Dyson unveils the Airblade hand dryer

Coming to a service station near you

3 October 2006 10:41 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Having conquered the dirt in your living room James Dyson wants to do the same to your hands after you washed them.

Called the Dyson Airblade the unit is 80% more efficient that a conventional dryer found in public toliets.

The airblade will cost £540 plus VAT compared to £350 for a more traditional machine and is aimed at the pubs, hospitals and anywhere that has a public toilet.

The secret is that the system runs four times faster than conventional units blasting air at around 400mpb on your hands - enough, as we found at the launch to make the skin on your hands ripple.

The dyson Airblade works by removing bacteria and mould from the air using HEPA filtration. Waste water is passed through an iodine resin filter to disinfect it, and then piezo crystal technology releases the sterilized water as harmless invisible mist.

Dyson has also said that that the units will be available to lease in the UK.

The first units are going into Moto service stations today and following a mock vandalism at the launch capable of withstanding the odd knock or two.