Dyson (company)

Infobox_Company
company_name = Dyson Limited
company_
company_type = Private company
foundation = 1993
founder = Sir James Dyson
location_city = flagicon|UK Malmesbury, Wiltshire
location_country = UK
locations = manufactured: Malaysia
area_served =
key_people = flagicon|UK Sir James Dyson: Managing director,
Deirdre Dyson, Deputy managing director
industry = Domestic appliances
products = Vacuum cleaners,
washing machines,
hand dryers
services =
market c

revenue = profit GB £470 million (2005)
operating_income =
net_income = profit GB £83 million (2005)
assets =
equity =
owner =
num_employees = 1,679 (2005)
parent =
divisions =
subsid =
homepage = [http://www.dyson.co.uk/ Dyson.co.uk]
footnotes =
intl = yes

Dyson is a British appliances manufacturer. Its main products are vacuum cleaners that use cyclonic separation. The founder, James Dyson, used centrifugal particle separation after finding that to restore suction, the dust bag in his vacuum cleaner needed to be replaced – even when it was not full.

Initially manufactured in England, the vacuum cleaner production has since moved to Malaysia.

History

In 1978, while renovating his country house in the Cotswolds, Dyson visited a sawmill where he observed sawdust being sucked into a cone using a spinning column of air. Refusing to pay £75,000 to have one installed in his own factory, Dyson decided he would make one of his own.

According to "@Issue: The Journal of Business and Design" (vol. 8, no. 1), the source of inspiration was in the following form:

In his usual style of seeking solutions from unexpected sources, Dyson thought of how a nearby sawmill used a cyclone—a convert|30|ft|m|sing=on-high cone that spun dust out of the air by centrifugal force—to expel waste. He reasoned that a vacuum cleaner that could separate dust by cyclonic action and spin it out of the airstream would eliminate the need for both bag and filter.

Dyson developed 5,127 Dual Cyclone prototype designs between 1979 and 1984. The first prototype vacuum cleaner, the G-Force, was built in 1983, and appeared on the front cover of "Design Magazine" the same year. [ [http://www.themanufacturer.com/uk/content/6925/The_Manufacturer_Power_50_2006 The Manufacturer Power 50 2006] ] In 1986, a production version of the G-Force was first sold in Japan.

In 1991, it won the International Design Fair prize in Japan, and became a status symbol there, after which the Japanese licensed and sold the product for $2,000 each. [cite web | title = James Dyson: Business whirlwind | work = BBC News | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1802155.stm | accessdate = 2007-06-28 ]

The biggest vacuum cleaner manufacturers refused to licence his technology, so Dyson decided to design, manufacture and advertise a vacuum cleaner himself. Hoover later admitted that it did consider buying the patent from James Dyson, but only to keep the technology out of the market. [ [http://www.dyson.com/nav/inpageframe.asp?id=DYSON/HIST/NEWPLACE Dyson - Making everyday products work better ] ]

Using the income from the Japanese licence, James Dyson set up the Dyson company, opening a research centre and factory in Wiltshire, England, in June 1993. His first production version of a dual cyclone vacuum cleaner featuring constant suction was the DC01, sold for £200. In their research for the vacuum cleaner, when Dyson asked people whether they would be happy with a transparent container for the dust, most respondents said no. Dyson and his team decided to make a transparent container anyway, primarily for advertising purposes. [RGC Jenkins & Co., Trade Mark and Patent Attorneys [http://www.jenkins-ip.com/mym/spring2004/item_11.htm A Clear Bin Policy] ]

After the introduction of the DC02, DC02 Absolute, DC02 De Stijl, DC05, DC04, DC06 and DC04 Zorbster, the root$^8$ Cyclone was introduced in April 2001 as the Dyson DC07, which uses seven smaller funnels on top of the vacuum.

Production moves to Malaysia

Initially, all Dyson vacuum cleaners and washing machines were made in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England. In 2002, the company transferred vacuum cleaner production to Malaysia. As Dyson was the major manufacturing company in Wiltshire outside of Swindon, this move aroused some controversy, although planning permission to expand the Malmesbury site had been refused, effectively leading Dyson to look elsewhere. A year later, washing machine production was also moved to Malaysia.

Although nearly 800 manufacturing jobs were lost, Dyson states that the cost savings from transferring production to Malaysia enabled investment in R&D at Malmesbury head office, and that the company employs more people in the UK than before the move to Malaysia. [BBC NEWS - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2282809.stm Dyson plant shuts up shop] (26 September, 2002)]

Cyclone technology

A Dyson cyclone works by employing cyclonic separation, which spins air at high speed. Dirt and dust are thrown out of the airflow and collected in the bin, not on a filter or in a bag.

Cyclone technology works by building on dual cyclone technology. On top of the vacuum chamber, seven funnel-shaped channels were added that force air to travel in higher curvature cyclones than in the initial cyclone, creating higher centrifugal force, allowing smaller particles to be captured before the air is expelled.

The powerful suction spins out larger dirt and debris. The shroud then filters out fluff and dirt. The fast moving air takes the smaller dirt and dust particles into the cones where the dirty air is accelerated to convert|900|mph|lk=on|abbr=on, spinning at over 324,000 rpm in each cone. [cite web | title = Eye Of The Cyclone: How does Dyson's Dual-Cyclone technology work? | work = IndustryWeek | url = http://www.industryweek.com/CurrentArticles/asp/articles.asp?ArticleId=571 | accessdate = 2007-06-28 ] Centrifugal forces of 200,000 "g" are exerted on the tiny particles moving in the convert|900|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on dirty air inside the cones. The momentum of the particles is so high, that cigarette smoke particles separate from the air at the narrow end of the cones and gather in the container. The use of centrifugal forces rather than fine filters, results in the Dyson maintaining suction, with no influence on the amount of dust that is collected in the container.

Legal Issues

Before starting Dyson Appliances James Dyson tried to sell his technology to other companies including Amway who ended up stealing his technology. Dyson sued them and won. Hoover UK also tried to put out a machine using the technology but again Dyson sued and won. [Amway Cheats inventor of vacuum cleaner [http://www.amquix.info/amway_dyson.html] ]

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld that Dysons "No clogging. No loss of suction" advertising campaign was "misleading", as "Dyson's operating instructions indicated that the pre-motor filter should be washed periodically to prevent it from becoming clogged and to maintain the suction power of the cleaner". [Advertising Standards Authority [http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_42594.htm ASA Adjudications - Dyson Appliances Ltd] ]

Products

References

External links

* [http://www.dyson.co.uk/ Dyson official UK website]
* [http://www.dyson.co.uk/about/technology/ Dyson Root Cyclone page]
* [http://www.dyson.com/ Dyson official USA website]
* [http://www.analogstereo.com/dyson_vacuum_owners_manual.htm User manuals archive]
* [http://www.epinions.com/pr-Dyson_DC07i_Upright_Cleaner_Washing_Machine Dyson DC07 reviews]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1802155.stm James Dyson: Business whirlwind] (BBC News article)
* [http://www.vacuumcleanerforum.com/f8/ Dyson vacuum discussion]
* [http://www.exn.ca/video/?video=exn20060222-vac.asx Daily Planet interview with Dyson]
* [http://www.engineerguy.com/comm/4625.htm Dyson Vacuums: A radio commentary by Bill Hammack]
* [http://www.dysonairblade.co.uk/ Dyson Airblade hand dryer official site]