Then there were wet and dry items that required to be handled at the same time. Intensely hot or corrosive elements were added to the mix and then radioactive waste needed to be considered. All of this waste, a bi-product of some type of producing or big commercial operation, needed to be handled by vacuum cleaner makers. Usually the special wants of a company were dealt with on a case-by-case basis at the same time as the new plant was being assembled. In a similar fashion , airborne waste, dust and minute particles of whatever was being produced in the store needed to be removed from the air, either to guard the employees or to assemble and store the valuable materials to keep from losing them.

Large vacuum cleaners were mounted on rooftops, and behind the factories themselves, that resembled air-conditioning units closer than vacuum cleaners. But they performed exactly the opposite function. Where air-conditioners cool and then pump air into the factory to keep temperatures cosy and controlled, these large vacuum cleaners are sucking the air out of the factories, either from the ceiling levels or from beneath the floor, filtering out the waste and keeping it accessible during cleaning.

Factories that produce fine particulate waste as an element of their producing process need to maintain a safe respiring environment for their employees and those corporations that are refining a valuable metal need to gather the particulates for later re-use. Both functions are abundantly served by today's industrial vacuum cleaners.