Multi-industry

Dyson innovation yields revolutionary products

Backed by a culture that revolves around innovation, Dyson elevated the vacuum cleaner to
a work of high-performance engineering and catapulted itself into market leadership

Business challenges
Take vacuum cleaner DYSON
performance to the next
level with revolutionary new
ball technology
Dyson uses digital product development in its R&D
Maintain fast development projects, such as the D15 vacuum cleaner, while
cycles for first-to-market maintaining fast development cycles.
advantage
Driven to innovate
Led by its charismatic founder, James Dyson, Dyson
Keys to success is an innovation success story. In 1993 the
Evaluate concepts as company introduced the Dyson DCO1 Dual Cyclone,
3D models the first vacuum cleaner with constant suction.
Over the following decade, Dyson has grown to
Simulate motion and
become the top-selling vacuum cleaner
interaction of parts and
manufacturer in Western Europe and the leading
assemblies in software
vendor of upright vacuums in the USA. It now
Leverage design geometry employs 1,400 people in the UK and sells machines
for rapid prototyping in 38 countries.

Dyson’s most recent vacuum cleaner innovation is

Results the Dyson DC15, launched in 2005. The DC15
Development cycle times incorporates the revolutionary Ball technology,
maintained despite which replaces the traditional, rigid wheels of a
increasingly sophisticated vacuum cleaner with a ball. This configuration
technology allows the user to guide the cleaner around
furniture and other obstacles. The Ball successfully eliminates the struggle of maneuvering a vacuum
around a room, allowing the user to control the movement – not the other way around.
DC15 is Dyson’s most
advanced vacuum cleaner The innovator’s challenge
and strengthens Dyson’s One of the issues facing Dyson is how to create increasingly sophisticated machines such as the DC15,
reputation for innovation which has more components, while ensuring that design and development cycle times do not become
overly extended.

Since 1998 Dyson has been a committed user of the NX™ next-generation digital product development
software system. Dyson originally bought five seats of NX. Over the years this has increased to 88
licenses, with the software now being used by more than 100 in the Dyson R&D team: design engineers
who are part of the New Product Development team, which generates ideas and concepts; scientists
involved in testing and developing ideas and technologies; and the engineers responsible for the actual
detail design of the machines.

NX
www.siemens.com/nx
 NX

Fast transition from concept to 3D

As the early ideas and concepts for the DC15 began to come together in cardboard and foam, design
engineers used NX to produce detailed 3D models that helped them clarify their thinking and refine the
ball mechanism. “Our conceptual designs are produced in 3D, which has fantastic benefits,” explains
John Myers, CAD systems manager at Dyson. “Rather than just producing views of the product, you
design the real thing. This reduces ambiguity and often makes it easier to understand complex
assemblies. You get a lot of feedback, seeing it coming together before your very eyes.”

The modeling features within NX enabled Dyson’s design engineers to work extremely quickly. “With
the 2D CAD software that had been used before, a design engineer could spend weeks on the design of
a complex part. With NX we can produce a 3D model in a fraction of the time,” Myers says.

Rapid prototypes from design data

The next phase in the DC15’s development involved the creation of physical prototypes to help the
design team better evaluate the new concept. Designs created in NX were used directly for rapid
prototyping, supporting the swift creation of physical models for testing and evaluation. NX geometry
was converted into STL files that were then used by Dyson’s in-house prototyping modeler, which
creates prototypes from successive layers of powdered nylon.

Fast prototyping of metal components was made possible by NX’s integrated NC machining
functionality, part of NX’s computer aided manufacturing (CAM) portfolio. NX Machining leveraged the
3D design geometry to drive milling and cutting tools. One of the advantages of using NX Machining
was that refinements made to the wdesign were automatically
incorporated into the CNC programs, without the need for
reprogramming. This avoided potentially costly delays to
the creation of successive prototypes.

Dyson generated a variety of prototypes as the design engineers

and scientists considered alternative designs. The speed at which
NX could help deliver prototypes was a major benefit. “With a
complex project such as the DC15 that required us to evaluate a
number of alternative models, NX’s ability to support rapid
prototyping was an important factor in helping us to keep the
development time in check,” Myers adds.

Computer simulation boosts design accuracy

To improve accuracy and eliminate errors in the design – and
ultimately speed the overall development cycle – Dyson used a
number of NX digital simulation and testing capabilities. For
example, NX’s assembly modeling functionality allowed Dyson to
ensure that the many parts within the product, which were created
by different design engineers, would fit together correctly.

NX mechanism analysis allowed the design engineers to view a

nimated sequences simulating the precise motion of the moving
parts. This ensured that parts did not interfere with each other
as they moved. And to help engineers understand the stresses
on the different parts within the DC15, 3D design data was also
used for finite element analysis (FEA) within NX.

Moving quickly to tooling

When the major design and testing phase was completed, it was
time for the tooling manufacturers to get involved. Dyson partners
with several specialist toolmakers. The toolmakers fashion the
machine tools used in the manufacturing, which takes place on
Dyson’s purpose built assembly lines in Malaysia.
 Multi-industry NX

Solutions/Services It was important to provide the toolmakers

with the information they need quickly and
NX
accurately to avoid delays. The high quality of
www.siemens.com/nx
NX data, due to the rigorous simulation and
prototyping it had undergone, was able to
Client’s primary support this fast turnaround. Toolmakers were
business able to access modeling data for the DC15 and,
confident in its accuracy, employ it directly
Dyson engineers and into their complex cutting tools.
manufactures revolutionary,
no loss of suction vacuum Challenge the old to come up with the new
cleaners, two-drum washing “As the development of the DC15 shows,
machines and digital Dyson’s philosophy is closely tied to our ability
motors. to challenge existing technologies and to come
www.dyson.com up with new innovations and designs,” explains
Myers. “NX helps support our culture of inno-
vation with its powerful design technology that takes much of the effort out of producing detailed 3D
Client location models, performing digital simulations and creating rapid prototypes.”
Wiltshire
United Kingdom One of Dyson’s major concerns was that in its zeal to produce increasingly sophisticated technology, it
may find development cycles getting longer and longer. This did not happen with the DC15 and over
the years the company has managed to keep cycles to less than three years.
“NX helps support
Dyson’s culture of
innovation with its
powerful design
technology that takes
much of the effort out
of producing detailed
3D models, performing
digital simulation 
and creating rapid
prototypes.”
John Myers
CAD Systems Manager
Dyson

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