Dyson engineers have concentrated Dyson Airblade technology without compromising drying performance. Using Dyson’s latest power dense digital motor, the Dyson Airblade V hand dryer is 60% smaller than the original, yet still able to dry hands quickly and efficiently. Hands are dry in 10 seconds.
Conventional hand dryers use one column of warm air to evaporate water from both hands, and unreliable sensors often lead to intermittent drafts of dirty air. This can miss areas and leave wet patches. In order to rectify this issue, the Dyson Airblade V uses two sheets of 430mph air, angled at 115 degrees, to separate hands and scrape off water like a windscreen wiper.
“Using complex computer modelling Dyson engineers have developed a high performance digital motor,” says James Dyson. “The Dyson digital motor self-adjusts 6000 times a second to maintain optimum efficiency to create high velocity sheets of air that dries hands quickly and hygienically.”
The Dyson digital motor V4: a power dense brushless DC motor, utilising a bonded magnet encased in a carbon fibre sleeve. It is one of the world’s smallest and fully integrated 1600W motors. Using digital pulse technology, it accelerates from 0-90,000rpm in less than 0.7 seconds.
Dyson is thought to be the only appliance manufacturer with an in-house microbiology lab, which allows Dyson scientists to study bacteria, dust mites and allergens in detail to help design engineers develop machines to combat them better.
Dyson also owns an in-house semi-anechoic chamber – a room designed to absorb reflections of sound which allows them to fully characterise the acoustic properties of each machine. The chamber can measure sounds as quiet as a whisper, but can also measure sounds up to 146dB – the equivalent to the roar of a jet engine.
In line with Global Hand Washing Day today, Dyson scientists have pulled together 15 facts on why and how you should wash and dry your hands properly:
1. Damp hands can spread up to 1000 times more bacteria than dry ones.
2. 85% of micro-organisms are transmitted by moist hands, whereas dry hands only spread 0.06%.
3. The average person’s hands can carry at least 3,000 different bacteria.
4. When it comes to hands, fingernails are the most difficult to clean of microorganisms.
5. Bacteria can live on your hands for up to three hours. One bacterium can multiply to more than four million in eight hours.
6. There are two layers of bacteria. The outer layer found on hands is called “Transient Flora” – this layer is easily eliminated by effective hand washing and drying. The deeper layer and more resistant to hand drying, is called “Resident Flora”.
7. Women wash their hands significantly more often, use soap more often, and wash their hands longer than men, research carried out in the US shows.
8. An average office desk has 400 times more bacteria than a toilet seat.
9. 26,000 live bacteria can be found on an average banknote.
10. Smartphones can carry more than 30,000 bacteria units per swab.
11. The average keyboard can contain more bacteria than a toilet seat.
12. Research carried out in the UK found faecal bacteria contamination present on 26% of hands, 14% of banknotes and 10% of credit cards.
13. In the Medieval times hand washing became more popular during the outbreak of the Black Plague. People were looking for reasons why it was spreading and how to decrease the effects.
14. In the Ancient Babylonian times (3 million-700AD) it was understood that clean hands were essential to health and they related unclean hands to sickness
15. In India, and throughout Asia, people eat and shake others hands with their right hand only, as the left hand is used for cleaning yourself and other unsavoury functions.
