The
Dyson StoryJames
Dyson:
You know the feeling when some everyday product lets you down. 'I could
have designed this better myself', you think. But how many of us turn
our thoughts into actions? James Dyson does. He is
a man who likes to
make things work better. With his research team he has developed
products that have achieved sales of over $6 billion worldwide.
Early products by James Dyson:
James Dyson's first product, the Sea Truck, was launched in 1970 while
he was studying at the Royal College of Art. A few years later came the
award-winning Ballbarrow that can go where no wheelbarrow has ever been
before. Then there was the Wheelboat and the Trolleyball. Even the
integral hose, seen on most upright vacuum cleaners, is a Dyson
invention.
A
new idea:
In 1978, James Dyson noticed how the air filter in the Ballbarrow
spray-finishing room was constantly clogging with powder particles
(just like a vacuum cleaner bag clogs with dust). So he
designed and
built an industrial cyclone tower, which removed the powder particles
by exerting centrifugal forces greater than 100,000 times those of
gravity. Could the same principle work in a vacuum cleaner?
James
Dyson set to work. 5 years and 5,127 prototypes later, the world's
first bagless vacuum cleaner from Dyson arrived.
The first Dyson:
Using income from the Japanese licence, James Dyson decided to
manufacture a new model under his own name in Britain. In
June 1993, he opened his research center and factory in Wiltshire, not
far from his home, and developed a machine that collected even finer
particles of dust (microscopic particles as small as cigarette smoke).
The result was the DCO1, the first in a range of cleaners to
give constant suction.
Dyson Dual Cyclone:
The Dual Cyclone™ system was a significant breakthrough in vacuum
technology since the invention of the vacuum cleaner in 1901.
The traditional bag was replaced by two cyclone chambers
which use centrifugal force to separate dust and dirt from the air.
Larger particles are separated in the outer cyclone, while smaller
particles are separated in the inner cyclone.
Root Cyclone™ technology:
Dyson scientists were determined to create vacuum cleaners with even
higher suction. So they set to work developing an entirely new type of
cyclone system. They discovered that a smaller diameter
cyclone gives greater centrifugal force. So they developed a way of
getting 45% more suction than a Dual Cyclone vacuum and removing more
dust, by dividing the air into 8 smaller cyclones.
Another problem:
"I
like your vacuum cleaners, but when will you make one you don't have to
push around?" This casual remark set James Dyson's mind working.
Producing something that bounced aimlessly off the furniture
and picked up very little dust would have been easy, but James Dyson
insisted the Dyson DC06 robot should not only clean properly but should
also guide itself more logically than a human would. It took
3 on-board computers, 50 sensory devices, and 60,000 hours of research
to create efficient, methodical robot cleaning.
Battle for design:
To Dyson, 'design' means how something works, not how it looks - the
design should evolve from the function. That's why the people at Dyson
who design products are called 'engineers'. Sadly, most
education systems still encourage children towards academic subjects
and away from 'getting their hands dirty making things'. (Strange from
the country that started the Industrial Revolution.) It may
take time, but Dyson hopes to change that.
The patent nightmare:
The Dual Cyclone™ vacuum cleaner was nearly never made due to patent
and legal costs. Unlike a songwriter who owns the song he
writes, an inventor has to pay substantial fees to renew his patents
each year. During the development years when James Dyson had
no income, this nearly bankrupted him. He risked everything, and
fortunately the risk paid off. Then in 1999, Hoover (based in
the UK) tried to imitate a Dyson and James Dyson was forced back to
court to protect his invention. After 18 months Dyson finally
won a victory against Hoover for patent infringement.
Museum Sightings:
Considering it took James Dyson over 14 years to get his first product
into a shop, it's heartening to know that you can now buy Dyson
products in 44 countries worldwide.You can also see them in many other
places: Science Museums, Victoria & Albert Museum in London;
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum für Angewandte Kunst in
Cologne; Zurich Design Museum; Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris; Design
Museum in Lisbon and Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, to name a few.
