Wafers offer greater versatility to contractors with a variety of sweeping equipment in their fleets. Or you can make the broom denser by decreasing the space between the wafers by reducing the distance of the two clock positions." They're nested together when shipped and you just locate every other wafer from a 12 o'clock to a 6 o'clock position on the wafer core in order to create a space between each wafer. He says convoluted wafers "are shipped stacked like Pringles potato chips. Staab says that depending on how you position the convoluted wafers an operator can make a broom more or less dense. "For general purposes, though, most contractors use either a combination of poly and wire or all poly." "Sometimes you see two wire and two poly because that will give you more wire throughout the broom and make for a more aggressive broom," he says. Stenzel says the most common wafer configuration on a broom is to alternate wire wafers with polypropylene wafers. Airport runways, for example, require a wire broom to cut the rubber left on the runway from airplane tires. "Wire is the cutting action and poly is the flick." He says the type of broom and bristle often depends on what the contractor is sweeping. "Polypropylene does more sweeping than wire does," he says. Stenzel says wafers are common in construction sweeping partly because there are more options of mixing poly and wire. "They can make dense heavy-duty brooms with smaller or fewer spaces, and they can also mix wire and polypropylene," he says. Vegter says construction companies, sweeping contractors and paving contractors replace existing brooms with wafers to customize Poly wafers will have maximum flick action, while wire wafers will have more abrasive power, and the combo wafer gives you the best of both. Wafers are available in either polypropylene or wire bristles (filaments) and are available in diameters to fit a variety of sweeping equipment. Typically there are 7 convoluted wafers or flat wafers per foot. Convoluted wavers create their own space due to their convoluted shape. space between each wafer on the broom core. Flat wafers come with spacers that create a 1-in. Wire and Polypropylene Wafers Vegter says the most-commonly used replacement brooms are wafers, available in both flat and convoluted styles. We want to make them aware of what's available to help them meet their needs." "We're not just in the business of selling brooms. "When our salesmen are in the field talking with contractors about their sweeping requirements they can help them decide what style broom works best," Staab says. "Most contractors put on what they take off."īut he says contractors should consider other types of replacement brooms because they can offer advantages. "The type of broom is often tied to the machine, tied to the application, and tied to the broom that was initially sold with the machine," Staab says. Staab says that as a rule, sweepers in the construction market primarily use wafers, while the municipal market uses tubes and strips. "If the sweeper comes with a tube broom they usually replace it with a tube broom and never give much thought to replacing that tube with a different type of broom. "The different styles of brooms are something not many people give much thought to," Vegter says. broom specialists - Harry Vegter, director of engineering salesman Perry Stenzel and Tom Staab, contracts & product compliance - offered insights into which replacement brooms contractors should consider and why one type might be considered over another.
Interviews with three United Rotary Brush Corp.
Primary replacement options are one-piece tube brooms, flat or convoluted wafers, and strip brooms, and all have their specific applications, reasons for use, and advantages and disadvantages. Replacing brooms as they wear out is, with tires, the most-common maintenance task contract sweepers handle.