1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning machine, especially for professional cleaning and having two parallel and cylindrical brushes driven in reverse directions about a horizontal axis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In commercial cleaning of large floor spaces as e.g. in super markets, sales rooms, schools, sports centres, nursing homes, hospitals and industrial premises having a solid flooring such as linoleum, marble tiles, wood, an initial mopping is carried out to remove loose dirt from the floor. This is typically carried out manually by using mops. Then a mechanical washing of the floor is carried out and if required a polishing of the floor can finish the job. This is also performed mechanically, but the polishing cannot begin until the floor has dried after washing. Such a cleaning demands three individual workings of the floor at the same time waiting for the floor to dry before the polishing can be initiated.
The type of floor washers which are most frequently used are based on rotating brush roundels, typically two or three. The cleaning agent is dispensed in the center of the roundels and in some cases at the front. After the roundels there is a suction foot consisting of two closely set rubber lips from which surplus water left after the roundels is sucked up into a collecting tank. The floor is left sufficiently dry for it to be walked on, but not sufficiently dry to be polished immediately. Certain large power driven models of floor washers have a rotating cylindrical horizontal brush intended to sweep the floor in front of the roundels. The brush, however, sweeps the dirt forwardly into a funnel situated in front and raised above floor level, which is not particularly effective. This type of floor washer is also unable to function when close to walls or racks.
Another type of floor washer that has come on the market comprises a rotating, cylindrical, horizontal brush at either side of a collecting tank. A vertical rubber belt is placed between the brushes and the tank. The brushes sweep the dirty detergent towards the rubber belts, it is fed upwardly and is scraped off at the upper edge of the collecting tank and falls down. The washer has the advantage over the aforementioned type that it can come closer to walls and racks and that dirt that has not been collected at one brush can be collected by the reversed rotation of the other one. Despite its virtues this floor washer, too, is only capable of performing a washing of the floor.