Mobile vacuum loader

Abstract

An industrial loader vehicle, handling both wet and dry materials, has a single engine driving the vehicle to a pick-up site, powering all of the components to load the vehicle at the site, driving the vehicle to an unloading site and dumping the materials as desired at the unloading site. A powerful blower develops a high velocity air stream through a pick-up inlet conduit and a collector chamber tiltable on the vehicle for easy dumping of the collected material. A swingable and tiltable boom mounted on top of the collector presents the conduit for easy access to material located around and above the vehicle. The high velocity air stream sweeps the material through the conduit into the top of the collector chamber where it drops to the bottom of the chamber. The blower and surrounding environment are protected from materials entrained in the air stream by bag filters and cyclone separators mounted on the front end of the collector to tilt therewith. The air outlet of the cyclone separator communicates with the blower through a self-sealing coupling and if desired a micro-filter may be interposed between this coupling and the blower. Gates accessible from the outside of the collector selectively direct the exiting air to the bag filters and cyclone separators for dry pick-up or to the cyclone separator for wet pick-up. The air received by the blower and discharged to the environment is thus freed from particulate matter. The vehicle is especially useful as a vacuum cleaner for debris to be transported to a dump.