Dyson (company)
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| Private company | |
| Industry | Technology |
| Founded | 8 July 1991 (as Barleta Ltd.) |
| Founder | James Dyson |
| Headquarters | Malmesbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom |
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Key people
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James Dyson (Chief engineer) Max Conze (CEO) |
| Products |
Vacuum cleaners, hand dryers, desk fans, Hair dryers (see products listing) |
| Revenue |
 £1.74 billion (2015) |
| Profit |
£448 million (2015) |
| Owner | James Dyson |
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Number of employees
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>7,000 (2016) |
| Website | www |
Dyson Ltd is a British technology company that designs and manufactures vacuum cleaners, hand dryers, bladeless fans, heaters and hair dryers. It sells machines in over 70 countries and employs more than 7,000 people worldwide.
James Dyson bought a Hoover Junior vacuum cleaner in year 1974. The Hoover became clogged quickly and lost suction over time. Frustrated, Dyson emptied the bag to try to restore the suction but this had no effect. On opening the bag to investigate, he noticed a layer of dust inside, clogging the fine material mesh and preventing the machine working properly. The machine worked well only with a fresh bag, it lost suction over time. He resolved to develop a better vacuum cleaner that worked more efficiently.
During a visit to a local sawmill, Dyson noticed how the sawdust was removed from the air by large industrial cyclones.Centrifugal separators are a typical method of collecting dirt, dust and debris in industrial settings. Such methods usually were not applied on a smaller scale because of the higher cost. Dyson hypothesised the same principle might work, on a smaller scale, in a vacuum cleaner. He removed the bag from the Hoover Junior and fitted it with a cardboard cyclone. On cleaning the room with it, he found it picked up more than his bag machine. This was the first vacuum cleaner without a bag.
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 30-foot (9.1 m)-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 prototype designs between 1979 and 1984, the first prototype vacuum cleaner, a red and blue machine brought Dyson little success, as he struggled to find a licensee for his machine in the UK and America. Manufacturing companies like Hoover did not want to license the design, probably because the vacuum bag market was worth $500m so the Dyson was a threat to their profits.
The only company that expressed interest in the new cyclonic vacuum technology was Dyson's former employer, Rotork. Built by Italian appliance maker Zanussi and sold by Kleeneze through mail order catalogue, the Kleeneze Rotork Cyclon was the first publicly-sold vacuum cleaner of Dyson's design. Only about 500 units were sold in 1983.
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Wikipedia