Inventor Sir James Dyson has revealed his company’s latest device aimed at making our lives easier – a tap that dries as well as washes your hands.
Combining a high-speed hand dryer with hot and cold water outlets, the Airblade Tap builds on the engineering firm’s success with its speedy hand driers, which have become a common sight in public loos around the country.
Sir James, pictured with the Airblade Tap, who cut his teeth as an inventor in Bath and has long links with the area, said the device offered long-term savings over hot air dryers and towels despite its price tag of nearly £1,000.
The Airblade Tap includes a unit underneath the sink containing an innovative motor, air filter and sound-silencing equipment, a pipe carrying water, electrics and air to the tap, and a stainless steel tap unit which pumps out water, then unheated air at 430mph.
Infrared sensors detect where the user’s hands are – if placed under the tap’s centre water comes out, if under its sides the air nozzles are triggered.
The firm said that the technology was protected by 110 granted patents with another 100 pending.
The Airblade has been installed in more than 250,000 locations worldwide.
Although the minimalistic hybrid water-air tap head is the device’s signature feature, Sir James said that the ‘secret’ of the machine was its motor, which had taken seven years to develop.
Dyson said more than 100 engineers at his Malmesbury ‘ideas factory’ had worked on the motor, which cost more than £26.9m to develop
