by Shane Henson — March 20, 2013—Dyson’s recently launched Dyson Airblade Tap hand dryer removes the need for hand and paper towels through an innovative system that allows users to both wash and dry their hands at the sink. The system helps control water flow, reduces bacteria through the use of filtered air and drier hands, and helps prevent slips and falls and other issues related to water dripping on restroom floors.
According to Dyson, a maker of hand dryers, vacuums, fans, heaters and various tools, infrared sensors pinpoint hand positions and release water from the tap stem. Once hands are wet and drying is requested, integrated circuitry computes the information and activates the Dyson digital motor V4, creating two high-velocity sheets of air on the tap’s branches. Using Airblade technology, the Dyson Airblade Tap hand dryer sends sheets of unheated filtered air at 420 miles per hour toward hands, literally scraping them dry. Hands are dry in 14 seconds.
Company founder James Dyson says that key components, including the motor, are housed in a discrete package under the sink. Dyson engineers spent more than 2,240 hours designing the motor bucket, and worked hard to contain noise—introducing springs to reduce vibration, acoustic foams to absorb noise and expansion chambers to improve sound quality. The dryer also features six Dyson-designed Helmholtz silencers that combine to reduce the motor tone.
In addition, independent infrared sensors allow the user to have as much water and air as desired according to need. An aerator mixes the water and dispenses water across hands to reduce the volume of water used, and the flow rate of water is controlled by motion detection.
