In a Spin with Dyson

Problem

Domestic Appliance specialist Dyson wished to develop a revolutionary new electronic washing machine that replicated the art of hand-washing.

Concept patents were filed by Dyson and Heber was invited to the Malmesbury factory for an exclusive meeting with the engineering team trying to get this product to market in just 12 months. The timescales were tight; the budget was an impressive £40Million and the technical challenges monumental. However, Heber was ready to meet the challenge for development of the complete electronic control system for the Dyson washing machine in record time.

Solution

Heber quickly started on a design, incorporating over 20 years of appliance design into this revolutionary new product. At first the involvement of Heber was just for electronic design and the complex task of writing the embedded software to control every aspect of the washing machine. But Dyson soon asked Heber to product test fixtures and programming equipment along with test programs and field service tools.

During the development over 1500 patents were filed on the Dyson washing machine and an ultra sensitive solid-state pressure sensing technology was specially developed to accurately and reliably measure water levels inside the washing machine.

Heber delivered a month early and under budget whilst exceeding the initial specification by adding selectable languages and a brighter display module. Production soon followed as an initial pre-production batch produced by Heber, this later followed on with full production for the first year of manufacture resulting in delivery of 142,000 Dyson washing machine control systems. Heber then helped Dyson with the planned transfer of all the manufacture to Malaysia along with a complete system hand-over so Dyson engineers could evolve the control software. Heber refined the design for off-shore manufacture and helped Dyson optimize many more aspects of the complete design.

Staff at Heber have been designing creative electronic solutions for real world problems for over 25 years. If you need to heat, pump, cool, mix, detect or evaporate water, contact Heber.