4 ms·

New Dyson vaccum cleaner has "switched reluctance" motor, producing 104,000RPM

20 points by nir 17y ago

tmitchell 17y ago
I assume the dryer they are referring to is the AirBlade: http://www.dysonairblade.com/ http://www.dysonairblade.com/ They have them in several airports I frequent and they are, in a word, awesome. One of those genuinely better mousetraps I wish I had thought of first.
- anigbrowl 17y ago
  Dyson seems to have a talent for engineering the (retrospectively) obvious. Every time I see the advert for that vacuum cleaner with the ball instead of wheels I feel like a complete idiot. His mild, avuncular gaze gently reproaches me for not solving the problem when I had so much free time available.
TrevorJ 17y ago
The kinetic energy in this thing must be fierce. I'd hate to suck up something metallic with it. More info on switched reluctance motors here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_Reluctance_Motor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_Reluctance_Motor
- jws 17y ago
  The rotor however has no magnets or coils attached. What is the rotor then? The wikipedia "reluctance motor" article mentions the rotor having flux barriers. Is it something like an iron daisy?
  - TrevorJ 17y ago
    I am not familiar with that, what is an iron daisy?
proee 17y ago
"Captain, the switched reluctance motor is overloaded... We need more time!"
jerryji 17y ago
Damn, I previously thought LHC is the only thing that's gonna suck up the world.
epall 17y ago
More details available at http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=DRMTRSWTRLCTMTR http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=D...
MoeDrippins 17y ago
Hope it's got a scatter guard around it. Yeesh!
raygun 17y ago
100k rpm thats only 1666 rev/sec - that does not seem super fast or anything for something so small. It has a turbine on it - direct coupled by the look of it - I wonder if it rotates the turbine at that speed - or if it slows down as it loads up - it's seems a big turbine to be doing that sort of speed - it would move a huge amount of air at that speed. It's hard to see from the pic - but it looks like it only has one coil on it - it needs more than one to start rotating - so maybe it does have 2 or 3. Anyway awesome - good to see the move to brushless technology in these medium size appliances - previously the domain of the old series wound universal motor.
DanielBMarkham 17y ago
I wonder if this advances us towards all-electric air travel?
deleted 17y ago
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JimmyL 17y ago
The vaccum the article is referencing is the DC31 - http://www.dyson.co.uk/store/product.asp?product=DC31-IRSBL http://www.dyson.co.uk/store/product.asp?product=DC31-IRSBL - with the Dyson Digital Motor, which I assume is branding-speak for what we're talking about. As others have mentioned, the AirBlade - the hand dryer that uses this motor - is awesome, and generates some serious breeze. Sadly, it's almost too smart: you use it somewhat differently than you use a normal hand dryer, and if you don't (and use it normally) you loose most of the genius of the design.

20 points by nir 17y ago

I assume the dryer they are referring to is the AirBlade: http://www.dysonairblade.com/ http://www.dysonairblade.com/ They have them in several airports I frequent and they are, in a word, awesome. One of those genuinely better mousetraps I wish I had thought of first.

anigbrowl 17y ago
Dyson seems to have a talent for engineering the (retrospectively) obvious. Every time I see the advert for that vacuum cleaner with the ball instead of wheels I feel like a complete idiot. His mild, avuncular gaze gently reproaches me for not solving the problem when I had so much free time available.

TrevorJ 17y ago

The kinetic energy in this thing must be fierce. I'd hate to suck up something metallic with it. More info on switched reluctance motors here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_Reluctance_Motor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_Reluctance_Motor

jws 17y ago
The rotor however has no magnets or coils attached. What is the rotor then? The wikipedia "reluctance motor" article mentions the rotor having flux barriers. Is it something like an iron daisy?
- TrevorJ 17y ago
  I am not familiar with that, what is an iron daisy?

proee 17y ago

"Captain, the switched reluctance motor is overloaded... We need more time!"

jerryji 17y ago

Damn, I previously thought LHC is the only thing that's gonna suck up the world.

epall 17y ago

More details available at http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=DRMTRSWTRLCTMTR http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=D...

MoeDrippins 17y ago

Hope it's got a scatter guard around it. Yeesh!

raygun 17y ago

100k rpm thats only 1666 rev/sec - that does not seem super fast or anything for something so small. It has a turbine on it - direct coupled by the look of it - I wonder if it rotates the turbine at that speed - or if it slows down as it loads up - it's seems a big turbine to be doing that sort of speed - it would move a huge amount of air at that speed. It's hard to see from the pic - but it looks like it only has one coil on it - it needs more than one to start rotating - so maybe it does have 2 or 3. Anyway awesome - good to see the move to brushless technology in these medium size appliances - previously the domain of the old series wound universal motor.

DanielBMarkham 17y ago

I wonder if this advances us towards all-electric air travel?

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

deleted 17y ago

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JimmyL 17y ago

The vaccum the article is referencing is the DC31 - http://www.dyson.co.uk/store/product.asp?product=DC31-IRSBL http://www.dyson.co.uk/store/product.asp?product=DC31-IRSBL - with the Dyson Digital Motor, which I assume is branding-speak for what we're talking about. As others have mentioned, the AirBlade - the hand dryer that uses this motor - is awesome, and generates some serious breeze. Sadly, it's almost too smart: you use it somewhat differently than you use a normal hand dryer, and if you don't (and use it normally) you loose most of the genius of the design.