Clean sweep of the Severn bridge
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• After making a clean sweep of Blackpool tramlines in a demonstration which brought praise from Cult. I. R. H. Battersby, vice-chairman of the corporation highways and works committee, the Lacre Module road sweeper /collector is to demonstrate its capabilities on no less a challenge than the Severn Bridge. A group of officials and highway officers will watch the 5ft-wide three-wheeler show its manoeuvrability on the bridge in an experiment in sweeping dirt and other debris from the whole length of the structure.
Manufactured by Lacre Ltd, of Long Acre, London, the Module made its debut last year at the Public Works and Municipal Services Exhibition and since then has been in demand by municipal authorities throughout the country.
Lacre Ltd designed the Module to bridge the gap between the full-sized road sweeper, On a commercial vehicle chassis, and the really small type. The Module is fitted with brushes of a power normally associated with larger machines. The main brush, multi-segment hydraulically driven, is in Perlon, with a diameter of 27.56in. a width of 35.43in. and a speed of 360 rpm. Gutter brushes, retractable and individually operated, are mounted on each side. Each has a diameter 'of 31.5in. and is made of flat, hardened and tempered steel wire. These brushes each have a speed of 90 rpm.
The Module's self-contained dirt
container has a capacity of 1 cu yd, and tipping is hydraulically controlled from the side of the chassis. Water tank capacity is 60gal. The Module can be loaded on to a pallet, which itself can be loaded on to the rear of a standard skip-carrying vehicle. This drives the Module to its sweeping site, unloads the pallet and Module and allows the latter to continue with its work.
In the meantime, a standard skip is brought to the site by the transporter. The Module discharges into the skip whenever its own dirt container is full, and when the skip is full it is loaded onto the lorry while the Module continues its sweeping.
This Lacre Module system eliminates the need for the sweeper itself to make journeys to the tip, thus greatly increasing sweeping utilization. The lorry is able to make several rapid return journeys to the tip with full toads, while the Module itself continues throughout the day with its sweeping job.
Lacre Ltd estimates that the Module is capable of up to 10 times as much work within a given period as it is reasonable to expect from one man working manually. Only one operator is needed, or two if the Module system using a lorry and container is employed. The saving in labour, claims Lacre, rapidly recoups its price which is £4500.