You often hear people claiming that “there is nothing left to invent any more!” And this might even be true, but we would have to ignore all the improvements made possible by combining technologies in new ways. Because even widely used technologies, taken from their original context and applied and combined in new ways, can open up whole new areas of knowledge.
There is still a lot to invent, therefore. Indeed, the more mature technologies we have at our disposal, the more unprecedented new combinations we can try.
Innovation, of course, is not for everyone: you must be able to look beyond things as they are. You need to take one step forward and then one step back to examine things first at close hand and then from a distance. Because only from a distance can you see the object for what it really is, and not for its role and meaning in a specific context.
This is exactly what happened at Eureka, when our design team conceived, tested, and patented BULLsystem, a technology that is destined to revolutionise the world of industrial sweepers.
Cleaning specialists have long known that the best results in waste collection are achieved using a machine with a front-loading or forward-throw sweeping system. As the sweeper moves forward, the cylindrical main brush rotates, with its bristles sweeping the ground in the opposite direction to travel, collecting dust and debris and projecting it into the hopper in front of the brush. If the hopper were placed behind the brush, the dirt would have to be lifted over the brush in order to reach the debris hopper. To achieve good results, this second system would require faster brush rotation, and this would inevitably consume more energy and lead to more rapid bristle wear. The brush would also be unlikely to lift heavy debris high enough to collect it.
That is why a front-loading system is better: it's more efficient at picking up all kinds of dirt, uses less energy and needs fewer replacement brushes due to less bristle wear.
Only until now, it was always thought that a front-loading dust collection system could only be mounted in front of the operator’s seat. In this position, however, especially when large, hydraulically emptied debris hoppers are installed, operator visibility is greatly reduced, making the sweeper more hazardous and difficult to manoeuvre.
Many machines with debris hoppers at the rear certainly exist, but none have a front-loading system. To satisfy the need for good operator visibility, manoeuvrability and safety, these machines have had to sacrifice the possibility of installing the best available cleaning system.
