Quite a few weeks ago the good folk at Dyson told me they had something new and pretty exciting coming out soon. They could say no more, but I can tell you now the new product is called the Dyson Air Multiplier – it’s a bladeless fan that expels up to 450 litres of air per second.
Over to James Dyson, inventor extraordin-air (no typo there, just a bad pun – all apologies). He says, “I’ve always been disappointed by fans. Their spinning blades chop up the airflow, causing annoying buffeting. They’re hard to clean. And children always want to poke their fingers through the grille. More chopping. So we’ve developed a new type of fan that doesn’t use blades.”
The Dyson Air Multiplier is powered by a brushless, energy-efficient motor, and rather than a typical low, medium or high speed switch, the speed is adjustable via a potentiometer switch – like a light dimmer switch, so there’s far more flexibility in speed control.
No blades? That’s right, no blades. Instead the air is driven up into the ring-shape you can see in the picture. The jet of air created passes over an airfoil ramp that channels its direction. Added to this is the fact that the surrounding air is drawn into this flow of air, combining to amplify the flow of air by a factor of 15. The Dyson fluid dynamic engineers call this process of amplification ‘inducement and entrainment’ – something they know well in relation to the Air Multiplier, as they ran hundreds of simulations to map the air flow.
Cleaning is quick and easy with a cloth, and there’s no need to take off a grill or take on all the nooks, crannies and sharp edges of a blade. And because all the weight of the Air Multiplier is in the base, it won’t topple over easy, and adjusting the oscillation through 90 degrees is done via a one-button touch.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering what material the Air Multiplier is made from, it is of course Acrylontride butadiene styrene – rolls off the tongue doesn’t it! It’s the same material that car bumpers, crash helmets and modern golf club heads are made from.
Price and availability
The Dyson Air Multiplier will be in stores on 21 October, 2009, and will be offered in two sizes. The 25 cm model will sell for $379 RRP, and the 30 cm model $399 RRP.
