Scrubber Dryers for Manufacturing
Manufacturing floors need robust machines matched to the specific soiling in each area, and most plants require more than one machine. Oil, swarf, coolant and production debris place demands on a scrubber dryer that a warehouse or retail floor does not, and the correct specification depends heavily on what is actually being produced.
What makes manufacturing floors demanding?
The soiling is the difference. Engineering and machining operations leave oil, grease and coolant on the floor, along with swarf and metal fragments. Food manufacturing brings organic soiling, fats and washdown water. Plastics and packaging shed granules and film. Each of these behaves differently under a scrubbing deck.
Floors are also often subject to heavy traffic from forklifts, pallet trucks and production equipment, and the floor itself may be sealed concrete, resin, epoxy or tiled depending on the process it supports.
Why does one machine rarely suit a whole plant?
A wide variety of requirements exist within this sector. Good advice and quite often a site visit are generally beneficial to be able to identify specific cleaning machine requirements throughout the facility. Often different machines are required for different elements of production, logistics and offices.
A single plant might contain a machining area with oil and swarf, a clean assembly area with resin flooring, a warehouse with sealed concrete, a canteen with tiles and offices with vinyl. Specifying one machine for all of it means compromising in every area, and the usual outcome is that the machine suits none of them well.
How do you deal with oil and grease?
Oil and grease need mechanical agitation and an appropriate detergent working together. Downward pressure matters here more than on most floors, because the contamination has to be lifted rather than smeared, and a brush generally outperforms a pad on heavily contaminated surfaces.
It is worth being realistic about what a scrubber dryer will achieve on a heavily oiled floor. Regular machine cleaning keeps contamination under control and prevents build-up. Where oil is deposited continuously, the answer usually combines machine cleaning with containment at the source rather than relying on the machine alone.
What about swarf and production debris?
Swarf, metal fragments and hard debris should be removed before scrubbing. Running a scrubbing deck over metal fragments damages brushes and pads, can tear squeegee blades, and risks driving debris across the floor surface.
A sweeper first is the usual answer, or an industrial vacuum where the debris is fine or valuable enough to recover. Where the debris is combustible dust, an ATEX-rated vacuum is the correct equipment and a standard machine is not appropriate.
→See also: The complete Floor Sweeper Guide and the ATEX Industrial Vacuum Guide
What size and type of machine suits a plant?
Production areas with open floors generally suit mid-size to large machines, with ride-on machines where the area is large and access allows. Areas congested with machinery, benches and pallets need pedestrian or articulated machines that can work around obstacles.
Robustness matters more here than in most sectors. A machine working in an engineering environment will meet harder debris and harsher contamination than one cleaning a retail floor, and specifying at the durable end of the range is usually the more economical decision over the life of the machine.
How do shift patterns affect the choice?
Many plants run continuously, so there may be no quiet period for cleaning at all. That pushes the specification towards machines that are safe and practical to use around working staff, and towards battery machines that avoid trailing leads across production areas.
Ensure you have a suitable area to allow safe charging for multiple hours if a battery machine is your choice. Where the plant runs several shifts, faster charging becomes valuable, since the machine may need to be available more than once a day.
Let us walk the plant with you
Manufacturing facilities rarely suit a single specification. We will assess each area, identify what is genuinely needed across production, logistics and offices, and demonstrate machines on your own floors with no obligation.
Call CFM on 01677 426699 or request a no obligation demonstration online.