Green clean: Digital-motored vacuum cleaner launches

London – A digital motor with twice the power, half the electricity consumption and none of the carbon emissions of a conventional motor was unveiled by vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson today. Developed over the course of 10 years, the Dyson Digital Motor V2 will be available for domestic use as part of the new DC31 and DC31 Animal handheld vacuum cleaners from 1 July.

Unlike conventional motors, which rely on energy-generating carbon brushes that spark, wear down and emit carbon dust, Dyson’s digital motor is powered by a microprocessor situated within the cleaner’s onboard electronic circuit. As such, this development by Dyson engineers demonstrates the potential of environmentally friendly digital technology to power consumer products.

‘What we’re trying to produce is lightweight products with fewer materials,’ says chairman James Dyson of the new battery-powered vacuum cleaners. The recent additions to the Dyson family have the same power of the original Dyson vacuum cleaner introduced to the British market 15 years ago, at a fraction of the size. The company is planning to produce more than a million of these over the coming year and will also use the digital motor in other domestic products currently in the pipeline.