Rotary brush mounting

Claim 1

For a mobile sweeping machine for sweeping road, pavement and similar surfaces, a mounting for a rotary brush rotatable about a substantially vertical axis in position of use wherein the mounting comprises: bracket structure mountable from an underpart of the machine; a swing arm mounted at one end by universal joint connection to the bracket structure for angular movement in generally horizontal and vertical planes and whereby said swing arm is non-rotatable about its longitudinal axis; a first support member positioned at the other end of the swing arm and pivotally carried thereby about a longitudinal axis closely parallel with the axis of the arm; a second support member pivotally carried by the first support member about a transverse axis intersecting the longitudinal axis of pivotal movement of the first support member in order to provide universal pivotal mounting of the second support member from the arm; a downwardly directed rotary brush carried by and below the second support member and rotatable about a substantially vertical axis whereby back and forth and sideways inclination of the axis of rotation of the brush is able to take place in a universal manner; a motor carried by the second support member for directly driving the rotary brush; spring means connected between the swing arm and the second support member for yieldably urging the latter to a position for rotation of the brush about a substantially vertical axis; and movement damping means connected between the swing arm and second support member for operation in conjunction with the spring means and for damping the universal pivotal movement which the second support member is otherwise able to freely follow in enabling the brush to closely follow varying surface formation in sweeping contact therewith in a self-accommodating manner.