Dyson Cinetic Big Ball AnimalPro 2 – End of Life

In 1974, James Dyson bought a Hoover Junior vacuum cleaner, which lost suction after a period of use. Frustrated, Dyson emptied the disposable paper bag to try to restore the suction but this had no effect. On opening the bag to investigate, he noticed a layer of dust inside, clogging the fine material mesh. Later, Dyson was working on his ballbarrow at a company he had founded (but no longer entirely owned) where a large vacuum system was used to contain the fusion bonded epoxy coating that was sprayed on the wheelbarrow arms as a powder coating. Dyson found the system inefficient, and was told by equipment manufacturers that giant cyclone systems were better. Centrifugal separators are a typical method of collecting dirt, dust and debris in industrial settings, but such methods usually were not applied on a smaller scale because of the higher cost. He knew sawmills used this type of equipment, and investigated by visiting a local sawmill at night and taking measurements. He then built a 30-foot model for the ballbarrow factory. While constructing this at home, Dyson realized the function of the cyclone was to extract dust without clogging. Wondering if this could be applied at a smaller scale to a home vacuum, he constructed a cardboard model with sticky tape, connected it to his Hoover with its bag removed, and found it worked satisfactorily. The directors of the ballbarrow company thought if a better vacuum was possible, Hoover or Electrolux would have invented it. Dyson was undeterred, and was kicked out of his company.[18] Jeremy Fry provided 49% of the investment for cyclonic vacuum development, and the rest came from a loan. In the shed behind his house, Dyson developed 5,127 prototype designs between 1979 and 1984.[20] The first prototype vacuum cleaner, a red and blue machine, brought Dyson little success, as he struggled to find a licensee for his machine in the UK and America. Manufacturing companies such as Hoover did not want to license the design, probably because the vacuum bag market was worth $500M and thus Dyson was a threat to their profits. The only company that expressed interest in the new cyclonic vacuum technology was Dyson's former employer, Rotork. Built by Italian appliance maker Zanussi and sold by Kleeneze through a mail order catalogue, the Kleeneze Rotork Cyclon was the first publicly sold vacuum cleaner of Dyson's design. Only about 500 units were sold in 1983. In April 1984, Dyson claimed that he had sent the prototype machines, drawings, and confidential information to American consumer-products maker Amway as part of a proposed licensing deal. The deal fell through, but in January 1985 Amway produced the CMS-1000, a machine which was very similar to the Dyson design. Less than a month later, Dyson sued Amway for patent infringement. In 1985 a Japanese company, Apex Ltd., expressed interest in licensing Dyson's design and in March 1986 a reworked version of the Cyclon – called G-Force – was put into production and sold in Japan for the equivalent of US$2,000.The G-Force had an attachment that could turn it into a table to save space in small Japanese apartments.[verification needed] In 1991, it won the International Design Fair prize in Japan, and became a status symbol there.