1. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners The Design Cycle. Click anywhere to start. Source: www.dyson.co.ukwww.dyson.co.uk

2. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners The Design Brief In 1978 James Dyson noticed that the bags on standard vacuum cleaners quickly clog with dust reducing suction and efficiency. He invented a bagless cleaner using cyclone technology to solve the problem. Standard vacuum cleaner bags clog with dust reducing efficiency James Dyson replaced the bag with a cyclone to solve the problem Source: www.dyson.co.ukwww.dyson.co.uk

3. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners Sketching Sketching is a quick and cheap way of working through ideas and communicating those ideas to the design team. Design engineers create many sketches in a short space of time.

4. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners Test Modelling Card model Breadboard model Blue foam model Catch test rig Resin Cast model Dyson design engineers move as quickly as they can from the initial brief to working in 3D. They make prototypes out of many different materials. They often work in cardboard as this allows them to make 3D models very quickly, cheaply and easily.

5. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners Computer Aided Design CAD is a useful tool at this stage as it means you can begin to construct an accurate model with precise data, which can then be used for other processes such as rapid prototyping and, later on, tooling.

6. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners Rapid Prototyping Dyson uses a rapid prototyping process called fuse deposition modelling (FDM). It means that accurate plastic components can be made in a very short period of time – overnight in most cases. Source: http://www.micronicstech.com/fdm_technology.htmlhttp://www.micronicstech.com/fdm_technology.html

7. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners Colour Dyson vacuum cleaners come in a range of different colours depending on the different models. However, different coloured plastics have different properties and react in different ways. This means that Design engineers have to decide on colours before the prototypes are tested.

8. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners Testing Rigs are developed to test every aspect of the design e.g. the wheels the catches the hinges and of course the cyclone to make sure that the product will be tough enough to withstand daily use.

9. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners Tooling When the design engineers have tested every component and are happy with their working prototypes, then the CAD data is sent to the toolmakers, in order to make the injection moulding tools. The tool for each component is made from a huge block of steel, and costs thousands of pounds to make.

10. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners Quality Control The first parts back from the Toolmakers are inspected very carefully to check their quality. If any of the imperfections are obvious, then the tool will have to be adjusted.

11. Dyson Vacuum Cleaners Assembly Right at the beginning of the design process, at the cardboard modelling stage, design engineers were thinking about how their product would finally be assembled. The less parts a product has, and the easier they fit together, the quicker and more efficient the assembly process.