A bladeless fan
 

Dyson (the vacum cleaner guy) has invented a fan with no external moving parts.

I find this fascinating and can see alot of applications for this gizmoe on larger and smaller scales.

Guy is going to make millions off this patent. :salute:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5ba62a00-b...44feab49a.html

This sounds great, I'm already seeing these applied in low noise apllications like studios, computers and home theathers... Hope the prices drop soon s big companies start picking these up!:up:

Im also thinking if this can be done with air it can also be applied to more viscus fluids..... like water ;)

at 300$ each I think I will pass

Well Im not payin 300 bucks for a fan either. Its the concept that I find fascinating.

Besides like all things of this manner the price should plummet.

But again its just a fan right?

A fan with no blades to get dirty, non turbulant air, no degredation of performance over time. There is a lot of upsides to this.

What's drawing the air in?

From what I could tell it does have blades, they are just inside (notice the air intakes on the base). That air is then projected out the airfoil which draws more air along with it, which allows a much smaller fan blade (housed internally) to move a lot more air. It will also degrade over time (electric motor, and its probably under a heavier load due to having to force air through the airfoil, plus dust etc.)

I was thinking the same thing. The world's need for automatic drinking straws can finally be satisfied.

:D

Yea you will also note that he says something like "Nearly as efficent as a 'normal' fan".

But still to have the motive part of the fan in an accessable location is a big plus.

Hey ! How about an automated soup spoon ! :rotfl2:

Why all the negativity ? It's a new approach to moving air.

While being pricey now, alot of fan makers I bet are nervous.

I sometimes wonder if the concept of a rubber band is over the top for some here. :hmmm: :haha:

If it will hold up against static pressure from resistance, it could have some potentials in other markets.

I could see potential for this for duct fans.

In my line of work we are always looking for fans that are quieter.

I am not sure that it would work well in an enclosed environment, or in miniature given the principle it uses to work
The principles it works on are neither new or revolutionary, just that no one has made a fan out of it before. It probably won't generalize as well either as for one thing I doubt you would be able to shrink it very far before it starts loosing relative effectivness, or use it in an environment with high airflow resistance resistance. If it is moving air on both sides of the airfoil then it would also need a fair amount of open space to work as well

I'm not entirely sure what all the fuss is about. These things have been in use as directional cooling blowers for ages. We've got a few of them scattered about here at work.

The only difference I can see with Dyson's gadget is that, rather than run it from air supplied from a remote compressor, as we do, he's packaged a mini-compressor into the unit.

They are quite good at moving air, though they're not exactly 'silent'. The ones we have make quite a 'whooshing' sound when they're turned on.

For $300, I'm not sure I'd be queueing up to buy one.