Tennant Company

Craig Daniel Block

Robert Erko

Karl R Hansen

Richard F Milun

Musibau O Alowonle

Disclosed herein is a street sweeper having a vertical chain driven conveyor apparatus. The vertical chain driven conveyor apparatus is provided with a jointed shaft to compensate for chain wear over the life of the chains. The vertical chain driven conveyor apparatus is provided with an automatically adjusting chain tension adjustment system. The vertical chain driven conveyor apparatus is provided with locking adjustment mechanism to prevent the chains from losing tension when the sweeper is turned off. An initialization program is operable to restore chain tension when the street sweeper is started and prevent sweeping operations until a desired chain tension has been indicated.

Chain driven conveyor having automatic tensioning street sweeping method and system

A power management system for a surface maintenance machine, such as a street sweeper is disclosed. The system includes a variable speed engine for transporting the surface maintenance machine, a hydraulic pump powered by the engine, a vacuum fan motor powered by the hydraulic pump, an engine speed sensor coupled to the engine, an electric proportional valve coupled between the hydraulic pump and the vacuum fan motor, said valve for selectively restricting a flow rate to the vacuum fan motor, and a control unit operatively coupled to the engine speed sensor and the proportional valve, said control unit receiving engine speed information from the engine speed sensor and communicating a predetermined signal to the proportional valve to control the flow rate to the vacuum fan motor as a function of engine speed. A method of managing engine power from a single-engine street sweeper is also disclosed.

Growing community of inventors

St. Louis Park, MN, United States of America

Craig Daniel Block