sitting down at my keyboard to write this, I looked up my notes on that initial product test all those years ago to check on my first impressions then to see how they compared to my first impressions of the new C200. The cabin interior of the original machine consisted almost entirely of untrimmed steel panels, with little or no attention to sound deadening. The controls, although easy to use, were basic. And I made a note about asking the company directors about the wisdom of not having included some form of chassis suspension from day one. It was, I was told, being considered ‘in the future’. How right they were - it was more than a decade before basic rubber suspension became available. And the Compact was well into its third decade before the full Glide suspension to automotive standards became an option!
Thankfully there will be no such ‘drift’ on the new C200. While it retains much of the original concept in terms of size and major component configuration, Johnston designers have done enough for the C200 to justify its ‘new’ tag. True, the 2 m3 hopper, its overall layout and the location of the 2.8-litre VM diesel power unit (Euro-4 versions will come on stream this month) are very much as before. The original Compact chassis terminated at the front axle, resulting in the cab being cantilevered out from it with the brushes suspended from the cab floor. On the C200, the chassis extends under the cab and has the sweep gear mounted directly to it, while the cab is positioned on four rubber mounts to reduce noise and vibration.
Much improved
The new arrangement is therefore far more logical. It might not sound much like ‘rocket science’ and, indeed, it isn’t. But it makes a major improvement to the driver environment. But what really amounts to a bonus - and is absolutely in line with our theme of ‘more for less’ - is the fact that, on the new C200, the brush design features a comprehensive ‘break-back’ protection system to help ensure machines can continue working after hitting obstructions during normal sweeping in city precincts. Obviously there are limits to the abuse any machine can take without damage, but again, the new system is much improved over the old.
 A new ‘break-back’ system for the leading front brushes has been designed by Johnston to reduce damage while sweeping in tight precincts |
But if these specification upgrades are worth having, they are as of nothing compared with the new cab interior. Speaking personally and from a design viewpoint, I don’t find the outside of the all-new C200 cab especially attractive but I can’t fault the increased shoulder room, the flat cab floor with new trap-viewing windows and the deep front screen inside.
The new layout has been made possible by doing away with the centre console design and rerouting the central pick-up tube to the fan. Tinted glass and a much-improved air conditioning system meant that I never gave ‘heat’ another thought until I got stuck in a motorway traffic jam on the way home!
 The new Mathieu Yno Azura Concept 2000 (on right) and Grand Azura 4000 are the scene of much activity prior to their UK launch at the annual CIWM event |
The combination of a much improved cabin with the Johnston ‘palm rest’ joystick control for the sweep gear and the same J-Plex multi-function screen for most of the other functions and machine status controls works well. Johnston, like many specialist manufacturers, has found it difficult to embrace the advantages of CAMbus and the ‘drive-by-wire’ technologies that are now an everyday feature of the mainstream automotive world. But they have done so and the company is fully aware that it needs to offer the same levels of specification in a compact sweeper as are expected in a car or truck.
Customer driven?
After several hours of sweeping on urban highways, tight residential streets and in the town centre shopping precincts with very acceptable levels of performance, it was time to see how the new C200 performed in transit mode. A fast, safe transit speed is often the hardest criterion to achieve for the designer of a compact sweeper and the market is full of good, not so good and quite frankly dangerous products that are physically unable to meet such demands.
In the new C200, the foot pedals (brake and hydrostatic ‘go’ control) are positioned on the same level to make it easy for the driver to ‘cover’ the brake if need be. If I were being critical, a simple angled footrest ‘brace’ for the otherwise unemployed left foot would aid comfort.
It’s another small thing but Johnston, like many manufacturers of purpose-built skid sweepers, use small - and cheap - cab door mirrors. I know the C200 comes with a standard rear-view CCTV camera, but the distraction of the driver having to look so far off the centre line of vision to find the door mirrors could be avoided by mounting the rear-view mirrors ‘bus fashion’ ahead of the front screen so they can be viewed through the wiper-swept area of the front screen.
But if cab ‘space’ and low levels of noise and vibration - matched with a proven record of reliability and efficiency - are the main factors when making the choice between one design of compact sweeper over another, the new C200 is off to a flying start. It’s already in production and large orders from hire/rental companies in the UK are an excellent vote of confidence.
Seeing double?
Having looked in detail at some of the complex issues behind the design of one new purpose-built vacuum sweeper, how hard must it be to simultaneously launch two? That’s exactly what occurred recently at French-based manufacturer, Mathieu Yno. There are some interesting parallels with the position of Johnston Sweepers to consider while also taking into account aspects that might come under the heading of ‘Vive l’difference’.
Like Johnston, Mathieu Yno has been on the receiving end of recent corporate changes. But thankfully, like Johnston, the company looks set to benefit from them. Now part of the increasingly influential Fayat Group (which also includes construction machinery giant Bomag), Mathieu Yno has benefited from the Group’s financial muscle and design experience. At first glance there may not perhaps be common ground between the cab design of a road roller and a compact sweeper, but there most definitely is in terms of ergonomics and cab control systems. Not that the existing designs of the company’s Azure sweepers and Aquazura pavement wash scrubber/driers were unattractive. It’s just that the new generation Azura Concept 2000 compact and the totally new Grand Azura 4000, which takes Mathieu Yno into a new market segment, are so much better.
Is there any tangible benefit in ‘trendy design’ or ‘funky styling’? It’s a question that’s often asked. We are, after all, talking about machines with a very basic function in life. In my view, yes there is. Any single machine that adds to the environment from a visual viewpoint rather than detracting from it, or just blending in is saying to residents - ‘look, I’m out here sweeping your streets in exchange for your taxes’. On a driver level, any machine that looks good and feels good to drive is going to do more work, suffer less abuse and break down less often than one that doesn’t.
On these criteria alone, both new Azuras should claim an increased market share - especially if it can be shown that they have gained enhanced reliability and toughness from the Bomag connection.
New brush system
So what are the new Azuras like to drive? The Azura Concept 2000 replaces the existing 2 m3 Azura sweeper and is already in production. Powered by a 3.3-litre VM four-cylinder turbocharged diesel (with a Cummins 97/68/CE low emissions option), the new Concept 2000 has a sweep width of 1250-2450 mm, controlled by an in-cab joystick.
But unlike most designs of compact sweeper, Mathieu Yno machines have previously featured a ‘trailing brush’ design that required a different technique from the driver. Recognizing that world markets might prefer an alternative, there is a completely new reversible system with the new Concept 2000. That is to say, the brushes can be used in the trailing position or flicked through 180° so the actual brush runs ahead of the mounting axis. Having this facility allows the driver maximum versatility in being able to ‘hook’ debris out from between parked cars and make a clean sweep in cul-de-sacs without leaving the cab and resorting to the use of a broom and shovel - though a crew member can be accommodated should this work method be preferred.
But again, like the Johnston C200, the cab interior is the main area of improvement on the new Azura. Although roughly the same size as the original Azura, the new model has more space and features some really clever design touches - not least of which is the ‘over-the-shoulder’ view of the windows aft of the cab door B-post. These are fitted on both sides, so work whether the machine is left-hand steer for the UK and Australian/Japanese markets or right-hand steer for other markets.
Also as with the new Johnston product, both Azuras utilize plastics body panelling that is designed to take the knocks and shocks of urban use - and be easily replaced when they don’t! In many ways, Mathieu Yno designers have made more of this by creating a bold side elevation and a curved tail that would have been very hard to create in sheet metal. The overall effect is stunning.
Big news
So what of the Grand Azura 4000? Any new machine that takes a well known manufacturer into new territory had better be good. After just a few minutes behind the wheel of the Grand Azura 4000, it was clear that a great deal of effort had gone into making it a machine that drivers will like.
 The Grand Azura 4000 takes Mathieu Yno into the same territory as Bucher, Johnston and American-owned Ravo |
Using a 4 m3 hopper with, like the smaller Azuras, a two/four-wheel steering capability which mechanically locks out when in transit mode, the Grand Azura 4000 is essentially twice the size of the smaller model. Maximum gross weight of the Concept 2000 is 4.2 tonnes with a 460-litre water capacity, while the Grand Azura 4000 is offered in either 7.5 tonnes or 10 tonnes gross weight. The design of the Grand Azura is identical at both weights; the rating purely reflects differences in driver licensing in some markets.
The complexity of legislation facing the designers of new cars and trucks is nothing compared with the complexities of a purpose-built sweeper. The Azura Concept 2000 has to be offered in 25, 40 and 50 km/hour maximum speed capabilities to meet specific national regulations in different markets; the Grand Azura 4000 is available in 25, 50 and 80 km/hour versions for the same reasons. With a 4 m3 hopper and a street wash water tank capacity of 750 litres, that weight can take a lot of stopping at higher travel speeds. So it’s nice to see that four-wheel disc brakes are there to get a grip and offset the urge from the Iveco 110 kW, 3.9-litre diesel engine.
There’s a lot of weight behind a laden Grand Azura 4000, but the size of the machine soon ‘shrinks’ as the driver learns how to get the best out of it. On the other hand, payloads can remain usefully large at 5 tonnes.
Conclusion
It could be argued that the ground-breaking high-quality designs from Hakowerke or the technical innovation from Scottish-based manufacturer Applied Sweepers followed on from where the standard-setting Schmidt Swingo left off, and kick-started this new ‘design surge’. But it’s a fact that good-quality design and ‘a bit of style’ are now an intrinsic part of the decision-making process when it comes to selecting a new purpose-built suction sweeper.
The bottom line is that it’s a buyer’s market. There’s lots of new kit out there to choose from and, as most new designs offer more than current generations now in service, now looks like a good time to raise your game.
Malcolm Bates is Transport Correspondent of Waste Management World.
e-mail: wmw@jxj.com
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