Let's say you're a company that has perfected air flow technology, cornered the high-end vacuum cleaner market, and are now looking for new product categories to conquer. Well you could leverage your copious knowledge to invent the world's most powerful air hockey table, or perhaps an air compressor with a super-snazzy industrial design, but UK-based
Dyson has instead opted to tackle a problem that has plagued public restroom patrons for years -- crappy, inefficient hand dryers. Apparently the main problem with traditional hot air dryers is that they rely on evaporation to get the wet stuff off -- a process that can take up to 35 seconds and actually result in dirtier hands as people rub theirs together to speed things up (pushing bacteria deeper into skin layers and fingernails as they do so). Well Dyson is attempting to make this task both quicker and more hygienic with its new Airblade system, a revolutionary dryer that blasts a 400MPH stream of clean, unheated air through a 0.3-millimeter gap and processes the excess water with a disinfecting iodine resin filter. The end result is cleaner hands in a shorter period of time, with waste water being disbursed into the air as a fine mist instead of forming a gross little puddle on the floor. Keep reading for a profile view, and see why the Dyson engineers wisely designed the Airblade so that curious children can't stick their heads in and have their eyes blown into the back of their sockets...
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted October 3rd 2006 11:28AM
'Still, I'd like to learn more, specifically price.'
http://www.dysonairblade.co.uk
£549 (UK Pounds) plus tax, available November
First thing I thought of when I read this was the technology (which the military has apparently tested/used) to give shots without needles. A high-speed stream of liquid vaccine literally injects itself under the skin!
So now we've got to worry about bathroom germs getting directly injected into our hands? Oh yeah, I'm gonna stick my hands in THAT!
1. Yes, they have something similar in Japan. I've used them over there too. But they only have a little more force than current air dryers, not 400 mph. Even the link provided doesn't mention anything at such speeds.
2. For the person that knew somebody who blew an air bubble in their skin from an air nozzle: That's why those old air nozzles are illegal now. Shop air is usually only 80 psi, but could do a lot of damage with the old nozzles. The new nozzles now have relief holes cut around the main nozzle, so when something blocks the main port, the air exhausts out the relief ports. Now you could put the new nozzle right up to the skin and it is safe. But there are still some of the old ones out there, so be careful.
But back to the point - the reason he got an air bubble was because he took a very focused, directed pressure of air. The new Dyson is "fanning" out this air, which is must safer.
Basically, this is just the current type being used in Japan, mixed together with the Xzletor, which should work awesome.
This story is totally unworthy. These things have been in Japan for a few years. They look and operate identically. Nice graphics but totally a knockoff.
No one has ever heard of cutting metal or glass with high-pressure streams of water?
Air's a lot less dense, but it's still a fluid(all gasses are just diffuse fluids, at least in Physics class they were), and at that small of an opening and that high of a speed, I can see this being a non-bladed wrist slitter before I see it as a hand dryer. Even just a bit of water dripping off someone's wrists and getting into the air opening, is going to sting the crap out of the next person's wrists, if not actually draw blood.
I've seen steam, coming out pinhole cracks in pipes at somewhere around these speeds(I think), that'll easily cut canvas. That's how they test to find where they leak is. They put a piece of canvas on a stick and when it falls in half, well... they found the leak. Canvas is a heck of a lot tougher than human skin.
am i the only person on engadget who just wipes his hands on his pants, then uses a paper towel to open the bathroom door like any normal person?
Just to reiterate:
Firehose at full stream - knock you over and knock the wind out of you.
Firehose at full fan - refreshing, cooling spray.
Same concept.
(And do any of you really think they don't do product testing? Do you really think they would just crank up the air and throw a product on the market? Wow!)
I don't think they wouldn't do product testing, but I can see a typo being made on the whole 400 mph figure.
In my experience with high pressure air, it's not so nice. Plus, any amount of liquid getting in that thing and it's going to hurt like crap.
400mph is not too fast for a 0.3mm thick stream of air. Yes, something with as much density as water will probably rip your skin off at 400mph. Air, not so much.
We could always just use paper towels. I prefer those, anyway.
The primary issue is the design itself. Anything that resembles a recepticle is going to be abused in a public restroom environment. This dryer will get trash, liquid and who knows what else thrown into it.....rendering it useless.
Neat idea, but totally impractical for a public restroom environment.
Cool as it looks, and as well as it may work, I'm not sticking my hand into anything with "blade" in the name. What were they thinking?
400mph airflow isn't so scary. A human sneeze can exceed 100mph.
I think this is really just for up market bars that are less likely to have customers that are going to beat the shit out of it.
i was in japan a few months ago and restrooms already have a design like this
the machine is very loud but very efficient
you stick your hands in without touching anything and the sensor goes off blowing air down and circulating within to dry from all different directions
it was a pretty nifty idea
Has it occurred to all ye of "Howard Hughes Syndrome", You've already washed all the bacteria off of your hands and if you've done a proper job of it, used paper towels on the taps and doorknobs, no electric hand dryer at any speed is going to blow anything of any communicable significance back at you.
And this will be great until some stupid kid decides to pour a bunch of flour down inside as a joke and someone gets pelted with it when they go to dry their hands.
But 400mph? Why don't they just engineer a way to send a tornado through the bathroom?
Also, they say that it will disburse the "waste water" into the air as a fine mist. Am I the only one who is disturbed by this? I don't want to breathe air filled with other peoples' dirty waste hand mist. Disgusting, disinfecting iodine resin filter or not.
Personally, I can't stand hand dryers anyway. Give me paper towels anyday. Much more hygenic. Besides, with a dryer, when it comes time to leave the bathroom, you can't exactly keep your hands from making contact with an infected door handle that's been touched by a thousand other guys who didn't bother to wash their filthy hands after taking a dump or having a bit of urine splashed or misted on them while taking a piss.
No thanks.
Here's Hitachi's version:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hitachi-ies.co.jp%2Fproducts%2Ffan%2Fhanddry%2Ftokucho.htm&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&safe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools
This one apparently gives 90m/s blow which is about 200MPH.
Like some people are saying, I don't particularly see the revolutional benefit in the Dyson's model, though I'd like to feel the difference of 400MPH stuff.
I would like to put golf balls and little army men into this fine device...
Ya, it would suck to have to stick your clean, washed hands into a dryer where people had previously put their clean, washed hands...???
I must be missing something here...
Um, couldn't this be a bit dangerous? Fast air is able to shoot through your skin, and if it gets in your blood veins, much damage could occur...
I remember these from when I was in Japan, they were in the Sega Joypolis and the Sunshine City Prince Hotel in Tokyo, I'm sure they're other places too. They might not have iodine filters, but they worked damn well. I wish they had them here, as I'm sure these Dysons will be way too expensive for most American bathrooms.
As many have said before, total rip off. I'm sure the guts are unique, but the basic design and concept has been around in Asia for years.
As for 400mph...it's air people, not water. True compressed air can be pretty dangerous, but since you are supposed to stick you hand in it I'm guessing they have tested it pretty thoroughly beforehand. I mean think about it, the air you push out when you sneeze travels over 100mph.
Notice a few things from the pic. The air will strike your hand at an angle, dereasing the realative force of the impact. And lets not forget to factor in marketing speak. I'd put even money the "400mph" figure is an agregate of the air for the palm of your hand as well as the back, each moving at *200mph* .
Also, even if the air is at some point actually moving at 400mph, where exactly is that in this process ? Inside the compressor ? At the nozzle or after it ? Depending on how much the air is diffused as it is sprayed, it might lose speed pretty quickly.
Just a few thoughts...
What happens if you are wearing a ring that is loose? Or if you have a band-aid on? Or stiches? What if someone leaves something loose in there, like a razor blade, that gets blown around and cuts up your hand?
The xlerator is pretty neat in how much faster it dries my hands, but it's a little bit disturbing to see the flesh on my hands turn into a turbulent sea. So the fact that this thing is even faster makes me wonder what it's gonna make your skin look like when it does it's thing.
Of course it's far faster so maybe you'll just notice your hands shake lol.
the japanese fixed this problem a long time ago.
I have something which dries just as well, MY PANTS. I can only imagine the number of saggy hands popping up with those blasts of wind up to 400 mph, which reminds me......
Better than paper towel. But thing is, I can't dry my shirt with this if I spill something on it. Otherwise, sounds nice.
Siouxie wrote:
"Has it occurred to all ye of "Howard Hughes Syndrome", You've already washed all the bacteria off of your hands and if you've done a proper job of it, used paper towels on the taps and doorknobs, no electric hand dryer at any speed is going to blow anything of any communicable significance back at you."
******************************************
"..........if you've done a proper job of it, used paper towels on the taps and doorknobs....."
Yeah, well, that's just it, isn't it. If we have to hope for every man doing a perfect job of washing his hands and using paper towels on the taps and so on, as you say, to keep this machine from spraying germ-infested waste water into the air, then we're going to be sorely disappointed.
I know they say it has a filter, but it just sounds disgusting. Not to mention, filters don't block it all and they stop working after awhile. And who knows when the employees get around to changing them?
Bathrooms also run out of soap, and many bathrooms that have dryers don't have paper towels at all.
So maybe in a perfect world someone's assurance that everything will be OK, would be OK. But we're talking about public bathrooms here, so let's keep it real.
Paper towels are the cleanest, most versatile, and cheapest way to go.
So, be good, be healthy. Now I've gotta go... there's a Howard Hughes documentary on the Biography Channel.
I've tried this, it works.
Bonus is, your hands does not need moisturiser afterwards as the air is not heated. It does NOT rip off you hands/skin, it feels very gentle. You don't touch anything when using it. It's open on both sides. And, if your wrists are wet, just start by sticking you hands deeper down in the airblade.. doh! Of course it won't rip on rings or jewellery.
Might be that the jet towel is similar in some ways, but the airblade filters the incoming air, and the waste water gets filtered clean from bacteria and turned into a harmless mist. The jet towel does not clean incoming air, or the waste water.
How about trying things for yourself OR use your intelligence just a little before trashing new products? ;o)
Eh.. Tokyo is filled with these. In fact, it'll be the first thing I'll miss when I leave. That being said, glad they seem to reach elsewhere.
These are located in most or all the Restrooms along the Jersey Turnpike and I've used them. They seem to work very well.
I work in a factory and at this factory it is a big no-no to use the compressed air to blow of any part of your body. Evidently a person at one time did this and the air got into a small cut on her arm and blew the skin up off her arm ? I wasnt there when it happened but that is the way it is and thats the story and reasoning for their rule. So there might be a saftey concern with this product .