Dyson Airblade is an electric
hand dryer
A "hand dryer" is an electric machine which might make use of a heating element and an air blower to dry both the hands after hand washing. Since 1922, it is commonly used in public toilets around the world as a cost-effective alternative to p ...
made by the
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
-based company
Dyson Dyson may refer to:
* Dyson (surname), people with the surname Dyson
* Dyson (company), a Singaporean multinational home appliances company founded by James Dyson
* Dyson (crater), a crater on the Moon
* Dyson (operating system), a Unix general- ...
, found in public
bathroom
A bathroom is a room in which people wash their bodies or parts thereof. It can contain one or more of the following plumbing fixtures: a shower, a bathtub, a bidet, and a sink (also known as a wash basin in the United Kingdom). A toilet is al ...
s around the world.
It was introduced in the United Kingdom in 2006 and in the United States in late 2007. In 2013 the Airblade Tap was launched, which incorporates Airblade technology into a bathroom faucet enabling washing and drying in a single unit.
Description
Instead of using a wide jet of heated air, Dyson Airblade uses a thin layer of unheated air travelling at around as a
squeegee
A squeegee is a tool with a flat, smooth rubber blade, used to remove or control the flow of liquid on a flat surface. It is used for cleaning and in printing.
The earliest written references to squeegees date from the mid-18th century and conc ...
to remove water, rather than using heat to
evaporate
Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. A high concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evaporation, such as when hum ...
the water.
The Dyson Airblade is claimed by its manufacturer to dry hands in 10 seconds and to use less electricity than conventional hand dryers.
[
The first commercially available high-speed, horizontal-wiping air dryer was the ]Mitsubishi
The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries.
Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...
Jet Towel, developed since 1991 and introduced in 1993. It has been available in the United States since 2005. There are several technical differences among electric hand dryers, such as airspeed, water containment, energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to:
* Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process
** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed
** Mechanical efficiency, a rat ...
, use of heat, type of filter, motor lifespan, and power usage.
The same technology is used by Dyson in the Air Multiplier fan to create a cooling air stream for personal comfort.
Energy efficiency
The Dyson Airblade is 69% more energy-efficient than conventional hand-dryers and 97% more cost effective than paper towels. The Airblade is cheaper to operate because it does not require hot air which greatly increases electricity consumption. The Airblade is also cheaper to operate due to decreased drying times. The Airblade V can dry off hands in 12 seconds, versus 25 for a traditional hand dryer.
Drying time
A comparative test found that both paper towel
A paper towel is an absorbent, disposable towel made from paper. In Commonwealth English, paper towels for kitchen use are also known as kitchen rolls, kitchen paper, or kitchen towels. For home use, paper towels are usually sold in a roll of p ...
s and the Airblade dried hands quickly, achieving around 90% dryness in about ten seconds, supporting Dyson's claim of approximately ten seconds of drying time. A conventional warm air dryer took about forty-seven seconds.
Hygiene
In the United States, Dyson worked with the NSF
NSF may stand for:
Political organizations
*National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party
*NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party
* National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political g ...
to become the only certified hand dryer under Protocol P335 for Hygienic Commercial Hand Dryers. The Royal Society of Public Health has given the Dyson Airblade hand dryer its first hygiene accreditation.
A paper was presented at the 17th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Munich, Germany in 2007 by the University of Bradford
The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...
and Dyson showing that for a set drying time of 10 seconds, the Airblade led to significantly less bacterial transfer than with the other driers (''p'' < 0.05). When the latter were used for longer (30–35 s) the trend was for the Airblade to still perform better; however, these results did not reach statistical significance (''p'' > 0.05). In addition, the study showed that rubbing hands whilst using the driers counteracted the reduction in overall bacterial numbers at all anatomical sites.
Hygiene associated with the product has been questioned in research by the University of Westminster Trade Group, London and sponsored by the paper towel industry the European Tissue Symposium, which suggests that use increases the amount of bacteria on the fingertips by about 42%; paper towels reduced the number of bacteria by 50 to 75%, while warm air dryers increased bacteria by 194%. The report found that "the manufacturer’s claim that the tested JAD irbladeis 'the most hygienic hand dryer' is confirmed ... assuming that the term 'hand dryer' refers to electric devices only because its performance in terms of the numbers of all types of bacteria remaining on the hands of users compared to paper towels was significantly worse."[A comparative study of three different hand drying methods: paper towel, warm air dryer, jet air dryer’](_blank)
by Keith Redway and Shameem Fawdar of the School of Biosciences, University of Westminster London
Model history
In early 2013, three new models of the Dyson Airblade were introduced: the Airblade Mk. 2, the Airblade V, and the Airblade Tap. The Mk. 2 uses a similar design as the original model, but has increased jet air speed from , and new soundproofing makes the new model quieter than the old one. The Airblade V is a hands-under hand dryer that complies with the Americans With Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ...
.
The Airblade Tap is a non-contact bathroom tap that both washes and dries hands. It eliminates the need to move to a separate area to dry hands, and therefore eliminates any water dripped on the floor. All three hand dryers use a new Digital Slim Motor, the Dyson V4.
Controversies
On 5 December 2012, a lawsuit by competitor Excel Dryer was filed against Dyson, claiming that Dyson's advertising comparing the Airblade to the Excel Dryer Xlerator were deceptive.Case 3:12-cv-30211-MAP - Docstoc
/ref> Dyson's advertisements stated the Xlerator produces twice as much carbon dioxide, is worse for the environment, and costs more to operate than the Airblade. Excel Dryer charged that Dyson was falsifying its comparisons by submitting a 20-second dry time for the Xlerator to the Materials Systems Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
, rather than Excel Dryer's tested 12-second dry time, thus inflating energy consumption figures in the Airblade's favor.
In 2014, a paper was published in the ''Journal of Hospital Infection'' (2014;88:199-206), showing that high-speed hand dryers such as the Dyson Airblade can spread large numbers of a harmless test bacteria through the air in the vicinity. The Dyson company challenged the study with its own criticism of the methods and conclusions.
References
External links
* {{Official website, http://www.dysonairblade.com
Video illustrating the circular flow of air of a Dyson Airblade.
Airblade
Hygiene