New walk-behind scraper is up to 50 times as fast
To provide floor preparation contractors with the power and productivity of a ride-on scraper in the compact size of a walk-behind, surface preparation equipment manufacturer National Flooring Equipment is launching the Rogue. The newest walk-behind scraper from National Flooring Equipment is a game-changer. The Rogue is an all-electric scraper with precision steering, that has a travel speed of up to 150 ft/min and a fully adjustable blade angle at the touch of a button.
When developing the Rogue, National Flooring Equipment explored how it could redesign a walk-behind scraper to have all the features of a larger, ride-on in a compact machine. Legacy walk-behind machines are typically difficult to manoeuvre, using hydraulics to control the scraper. Instead, the Rogue is a fully electric machine, with increased manoeuvrability and speed — where a traditional walk-behind scraper could work up to 30 ft/min, the Rogue has a travel speed of up to 150 ft per minute.
To improve ease-of-use, the Rogue incorporates simple controls that require less operator input than traditional models. For example, contractors can use toggles on the handle to direct the machine left, right, forward or reverse. In addition, the Rogue includes a button to control blade pitch and angle, unlike existing machines where angle adjustment is limited by a few different attachment options.
In addition, National Flooring Equipment adapted the vibration of the machine to impact floor removal efficiency. Typically, all tooling on National Flooring Equipment machinery oscillates, moving the blade to help remove material — the contractor could not control this. Now, the Rogue features a dial to adjust oscillation, which means that, depending on the application, contractors can choose how the tooling moves to achieve the best result. This means that when removing adhesive, users can turn oscillation off completely; when removing hard goods, contractors can increase the rate of oscillation.
“When developing the Rogue, we wanted to rethink the entire concept of a walk-behind to provide contractors with the best possible machine, rather than delivering a machine with slight improvements,” explained Connie Hardy, vice president of marketing at National Flooring Equipment. “We regularly speak to customers to help understand how they use equipment and the challenges they face and this feedback enabled us to develop a machine that is unlike anything else in the market.”
“One of the most common comments we received was how difficult it can be to manoeuvre walk-behinds, particularly when removing hard goods, such as wooden floors. As a result, during development of the Rogue we focused on what features we could introduce to create a machine that was fast, efficient and easy to use on any floor covering,” added Hardy.
To improve transportability, the Rogue is a modular machine — contractors can remove weights, splitting the machine into multiple parts that are easier to carry. By introducing this new feature, contractors can easily and safely lift the machine, either onto transport to travel to a job site, or upstairs in a job with multiple floors.