Sweeper with a skirt assembly

A floor surface maintenance machine, comprising

• a body;
• wheels for supporting the body for movement over a surface along a first direction;
• a hopper for containing particulate swept by the floor surface maintenance machine;
• a cleaning tool chamber comprising a front side, lateral sides and a rear side, wherein the rear side is generally toward the rear of a transverse axis of the floor surface maintenance machine when the floor surface maintenance machine is moving along the first direction;
• one or more rotary brooms extending from a bottom surface of the body, the rotary broom adapted to sweep particulate from the surface and direct it toward the hopper, the rotary broom housed in the cleaning tool chamber;
• a vacuum system adapted to generate vacuum for drawing particulate swept by the rotary broom and directing it to the hopper;
• and
• a skirt assembly comprising two rows of skirts
• the skirt assembly having a vacuum passage defined between the two rows of skirts and in fluid communication with the vacuum system, the two rows of skirts extending substantially around the lateral sides and the rear side of the cleaning tool chamber, the two rows of skirts terminating on the front side to define an inlet of the vacuum system to direct particulate within the rear side and the lateral sides of the vacuum passage toward the front side of the cleaning tool chamber and into the hopper,
• an inner row of the two rows of skirts substantially fluidly isolating the cleaning tool chamber from the vacuum passage, whereby airflow in the cleaning tool chamber does not generally affect vacuum airflow in the vacuum passage.

A floor surface maintenance machine, comprising

• a body;
• wheels for supporting the body for movement over a surface along a first direction;
• one or more rotary brooms extending from a bottom surface of the body, the rotary broom adapted to sweep particulate from the surface;
• and
• a skirt assembly comprising an inner skirt positioned proximal to the rotary broom and an outer skirt spaced apart from the inner skirt, the inner and outer skirt defining a vacuum passage therebetween in fluid communication with a vacuum system for drawing particulate swept by the rotary broom,
• the skirt assembly extending on a rear side of the one or more rotary brooms, such that the vacuum passage extends on the rear side of the one or more rotary brooms,
• each of the inner and outer skirts not extending around a front side opposite to the rear side,
• the skirt assembly having a pair of lateral vacuum passages extending on lateral sides between the front side and the rear side, the lateral vacuum passages providing vacuum communication between the vacuum passage on the rear side and an inlet to the vacuum system on the front side,
• the inner skirt extending continuously on the rear side such that the inner skirt forms a fluid seal extending continuously along the rear side between the one or more rotary brooms and the outer skirt, such that particulate from within the vacuum passage is drawn toward an inlet of the vacuum system positioned on the front side, via the lateral vacuum passages,
• an edge of the outer skirt being spaced apart from a surface on which the floor surface maintenance machine is positioned, so as to form a first gap,
• the vacuum passage being fluidly isolated from the rotary broom when the inner skirt contacts the surface on which the floor surface maintenance machine is positioned.