The electrical tricycle: a new concept in road cleaning

The new times, characterised by the limitations imposed by the municipal budgets and the exigencia of the citizens, force to look for new concepts, to change the chip, in the sector of the Public Services. The city councils, increasingly tensionados economically and with scarce possibilities to increase his income, find in the paradoja to have a very demanding population, that sues some high levels of quality in the services of cleaning.

On the other hand, the big urbes, with high population, big avenues, high travel and wide zones of leisure, force to resort to the mechanisation to be able to reach the cleaning in all his surface, being the treatments mechanised current very gravosos and with perspectives to be it even more.

It is necessary to attend besides to the new criteria of mobility, sustainability, PRL, etc, if it wants to aspire to loan some services of cleaning that the citizens perceive as of quality. New criteria that force to have of a very costly equipment, so much regarding his acquisition as to his operation, and sophisticated, that involves a specialisation and a greater remuneration for the operarios that handle them.

The Services of Municipal Cleaning find as in a situation complicated to paginate cost and quality. Constant cuts in the destined budgets to the public services put in question the can reach these already assumed standards by the population. Like this, the municipalities are seeing forced to reduce his budgets so much in big as in small cities, are reducing the number of destined people to the services of cleaning and even is leaving to collect the rubbish some day of the week. How paginate this with the maintenance of the current levels of cleaning?

Confront us, therefore, to a challenge produced by the strong reductions in the municipal income and the limitations to the indebtedness that become in the necessary contraction of the municipal budgets, situation that paradoxically is necessary to paginate with some high levels of quality in the public services that loan to his citizens. All this limits also the realisation of new investments and will force, and this will be notable, to choose treatments and operative processes very efficient and with low operative costs. Surpass this challenge, adapting us to said situation, is the aim of the Municipal Public Services.

The solution happens, without place to doubts, by the concepts ‘Smart', acronym so fashionable in these times. We will not abound here in his meaning, but can translate it of form abbreviated in “being effective doing without all the superfluo”. Something as well as the Low Cost of the Public Services.

The manufacturers of machinery of road cleaning: sweepers, baldeadoras, blowers, vehicles of cleaning, etc, also confront already to the need to attend to these new needs of the market, by what have to think in realising some designs with costs of production and operation more reduced, conceiving some electromechanical developments simpler and economic, designs that, however, have to keep a high provision, at the same time that they have to allow optimise the administration of the human resources. All this antoja indispensable to be competitive in an immediate future.

In the account of exploitation of the Municipal Services of Cleaning the human resource always has translated in a weight porcentual very high, around the 70 and even 80%. Of the same way, in the services of road cleaning the manual scanning has been, traditionally, the treatment of cleaning more employed and the one who greater needs of personnel has required. Manual scanning that has realised with a carrito of cleaning and diverse typology of escobas and recogedores.

The new methods of cleaning translate in increasing the efficiency of the conventional scanning but reducing it, increasing other treatments mechanised, and modifying it, when entering the concept of review.

In the first place, can affirm that the background dirt, the dust and the fine, are difficult to sweep, máxime when the paving is not smooth, by what imposes the need to blow/aspire, with mixed scanning, or drag, this is, resort to the baldeo mixed. Treatments that to day of today result very costly.

The challenge with these treatments is to achieve of the manufacturers, as we said before, a more efficient machinery, that allow a lower investment and an operative to low cost. However, at present, it produces all the contrary, the machinery of scanning and baldeo is increasingly costly, more sophisticated and difficult to keep.

The particular challenge of the manufacturers is that, achieve by means of the simplicity in the design, reduce the costs of acquisition of these equipment, doing them compatible with the necessary robustness that requires them by his special instructions for use, and the low consumption. Market does not go them to be missing place that the scannings and baldeos mechanised do increasingly necessary, to the equal that results necessary to reduce these costs.

And if this achieve it, what is not little, once disappeared of economic form the background dirt, working already on a clean ‘paving', would have to tend to substitute, whenever we can, the manual scanning by a ‘review' consistent in withdrawing all those objects that can appear in the floor dragged by the wind, from the desbordes of the containers or simply of which have given off the citizens to the not using the papeleras: papers, newspapers, magazines, packages of tobacco, stock exchanges, bottles, etc… and that so much condition the perception of cleaning.

This designated ‘review' represents a distinct concept of the manual scanning but that however seems him a lot, since what differentiates it is the mobility increased of the operario of cleaning, mobility that besides has to achieve with an agile vehicle, of big accessibility, even with capacity to move by steeled, economic, simple and of low cost of operation.

Lipasam Pretends, to short and half term, transform his operations of cleaning and happen of an intensive work in personnel of manual scanning to some works characterised by the works mechanised and the ‘repasos'.

Centring us in the concept of ‘review', Lipasam comes collaborating with different manufacturers and purchasing diverse electrical tricycles of the existent in the market with which comes realising proofs from does months of experimental form and in distinct applications with the intention to test and develop a commercial electrical tricycle, with distinct typologies, for this type of treatment and other affine treatments.

The basic characteristics that demanded him to this element of mobility increased to low cost were the ones to be a vehicle that meant an investment reduced, that was light, of big mobility, that could displace by narrow places, by the steeled and even by the lane bici, of big simplicity, that generated the lower environingingmental impact possible and with a low operative consumption and of maintenance.

After the essays realised with the different equipment that have gone purchasing, and with the experience accumulated, Machinery Grau has designed in collaboration with Lipasam an electrical tricycle that, under the denomination SmartWorker, that answers to these characteristics.

The SmartWorker is a vehicle designed for the Road Cleaning that it can be driven by any type of operario, does not require neither specialisation neither any type of carnet, endowed with the essential elements of manual scanning -even can transport a carrito of road cleaning- and that contributes a series of advantages that do it very recommended for the uses to that goes to allocate .

The vehicle has 2 electrical motors of 350W of nominal power and 500 W of maximum power, 2 batteries extraíbles of ion-lithium of 36 V 10 Ah., 2 controllers LED independent, is built on chassis of aluminium, account optionally with rear bridge carries implementos, and comes endowed of series with brake of leading disk and rear brakes of mordaza.

Possesses suspension in the leading fork and in the rear is adjustable. The seat is regulable in height, possesses 3 wheels of 20", lights type LED and bell. His weight, very reduced, 62 kg, do it, to the equal that his reduced dimensions, 1700x1004x1070 very maniobrable.

Reaches a speed of until 30 km/h, that it will be necessary to limit probably in city by normative questions and has of an autonomy of until 50 km with the disposal of 1+1 batteries. His batteries only need a time of load of 4 to 6 hours.

The vehicle also has important advantages to consider:

• It allows to reduce staff travel costs to your scan area. Lipasam spends annually on the order of 300,000 a year this concept and moves to more than 250 workers to their place of work daily.
• It allows to reduce loss of time travel. Average travel times, per day, may be in more than 45 min.
• Simple design and low weight. Allows even carry your own cleaning cart.
• Movements with total absence of noise.
• Total absence of contamination. The reduction of CO₂ into the atmosphere by the Elimination of buses, can be around 50 t/year
• Maintenance and operating costs reduced to a minimum. Its power consumption is 0.70 cents per 100 km

On the other hand the methodology of work in manual scanning/repasos can change the form to operate of a certainly notable form:

1. The operario accesses to his zone of scanning of a fast and economic form saving in costs of transport and in time of trip.

2. From the start of his day the operario already has all his tools of work, does not have to look for them in his point of destination (cuartelillos).

3. His itinerary is susceptible to see modified of form almost instantaneous by needs of the service or in front of unforeseen contingencies.

4. The operario, that before “did not have why think”, now can organise his work of selective form, prioritising those more notable works of selective form. The operario can visit initially his zone of scanning and proceed to select the blackheads in which initiate his work to attend finally the cleanest zones.

5. The operario can circulate by the lanes bici, or even by the steeled, with what has of a direct and near vision of the zones to clean, without the interference that would find by the vehicles parked, or other visual obstacles, if it circulated by the shod.

6. His capacity to circulate by zones of steeled, by alleys and narrow places allows to make compatible the work on foot with the mobility, conjugando a fast answer to the needs of cleaning of the zones to sweep.

7. The ligereza of the vehicle allows that it was pushed easily, like a car of traditional scanning, allowing a big flexibility in his daily use.

8. This form to proceed improvement the perception that, of the service, obtain the citizens, since the operario does more visible when increasing his presence in a zone of work that will visit several times. Like this the citizen can see it in several occasions, or at least will increase the probability to see it each day in the zone in which it develops his works of cleaning.

9. On the other hand we find us with a very sustainable vehicle from the environingingmental punto, does not issue noises and does not contaminate. His life does not have why be short and possesses quite a lot of robustness.

10. The vehicle is very polyvalent, since it can him endow of different equipment to realise different treatments, even of baldeo in zones of Historical Helmet or of Ancient Helmet, whenever these have mouths of irrigation.

11. His design includes optionally a ball of tow universal that allows him tow platforms, even that the same are volteables, for the transport of cubes or of all type of tooling.

A vehicle of this nature will contribute to change our methodology of work regarding the works of cleaning in the big city, will change the mentality of our operarios and his form to work, and his design and application corresponds besides to the times. It is modern, requires little investment, is polyvalent, sustainable and his operative costs, consumption and maintenance, are minimum. We expect that his final application answer to the expectations that goes to wake up in the sector.