Left In The Dust - Industrial Vacuum Cleaners Outperform Sweeping, Shop-Style Vacs

Today, plant maintenance is more important than ever before. Food manufacturers of all shapes and sizes have been put under the microscope regarding worker health and safety, environmental concern and customer well-being. More stringent quality standards and regulations have taken plant cleanliness to a whole new level, and turned simple housekeeping into an issue of complexity. While mops, brooms, compressed air, and shop-style vacuums all have their place in maintenance plans, many plant managers underestimate the direct and indirect costs associated with purchasing inefficient equipment, and ultimately end up paying tens of thousands of dollars more in labor, health insurance, and other costs.

Believe it or not, many facilities still clean their plants the old-fashioned way. For example, prior to purchasing a high-quality industrial vacuum cleaner, Harris Woolf Almonds in Coalinga, CA, the state’s largest almond producer, was battling fine almond dust with a small army of workers equipped with brooms and dust pans. Cleaning around the clock to combat dust that settled on floors, walls, pipes, and machinery was absolutely necessary— despite being a breeding ground for insects, almond dust can also be a fire hazard, and as plant managers have learned in one too many recent tragedies, combustible dust cannot be ignored.

Similar to Harris Woolf, most manufacturers that use mops and brooms start at the top of their plant and work their way down, sweeping away dust and debris as they go. This process is not only time consuming, but actually just redisperses the particles back into the air, especially if using compressed air. Mops and brooms can also promote contamination by spreading bacteria from one piece of machinery to another.