FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to cleaning systems and apparatuses and more particularly to a road cleaning apparatus mounted to a vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Road cleaning has always been a major issue around the world 5 and more so in developing and under developed countries. There may natural factors as well as man-made factors responsible for the dirtiness of the roads. Dust, pollution, littering of waste materials by people on roads etc. are few of those factors. In spite of the numerous rules, regulations and fines imposed by the government, people still are a major factor 10 contributing to the dirtiness of the roads. Unclean/dirty roads raise a major problem of hygiene and may become a cause for diseases spread due to unhygienic conditions.
Various efforts have been made and there are various solutions that are presently implemented for maintaining the cleanliness of the 15 roads. In almost all the cities, a municipal body of a city assigns its workers that are solely working towards cleaning the roads manually on a daily basis. Other than these there are various machines such as air blowers, water jets that are usually used on major roads and highways to clear the waste materials and clean the roads. Additionally, another one of 20 the most common method of road cleaning has been the use of large vacuum cleaners to pick-up and collect waste materials from the road.
But the above-mentioned solutions have certain problems. Cleaning of roads manually by workers requires a lot of effort and is time consuming. Additionally, it is not healthy for the workers as well as the 25 public as manually clearing of roads spreads a lot of dust particles in the air. Additionally, the air blowers, water jets and vacuum cleaners have
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high power requirements and high cost. Besides, it is difficult to control the spreading of dust particles in the air in case of the air blowers. Air blowers generally blow the waste materials away to a particular corner and then the collected waste materials have to be manually picked up an taken away. Further, the water jet leads to a lot of water usage/wastage and 5 water is too precious a source to waste. Water drainage may be another problem in some areas. The problem with vacuum cleaners, apart from high power requirement, is that the vacuum cleaners cannot pick-up small/lightweight packets or small leaves that are scattered on the roads. Additionally, the vacuum cleaners most of the time require personnel to 10 hold the suction pipe to clear a dirty zone on the road.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an effective road cleaning apparatus which does not suffer from above mentioned limitations and or atleast provide a viable alternative to the existing solutions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 15
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a road cleaning apparatus mounted on a vehicle. The road cleaning apparatus comprises a conveyor belt system having a first end and a second end, inclined at a predetermined angle between the second end and the ground, a plurality of pick-up brushes transversely disposed on a conveyor 20 belt of the conveyor belt system, a collector plate disposed proximal to the second end of the conveyor belt, a trash collector disposed proximal to the first end of the conveyor belt and a power source connected with the conveyor belt system. Further, the power source is configured to power the conveyor belt system and start the motion of the conveyor belt. 25 Additionally, the plurality of pick-up brushes are configured to move along with the conveyor belt in the same direction as the conveyor belt, push the trash from ground onto to the collector plate, along the motion of the conveyor belt and dispose the trash from the collector plate on a top
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surface of the conveyor belt at the second end as the motion of the conveyor belt continues. Moreover, the conveyor belt is configured to transport the trash to the trash collector placed proximal to the first end.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the vehicle is selected from a group comprising, but not limited to, carts, 5 carriage and automobiles.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the trash comprises, but not limited to, dry waste materials.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the predetermined angle is in the range of, but not limited to, 0-60°. 10
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of pick-up brushes are replaceable.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of pick-up brushes have bristles selected from a group comprising, but not limited to, plastic bristles, nylon bristles, wooden 15 bristles, metallic bristles and carbon fibre bristles.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the power source is selected from a group comprising, but not limited to, a battery or an engine.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 20
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may have been referred by examples, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate 25 only typical examples of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other
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equally effective examples.
These and other features, benefits, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent by reference to the following text figure, with like reference numbers referring to like structures across the views, wherein: 5
Fig. 1 illustrates a road cleaning apparatus mounted on a vehicle, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
While the present invention is described herein by way of example using embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will 10 recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments of drawing or drawings described and are not intended to represent the scale of the various components. Further, some components that may form a part of the invention may not be illustrated in certain figures, for ease of illustration, and such omissions do not limit the embodiments outlined in 15 any way. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. As used throughout 20 this description, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e. meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense, (i.e. meaning must). Further, the words "a" or "an" mean "at least one” and the word “plurality” means “one or more” unless otherwise mentioned. Furthermore, the terminology and phraseology used herein is solely used 25 for descriptive purposes and should not be construed as limiting in scope. Language such as "including," "comprising," "having," "containing," or "involving," and variations thereof, is intended to be broad and encompass the subject matter listed thereafter, equivalents, and additional subject
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matter not recited, and is not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers or steps. Likewise, the term "comprising" is considered synonymous with the terms "including" or "containing" for applicable legal purposes. Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles and the like is included in the specification solely for the 5 purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not suggested or represented that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention.
In this disclosure, whenever a composition or an element or a 10 group of elements is preceded with the transitional phrase “comprising”, it is understood that we also contemplate the same composition, element or group of elements with transitional phrases “consisting of”, “consisting”, “selected from the group of consisting of, “including”, or “is” preceding the recitation of the composition, element or group of elements and vice versa. 15
The present invention is described hereinafter by various embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein reference numerals used in the accompanying drawing correspond to the like elements throughout the description. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited 20 to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the following detailed description, numeric values and ranges are provided for various aspects of the implementations described. These values and ranges are to be treated 25 as examples only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims. In addition, a number of materials are identified as suitable for various facets of the implementations. These materials are to be treated as exemplary, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
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Figure 1 illustrates a road cleaning apparatus (100), in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in figure 1, the svehicle (160) is selected from a group comprising, but not limited to, carts, carriage and automobiles (such as tractors, trucks, electric vehicles etc.). The vehicle (160) may also be connected as a trailer behind other 5 vehicles such as, but not limited to, a tractor or an e-rickshaw. The road cleaning apparatus (100) is envisaged to clean trash (110) from the ground (170) without the use of any vacuum cleaners, water jets or air blowers. The trash (110) may be, but not limited to, dry waste materials such as leaves, small plastic packets, waste papers, dust, disposable 10 materials, organic waste etc.
The road cleaning apparatus (100) comprises a conveyor belt system (120) having a first end (1202) and a second end (1204). The conveyor belt system (120) may include, but not limited to, two or more sets of pulleys, each set including two or more pulleys connected by a 15 cylindrical shaft, a conveyor belt (1210) running between respective cylindrical shafts of the two or more sets of pulleys and an actuator means. The first end (1202) is envisaged to be higher than the second end (1204) and the second end (1204) is envisaged to be proximal to the ground (170). The conveyor belt system (120) is, therefore, inclined at a 20 predetermined angle between the second end (1204) and the ground (170). The predetermined angle may be in the range, but not limited to, 0-60°. The ground (170), as shown in figure 1, may be, but not limited to, a road, a street, a footpath or a floor of a complex such as a mall.
Further included in the road cleaning apparatus (100) is a plurality 25 of pick-up brushes (130). The plurality of pick-up brushes (130) are transversely disposed on the conveyor belt (1210) of the conveyor belt system (120). This allows the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) to move along the conveyor belt (1210) in the same direction as the conveyor belt (1210). The plurality of pick-up brushes (130) are disposed after a 30
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predetermined gap between each of the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) on the conveyor belt (1210). The predetermined gap may be in the range of 20cm – 50cm. Each of the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) may be, but not limited to, perpendicular to the side-edge of the conveyor belt (1210) or provided at any other angle from the side edges of the conveyor belt 5 (1210). Each of the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) have a plurality of bristles. The plurality of bristles are selected from a group comprising, but not limited to, plastic bristles, nylon bristles, wooden bristles, metallic bristles and carbon fibre bristles. In one embodiment, each of the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) have same kind of plurality of bristles. In another 10 embodiment, each or few of the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) have different kind of plurality of bristles selected from the above-mentioned kinds.
Additionally, the road cleaning apparatus (100) comprises a collector plate (150) disposed proximal to the second end (1204) of the 15 conveyor belt (1210). The collector plate (150) is connected to the vehicle (160) from one end and may be connected with the conveyor belt system (120) from the other. Besides, the collector plate (150) may have curved profile and may include one or more bends. The collector plate (150) includes a receptacle that is capable of collecting materials. The 20 placement is collector plate (150) is done in such a way that the plurality of bristles of each of the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) may reach every portion of the receptacle during the motion of the conveyor belt (1210) and remove any material contained therein. The collector plate (150) may be made of material selected from one of, but not limited to, metal, alloy or 25 plastic.
Moreover, the road cleaning apparatus (100) also comprises a trash collector (140) disposed proximal to the first end (1202) of the conveyor belt (1210). The trash collector (140) may be, but not limited to, a box or a bag, capable of collecting and storing any material. The 30
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placement of the trash collector (140) is done in such a way that any material on the conveyor belt (1210) falls directly into the trash collector (140) when the conveyor belt (1210) turns around cylindrical shaft (at the first end (1202)) during the motion. Moreover, the plurality of bristles are envisaged to rub against the edges of an opening (1410) of the trash 5 collector (140) to remove any material that might be stuck on the plurality of bristles and make the stuck material fall into the trash collector (140). The trash collector (140) may be made of a material selected form a group comprising, but not limited to, a metal, an alloy or a plastic. Moreover, the trash collector (140) may be replaced and/or emptied once it is filled. 10
Also included in the road cleaning apparatus (100) is a power source (150) capable of powering the conveyor belt system (120). The power source (150) is selected from a group comprising, but not limited to, a battery or an engine. In case of an automobile, the power source (150) may be the engine of the automobile that provide power to the actuator of 15 the conveyor belt system (120). In case of carts, carriages or any other manually or electrically propelled vehicle, the power source (150) may be a battery that may provide necessary power to the actuator of the conveyor belt system (120) to the drive the conveyor belt system (120).
The invention works in following manner: 20
The road cleaning apparatus (100) configured to clear the path that it travels on, by picking-up and collecting the trash (110) that comes in the way. This is achieved in the following manner. The power source (150) powers the conveyor belt system (120) and starts the motion of the conveyor belt (1210) as well as the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) 25 disposed on the conveyor belt (1210). The plurality of pick-up brushes (130) of the conveyor belt (1210) facing the ground (170), come in contact with the trash (110) spread on the ground (170). Then as the conveyor belt (1210) rotates, the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) are configured to
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push the trash (110) from ground (170) onto to the collector plate (150). Further, the trash (110) is disposed from the collector plate (150) to a top surface of the conveyor belt (1210) as the bristles of the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) move through the receptacle of the collector plate (150).
The trash (110) stays in place on the conveyor belt (1210) in the 5 predetermined gaps provided between the two consecutive plurality of pick-up brushes (130). After that the conveyor belt (1210) is configured to transport the trash (110) to the trash collector (140) proximal to the first end (1202). As the conveyor belt (1210) turns around the cylindrical shaft at the first end (1202) during the motion, the trash (110) falls directly into 10 the trash collector (140). Further, the plurality of bristles rub against the edges of the opening (1410) of the trash collector (140) to remove any trash (110) that might be stuck of the plurality of bristles and the stuck trash (110) (if any) also falls into the trash collector (140). While this process is being facilitated the vehicle (160) continues its motion. The 15 vehicle (160) may or may not have to be stopped to clear a particular segment of the ground (170). Once the trash collector (140) is completely filled, the trash collector (140) may be replaced or emptied as per the convenience of a user.
The present invention offers a number of advantages. Firstly, the 20 present invention provides a simple and cost-effective solution to the problems of the prior art. Additionally, the whole assembly of the road cleaning apparatus may be mounted on a vehicle that may utilise the road cleaning apparatus to clean the roads on the go. Additionally, the road cleaning apparatus may also be mounted on a manually or electrically 25 propelled vehicles to clean areas having smaller width such as footpaths, streets etc. The major advantage provided by the present invention is that it may pick up trash material as small and as light as small plastic packets, dust, leaves etc. that could otherwise be easily missed by the vacuum cleaners presently used. Moreover, the present invention does not have 30
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high power requirement due to simplicity of components used in the assembly as opposed to the power requirements for running the vacuum cleaners, air blowers etc. In addition, the collector plate covers and prevents the flying dust particles during the cleaning operation.
Various modifications to these embodiments are apparent from the 5 description to those skilled in the art. The principles associated with the various embodiments described herein may be applied to other embodiments. Therefore, the description is not intended to be limited to the embodiments but is to be providing broadest scope consistent with the principles and the novel and inventive features disclosed and/or suggested 10 herein. Accordingly, the invention is anticipated to hold on to all other such alternatives, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the present invention and appended claims.

We Claim:
1. A road cleaning apparatus (100) mounted on a vehicle (160), the road cleaning apparatus (100) comprising:
a conveyor belt system (120) having a first end (1202) and a second end (1204), inclined at a predetermined angle between the second end (1204) and the ground (170);
a plurality of pick-up brushes (130) transversely disposed on a conveyor belt (1210) of the conveyor belt system (120);
a collector plate (150) disposed proximal to the second end (1204) of the conveyor belt system (120);
a trash collector (140) disposed proximal to the first end (1202) of the conveyor belt system (120); and
a power source (150) connected with the conveyor belt system (120);
wherein the power source (150) is configured to power the conveyor belt system (120) and start the motion of the conveyor belt (1210);
wherein the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) are configured to:
move along with the conveyor belt (1210) in the same direction as the conveyor belt (1210);
push the trash (110) from ground (170) onto to the collector plate (150), along the motion of the conveyor belt (1210); and
dispose the trash (110) from the collector plate (150) on a top surface of the conveyor belt (1210) at the second end (1204) as the motion of the conveyor belt (1210) continues;
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wherein the conveyor belt (1210) is configured to transport the trash (110) to the trash collector (140) placed proximal to the first end (1202).
2. The road cleaning apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vehicle (160) is selected from a group comprising carts, carriage and automobiles.
3. The road cleaning apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the trash (110) comprises dry waste materials.
4. A road cleaning apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined angle is in the range of 0-60°.
5. The road cleaning apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) are replaceable.
6. The road cleaning apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of pick-up brushes (130) have bristles selected from a group comprising plastic bristles, nylon bristles, wooden bristles, metallic bristles and carbon fibre bristles.
7. The road cleaning apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the power source (150) is selected from a group comprising a battery or an engine.