Dyson launches combined tap and Airblade hand-dryer

The Dyson Airblade Tap hand-dryer uses Dyson’s Airblade technology, which sees sheets of high-velocity air travel through tiny apertures at 430mph ‘scraping water from hands like a windscreen wiper’.

The product, which will sell for £999, uses infrared sensors to pinpoint hand positions and release water from the tap stem. Once the hands are wet, and drying is needed, two high-velocity sheets of air are released from the tap’s branches, cleaning hands in around 12 seconds, according to Dyson.

Dyson has also updated its Airblade hand-dryer, removing 1.1kg of materials from the original design, and developed a new Dyson Airblade V hand-dryer, which is 60 per cent smaller than the original.

The new range uses the Dyson digital motor V4, which has been developed over a period of seven years and at a cost of £26.9 million.

James Dyson says, ‘Using complex computer modelling, Dyson engineers have developed a high-performance digital motor.

‘The Dyson digital motor self-adjusts 6000 times a second to maintain optimum efficiency to create a high-velocity sheet of air that dries hands quickly and hygienically.’

Dyson head of Airblade engineering Chris Osborn says a total invesment of £40 million has been made by the company on the development of all three products.

Osborn, who gave an insight into testing for robustness says, ‘They’re tested by hands and feet and walked on.’

They’re also pulled and kicked to ensure they can withstand use at ‘for example, football matches’ before ‘controlled external user test trials’ are conducted.

The new Airblade Tap will cost £999.99, while the Airblade Mk2 hand-dryer costs £649.99 and the V hand-dryer £499.99.