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The
Dyson Story |
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James Dyson |
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You know the feeling when some everyday
product lets you down. You wish someone could solve the problem.
James Dyson does that. He is a man who likes to make things
work better. With his research team he has developed products
that have achieved sales of over $10 billion worldwide. |
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The bag problem |
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In 1978, while vacuuming his home,
James Dyson realized his bag vacuum cleaner was constantly
losing suction power. He noticed how dust quickly clogged
the pores of the bag and blocked the airflow, so that suction
dropped rapidly. He set to work to solve this problem. 5 years
and 5,127 prototypes later, the world's first cyclonic bagless
vacuum cleaner arrived. |
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No place for new technology |
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James Dyson offered his invention to major
manufacturers. One by one they turned him down, apparently
not interested in new technology. They seemed determined to
continue selling bags, worth $500 million every year. Later,
Hoover's Vice President for Europe, Mike Rutter, said on UK
national TV: "I do regret that Hoover as a company did
not take the product technology off Dyson; it would have lain
on the shelf and not been used". |
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The first Dyson |
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So James Dyson decided
to manufacture his own vacuum cleaner. In June  1993
he opened a research center and factory near his home in England
to begin making his machine. It even collected the finest
particles of dust (microscopic particles as small as cigarette
smoke) without clogging. The result was the Dyson Cyclone,
the first vacuum cleaner that didn't lose suction.
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Something to hide |
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In under 2 years, Dyson was the
UK's best-selling vacuum. Miele, Bosch, Siemens, Electrolux
and Philips tried to stop Dyson showing how their models clogged
and lost suction. Later, manufacturers started to admit that
bags reduced suction, and then tried to jump on the bandwagon
to produce `bagless' vacuums, but these also clogged just
like a bag vacuum. Meanwhile 60% of people were buying a Dyson
because it was recommended to them.
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More cyclones |
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The original team of 3 Dyson engineers
grew to 350 scientists in a new research center, investigating
ways to make products work better. Determined to create vacuums
with even higher suction, the cyclonics team set to work developing
an entirely new type of cyclone system. They discovered that
spreading higher airflow through many cyclones generated even
higher suction power, which picked up more dust from the floor.
Hence the Root8Cyclone™ was created. |
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The patent nightmare |
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James Dyson's vacuum was nearly never
made due to patent fees and legal costs incurred defending
his invention against patent infringement by a giant corporation.
During the development years when James had no income, this
nearly bankrupted him. He risked everything, and fortunately
the risk paid off. Then in 1999, Hoover UK tried to imitate
a Dyson and James was forced back to court to protect his
invention again. After 18 months Dyson finally won a victory
against Hoover UK for patent infringement.
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Another problem to solve |
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"I like your vacuum cleaners but
when will you make one you don't have to  push
around?" This casual remark set James Dyson's mind working.
Producing something that bounced off furniture and picked
up very little dust would have been easy, but James Dyson
insisted his robot should not only clean well but also guide
itself more logically than a human would. So Dyson designed
a robot with 3 on-board computers and 50 sensory devices to
navigate itself around a house and clean properly.
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