The flying cleaning service

August 26, 2024

A company from the Zurich lowlands cleans windows and facades with a drone. It is enjoying worldwide success.

The team from Swiss Drone Services AG is getting ready in front of a new housing estate in Buchrain, Lucerne. Several tanks with cleaning agents, pumps and a power generator are ready in the white van – and of course the drone. The drone is equipped with four propellers and a long stick with a nozzle attached to the front. Today, the drone is using this to clean the yellow façade of the housing estate.

The drone team traveled from Niederglatt in the Zurich Unterland. This is because the cleaning of facades and windows is unheard of anywhere else in the world. The Managing Director of Swiss Drone Services, Christian Aeschbach, developed the idea two years ago.

He himself is a trained master painter and has repeatedly had to deal with complications when cleaning windows: for example, when he had made an appointment with the owners and the lifting platform was reserved, it rained right on the date. By the time he had made a new appointment, the lift might no longer be available. “I wanted to be completely independent of this equipment – and the drone has now made that possible.”

Safer, faster and cheaper

Cleaning by drone is not only easier, safer and faster, it is also much cheaper, says Christian Aeschbach. Here in Buchrain, he charges the customer ten francs per square meter. That is just 70 percent of the price that a painting job including scaffolding would cost.

The drone is ready to take off. Drone pilot Pascale Vögeli starts the power generator, selects the dilution of the cleaning agents and the pressure via a display and switches the drone to remote control. Then the drone takes off.

The drone cleans completely independently. It positions itself with a camera and runs its program either horizontally or vertically. The yellow façade is now cleaned vertically. From a certain flying height, it sprays the mixture of water and cleaning concentration onto the wall through the hose.

This procedure is by no means dangerous, says Christian Aeschbach. The drone has its own flight permit from the Federal Office of Civil Aviation, and conditions apply. If passers-by come by, for example, the façade must be cordoned off. No drone has ever crashed, says Christian Aeschbach. Instead, there have already been accidents due to onlookers: “We’ve already had a rear-end collision because someone was filming our work with a cell phone and cyclists crashed as a result.”

Interested parties and sales partners around the world

The work of Swiss Drone Services is attracting attention and selling well. The company sells the cleaning system by drone throughout Switzerland and abroad: “We have already had interested parties from 38 countries who want to buy the system and 18 sales partners worldwide,” says Christian Aeschbach.

The managing director does not believe that he is taking jobs away from painters and façade cleaners: “We are also creating new jobs, for example as drone pilots.” There is also a need for other people in the area to help. So the accusation is not entirely true.

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether cleaning employees want to be seamlessly trained as drone pilots in order to work for the cleaning company with a guarantee of a high-altitude flight.

Article > SRF News Regionaljournal ZH SH

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