
New Dyson vaccum cleaner has "switched reluctance" motor, producing 104,000RPM - nir
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/technologynews/5636349/Dyson-unveils-worlds-fastest-motor-in-new-vacuum.html
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tmitchell
I assume the dryer they are referring to is the AirBlade:
<http://www.dysonairblade.com/>

They have them in several airports I frequent and they are, in a word,
awesome. One of those genuinely better mousetraps I wish I had thought of
first.

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anigbrowl
Dyson seems to have a talent for engineering the (retrospectively) obvious.
Every time I see the advert for that vacuum cleaner with the ball instead of
wheels I feel like a complete idiot. His mild, avuncular gaze gently
reproaches me for not solving the problem when I had so much free time
available.

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TrevorJ
The kinetic energy in this thing must be fierce. I'd hate to suck up something
metallic with it.

More info on switched reluctance motors here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_Reluctance_Motor>

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jws
_The rotor however has no magnets or coils attached._

What is the rotor then? The wikipedia "reluctance motor" article mentions the
rotor having flux barriers. Is it something like an iron daisy?

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TrevorJ
I am not familiar with that, what is an iron daisy?

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JimmyL
The vaccum the article is referencing is the DC31 -
<http://www.dyson.co.uk/store/product.asp?product=DC31-IRSBL> \- with the
_Dyson Digital Motor_ , which I assume is branding-speak for what we're
talking about.

As others have mentioned, the AirBlade - the hand dryer that uses this motor -
is awesome, and generates some serious breeze. Sadly, it's almost too smart:
you use it somewhat differently than you use a normal hand dryer, and if you
don't (and use it normally) you loose most of the genius of the design.

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epall
More details available at
[http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=D...](http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=DRMTRSWTRLCTMTR)

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raygun
100k rpm thats only 1666 rev/sec - that does not seem super fast or anything
for something so small.

It has a turbine on it - direct coupled by the look of it - I wonder if it
rotates the turbine at that speed - or if it slows down as it loads up - it's
seems a big turbine to be doing that sort of speed - it would move a huge
amount of air at that speed.

It's hard to see from the pic - but it looks like it only has one coil on it -
it needs more than one to start rotating - so maybe it does have 2 or 3.

Anyway awesome - good to see the move to brushless technology in these medium
size appliances - previously the domain of the old series wound universal
motor.

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proee
"Captain, the switched reluctance motor is overloaded... We need more time!"

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DanielBMarkham
I wonder if this advances us towards all-electric air travel?

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MoeDrippins
Hope it's got a scatter guard around it. Yeesh!

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jerryji
Damn, I previously thought LHC is the only thing that's gonna suck up the
world.

