Dyson unveils "world's slimmest vacuum cleaner"

Technology company Dyson has revealed the PencilVac vacuum cleaner, which it describes as "the broom of the future".

Billed by Dyson as the "world's slimmest vacuum cleaner", the lightweight cordless vacuum has a body that is only 38 millimetres in diameter.

Designed primarily for hard floors, the vacuum has the profile of a broom with a continuous, rounded silhouette and a large head.

"It's the broom of the future," Dyson design manager Sam Cole told Dezeen. "The idea was to fit everything into 38 millimetres, whether it's at the top or what we call the handle."

"But really, the whole thing is kind of a handle," he added.

According to Cole, the size of the vacuum was determined by years of research at Dyson.

The company's R&D team believes that 38 millimetres, which is also the size of many of its Supersonic hair driers, gives the ideal balance between usability and being able to fit in motors and electronics.

The PencilVac is powered by the newly developed Hyperdymium motor, which the company describes as its fastest and smallest motor.

"We've matched their diameter to our hair care products," explained Cole. "It's kind of a sweet spot for ergonomics and power density."

"Within that 38 millimetres, we can fit in our Hyperdymium motors. If you make those motors much smaller, you lose a lot of power. And then if you go much bigger, it becomes uncomfortable for people with smaller hands."

The motor powers the suction system, which pulls dirt through a two-stage dust filtration system that separates dust from air so as not to impact the airflow.

Dust is pulled into an "air-compressing bin" that uses the suction power to compress dust, so that more can be contained within the small space.

The handle also contains a swappable battery.

According to Cole, along with the challenge of squeezing everything into the tubular form, the main issue was ensuring durability in a product that would be heavily used. This meant that every element had to be effectively designed from scratch.

"Every single thing, basically, genuinely had to be engineered from scratch, like we had nothing to go on," he said.

The vacuum was designed to be extremely convenient to use, with its small diameter meaning it can fit into hard-to-reach spaces. Lying flat, the product is 95 millimetres high, allowing it to squeeze under low furniture.

Although conceived as a device that could be used on hard floors, Dyson envisions the vacuum as a whole-home machine.

"If you look worldwide, actually, something around 60 per cent of places are hard floors with maybe a rug here and there," Cole said.

"So then it's very capable of cleaning a whole house and yet it works well on carpets," he added.

"We're sort of trying to cover all bases. For some people, it might mean, if you've got thick carpets or you live in a very big house, you might still find that you want to pick up your upright vacuum, and we still sell those."

Founded by inventor James Dyson, Dyson is known as the inventor of the bag-less vacuum with the world's slimmest vacuum cleaner being the latest in its family of vacuums. The company has also created modern takes on headphones, hairdryers, air purifiers and bladeless fans. It recently revealed that it is developing home robots.

The photography is courtesy of Dyson.

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