This is an illustration of how the conventional motors (not just vacuum, but motors in general) work. Since they relay on Carbon brushes (see the number 3 in the pic) to deliver electricity to the motor, these brushes wear down as time goes on which "helps" to reduce the lifetime of the motor + emits harmful dust (carbon in this case) particles which are then caught by the filters.
So the more faster the motor spins, the faster the carbon brushes wear out, this has forced the engineers to build motors that are revolving around 35,000 RPM or below. Although they could be more faster, but as can be seen, then they'll dramatically reduce their lifetime. So when they had to choose between shorter-lifetime/cost for the users vs speed/meaning better suctions, well they went with their intuvision, "low cost" :).
A conventional vacuum motor has an average lifespan of 600 hours. And because of the materials that are being used, the conventional method do add some weight and size to the motor itself thus making the vacuum cleaner itself more heavier.
How Dyson overcame this issue?
Although it may sound easy, all you had to do was replace the problematic carbons with something else, yet engineers at Dyson took about a decade to come up with an answer!. The Dyson digital motor in simple terms, replaced the carbon brushes with an electronic circuit thus eliminating wearings which was one of the main drawback of the conventional design.
Faster and lighter!
It uses a magnet (which is one of the most heaviest parts of a motor) which is built using a material called called neodymium, which is ten times stronger and in digital motor it spins ten times faster too (104,000 per minute!).
There is an aluminum fan/s which is located at the bottom of the motor (under the low speed bearing, number 4 in the picture). In the Dyson digital motor, this is also replaced by lighter + stronger, reinforced-carbon fiber. In general with DDM, there are less wearing parts, less pollution, more powerful, durabel... yet light in weight when compared with a traditional motor!.
So, the Dyson digital motor is more efficient, third of a size of conventional motors + weights just about impressively lower 139 grams at the end, it is worth it?, well in my opinion it certainly is!.
This is known as a brushless DC motor. It is nothing new. You can find them in computer fans for example.
ReplyDeleteI agree, all they seem to be doing is using is a digital circuit to control the motor which from what I understand have been used on stepper motors for years.
ReplyDelete"more faster"... seriously?
ReplyDeleteIt's effectively the same technology that you find in most electric bike motors
ReplyDeleteDidn't think there was anything new here!!
ReplyDeletemore heavier????
ReplyDeleteThe DC-brushless motors, used in PC's for decades, are three kinds. One kind are the HDD motors, which use Neodymium magnets and are very powerful, and are used for precise speed control and fast turn-on in overload. The second, are the drives used in the old floppies and still currently used in printers, for their likeness to step-by-step motors, namely, the position control. The third, are the puny fan motors, which were initially intended to be maintenance free and reliable, then they were upgraded to electronic speed control.
ReplyDeleteThe Dyson DC-brushless is intended for sheer power and compactness. It packs a powerful, precision-designed, small diameter axial-radial fan, with high speed, which design is impossible without heavy CAD and precision machining. As you may know, the higher the speed, the smaller the motor. The key here is designing a miniature, huge speed fan, to make the motor smaller. And I assume there is one more hidden thing in this motor. The bearings. You don't expect ordinary bearings to last very much at 100,000 rpm. That's what they don't say. What are they using for bearings. It may be they use very small diameter bearings, small diameter rotors, and unbelievable balancing, both dynamically and aerodynamically, to achieve low wear in small bearings that have low periphery speed and therefore low wear. They are not telling us everything, and many people just fall for the big details, like "big deal, DC brushless they are all". The Devil is in the details.
The Devil IS in the details. They probably feed a prototype circuit 104,000 PPM ("digital" "pulses per minute"), and suddenly you have 104,000 RPM. It's bogus. On the website it's 88,000 RPM.
ReplyDeleteGiving Dyson the benefit of the doubt, they can plunk a production motor on a bench and give it enough juice and some will do 88K in a suicide run.
Now they stick them in a cordless vac and make it rotate at 35,000 RPM until you hit the turbo button, whereupon it spins at a louder speed for a maximum of 6 minutes. Then you recharge for 3.5 hours. Not exactly a strenuous duty cycles.
A conventional Vacuum motor lasts 600 hours. That's a mere 35 days! Using the Dyson hand vac at an average of once a week, that's 6 minutes a week for 600 hours or 36000 minutes at the rate of 6 minute/weeks means the Dyson Digital Motor will run continuously at 104,000 RPM for 115 years!
Who the hell only vacuume for only 6 minits a week ?
ReplyDeleteI vacuum about 6 minutes a year. Sounds perfect for me
ReplyDelete