Tennant S16 Ride-On Floor Sweeper | 2018-2020

Designers: Peter Tabeling, John Ickes, Tennant Industrial Design, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA
Manufacturer: Tennant Industrial Design, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA

The S16 is a commercial and industrial, battery-powered, ride-on sweeper. The compact machine features a sweeping side brush and an overthrow main brush that is vacuumized to contain dust.
Dirty environments can lead to slippery floors and poor air quality. Sweeping by hand is time consuming, menial, and only moderately effective. The S16 provides an efficient, comfortable solution to this cleaning challenge.

In addition to hard flooring, it can also clean large carpeted areas like airports or convention centers where vacuuming is difficult and time prohibitive.

Construction: The S16 is built on a platform that can accommodate two different hopper versions: a high and low dump. The main distinguishing feature of these two variants is the towers which house the high dump lift mechanism.

To create visual harmony between the two versions, a variation of the lift tower structure was retained for all models. This design strategy enabled one primary machine aesthetic between the two variations.

As a result, the final product offerings create a “big brother-little brother” family appearance. To maintain common operator ergonomics and steering system serviceability, a modular front shroud was also employed.

Use: Emptying the machine is easy whether it is a low or high dump machine. Light debris can be easily dumped by hand with a low, removable hopper.

Heavier debris is easily disposed with the optional, powered high dump. This allows the user to empty their machine into a dumpster from the comfort of the operator’s seat.

Aesthetics: The S16 follows the Tennant visual brand language of rugged yet refined. As the machine is intended to sweep everything from parking garages to hotel ballrooms, the design needed to be appropriate for both indoor and outdoor applications.

It needed to be robust to stand up to bumps and scrapes outdoors but not be too imposing when used indoors.

This was solved by wrapping the lower half in steel and the upper half in plastics while uniting those two materials with a common chamfered theme. The result is a machine that looks as at home in a warehouse as it does in a convention center.

The side shrouds also integrate the lift towers into the body while providing cover for internal parts. These shrouds also incorporate shallow trays for the storage of an operator’s tools.

An additional spot at the rear of the machine functions as a storage tray or the landing spot for an optional vacuum wand.

Finally, yellow touch points are utilized at key maintenance points to aid in training and ease of use.

Sustainability: As a battery powered machine, it can clean outdoors and indoors without worry about fumes or carbon emissions from a gasoline engine.

The machine comes equipped with two stages of dust filtration with an option for a third layer featuring a HEPA filter.

Additionally, Eco-Mode reduces down-pressure and vacuum power meaning the machine is quieter and runs longer; which is perfect for indoor, daytime cleaning.