Any Knowledge of Hako industrial vacuums?

[kubvan1]

I visited a good friend today who loves industrial design, and has a few interesting vacuums, but is not a vac collector per se. He showed be a very large, gorgeous industrial machine he picked up some time ago, apparently used in a clean room at a former semiconductor plant in Allentown, PA.
It was a Hako Minuteman with a stainless steel drum, all kinds of spark arrestors and filter shrouds over the motor, and some intake fittings I was not at all familiar with. It looked like it must have cost as much as a car when new, but I can find very little about Hako machines anywhere on the net.
I forget the address given for the company, but I was wondering if these were US made machines, or if Hako had them built by someone else.
Very impressive piece of equipment!

Cheers, Doug E.

 

[kubvan1]

I partially answered my own question

Sorry, with some more specific searching, now under Minuteman, I discovered what looks to be a somewhat newer version of the machine in question. the X1000 with indeed all kinds of output filters to keep even motor residue from escaping into the atmosphere.

http://www.minutemanintl.com/Critical_Filter/GRAPHICS/X1000.jpg

 

[tolivac]

Contamination is not tolerated at any semiconductor factory-just creats more "floor sweepings" devices that are not usuable.So thats why all of the filters-esp the motor brush dust.surprized the vacuum was even allowed in the Clean room area.I have seen similar machines from the Pharmecutecals factory out here sent to the former Vac Hospital for repairs-I don't even want to know whats in those machines filters!These machines are made by many manufacturers another that comes to mind is Nilfisk-Advance.These machines are often used for picking up hazardous materials.

 

[godfreys_guy]

Hako is Australian

Hi Guys,

Hako is a very popular commercial cleaning company in Australia. I have included their web address below. In my experience most of their products are re-badged machines with some coming from Ghibli.

http://www.hakoaustralia.com.au/

 

[kubvan1]

Thanks for the feedback. I did some more searching around and it does seem that Hako now has more of a presence outside N America, and most of the vacs like the one I saw are under the Minuteman brand.
Not sure if this one was really cleanroom approved, but I am fairly certain it came out of a now defunct Western Electric Semiconductor plant (later Lucent)
Of course, I hinted to my friend I wanted it should he ever bear to part with it, but it looks doubtful!

Cheers, Doug E.

 

[bisonian]

Actually ....

It appears that Hako is a German company.

http://www.answers.com/topic/minuteman-international-inc