Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

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CMS Purus Awards: the winners - Kärcher

2013 Purus Awards finalists: This year there were five prize-winners in three categories. Three exhibitors were selected as winners in the Machinery category because their products were so good, it was impossible to choose one over the other two. Who said there was never anything new in cleaning!

Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co. KG - one of the three, received this highly sought-after award for its BR 35/12 C compact scrubber-drier.

In explaining this choice, the chairman of the panel of judges, Dietmar Mühr, who is the founder and managing director of Plex GmbH, praised the use of different colours to indicate the controls, thus facilitating intuitive operation. John and I also liked this machine's incredible manoeuvreability and the way its head turned back on itself to allow real up-to-the-edge cleaning and drying. The company's Frank Schad explained that this new steering concept (KART - Karcher Advanced Response Technology) works so well because the steering wheel directly controls the machine's brush head, steering it in the direction of travel as it cleans and dries - whether it's moving forwards, backwards or sideways. Movement itself is easy as it is aided by the propulsive force of the roller and thanks to its high agility, the BR is 35/12 C is very good for use in tight spaces and in heavily furnished areas.

With the brush roller, the machine can also reliably clean highly textured floors. Moreover, it also has the capacity to combine the functions of sweeping, scrubbing and vacuuming. Optional roller brushes - for example pad or microfibre rollers - facilitate the easy cleaning of different floor surfaces with varying levels of pollution.

Moving the machine from one site to another is easy too as the stainless steel steering rod is height adjustable and can be folded down for transport. The maintenance-free, lithium -ion batteries, allow for significant weight savings when compared with conventional battery technology. They reduce the weight of the machine by a third to just 35 kg.

These batteries last up to three times longer than conventional batteries and can be fully charged in just three hours. If the machine is operated in the most resource-efficient eco! efficiency mode, battery running time is increased by about 50% and operation in this mode also reduces the machine's noise level by over a third, to just 62 dB(A). The machine also has a built-in charger.

Machine maintenance is easy as individual parts such as the brush head or sweeping unit can be reached in a few steps and cleaned. The recovery tank can be quickly and easily removed, emptied and cleaned too.

"Since the maintenance of the equipment is designed to be uncomplicated, setup time and service costs are reduced too," said Frank.

26th September 2013