Malmesbury engineers come up with tap that washes and dries (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Dyson launches new Airblade Tap

9:29am Tuesday 5th February 2013 in News

JAMES Dyson last night unveiled the latest invention to come out of his Malmesbury research and development facility – a tap that dries hands as well as washing them.

The Airblade Tap, which retails at a shade under £1,000 uses a tiny new digital motor to force air at 430mph out of channels mounted on the side of a conventional tap.

He explained: “Using laser cutting techniques to manipulate marine-grade steel, Dyson engineers have created an intuitive, high performance tap.

"Two branches channel high velocity air to literally scrape water from hands and into the sink - not the floor.”

Working with lasers has been a new challenge for the engineers, while the new digital motor – thought to be the smallest in the world - took seven years and almost £30 million to develop.

Dyson says the invention can dry hands in 12 seconds without the need to walk across a washroom with dripping wet hands.

The firm also claims annual running costs at £48 are just a fifth of the cost of a conventional hand drier.