The rusting, ineffective hand-dryer — that depressing fixture in public lavatories that leaves users wiping damp palms on the seat of their trousers — may have had its day.
Sir James Dyson, who brought us the bagless vacuum cleaner, announced yesterday that he had invented a hand-dryer that really works.
According to Sir James, washing our hands is dirty, ineffective and expensive, and he claims to have reinvented it.
His Airblade works by blasting 400mph “blades” of air through slits the width of a human hair to scrape off the water, rather like a car’s windscreen wipers.
Conventional dryers use currents of warm air to make moisture evaporate.
Sir James claims that his dryer is about three times as fast as conventional machines — it takes about ten seconds to dry hands, compared with the 30 seconds taken by traditional dryers. However, quick as it was, The Times did need a second go to avoid retaining a disconcertingly damp handshake.
The Airblade turns itself on automatically when hands are placed into it. The user then slowly draws his or her hands out of the machine as two jets of air push the water off them.
The “blades” of air, which are sufficiently intense to ripple the skin, force the water into a pit, where it is filtered into an iodine cartridge. The water is then vaporised and released back into the air in a hygienic form.
Sir James said yesterday that he hoped that his latest invention would eradicate one of his pet hates: people who leave public lavatories without washing their hands.
“We’re all petrified of touching anything in lavatories because we know some people don’t wash or dry their hands properly — and that’s as dangerous because germs multiply at a formidable rate on wet hands,” he said.
“The real inspiration behind the dryer comes from standing in loos and trying to dry your hands under a hand-dryer. You just give up and end up wiping them on your trousers.”
Sir James said that the Airblade was the most hygienic dryer available because it did not require users to rub their hands, which could cause chapping, brought germs to the surface of the skin and spread dirt from underneath fingernails. It could, therefore, be a useful tool for fighting the superbug MRSA, he said.
The Airblade, which is coated with antibacterial paint, is on trial at Bristol Royal Infirmary where, in 2004, up to 18 colonies of MRSA were found in lavatories used by staff and the public. It is also being tested in motorway service stations before it goes on sale next month. Sir James said that China, where the construction industry is booming as the country prepares for the 2008 Olympics, would be a huge market for the dryer.
“We want to be wherever there are lavatories,” he said. “We would like (them) to replace all the hand-dryers in every public building because they are so slow — and there is a health question mark over them. I envisage a potential market of up to one million units a year worldwide and I expect a return on the £10 million investment in the next year or two.”
Sir James says that the Airblade is 83 per cent more efficient than traditional dryers because it does not have to heat the air and uses a more efficient motor. It costs £549, plus VAT, compared with £100 for a conventional dryer, but the company says that it will pay for itself eventually because of its lower running costs.
Owners are also unlikely to have to meet expensive repair bills for the Airblade after vandalism. “It is made out of baseball bat-proof aluminium,” Sir James said. “I actually hurt my toe kicking it.”
Airblade technology was discovered when Sir James was researching it for use in a vacuum cleaner and an engineer noticed how effectively it dried his hands.
