So I can just see their legal department. 85 patents? We can stretch that out. How could a 100 patent invention not be awesome?

 

I built the proof of concept for this about 8 years ago when my daughter was in middle school science class. They had to invent something, build it, and present it to the class. Her group decided it would be good to wash and dry your hands over the sink so I hooked up a blow dryer to an old PVC P-trap. Ran a piece of tubing inside the PVC and down to a submersible pump in a 5 gallon bucket. Hooked everything up thru a 12V relay and put switches by the 'sink' so they could safely be activated with wet hands. Water ran thru the hose. Then hot air blew around the tube but inside the PVC. I'm waiting on my royalty check...

 

Im the trade, this kind of device comes under the classification of an "air blow-off device". If the air stream is shaped to form a thin line or fanlike, then it is referred to as an "air knife". Next time you go through a car wash, you will notice that the final air streams come out of long thin nozzles to form a thin flat stream, A giant air knife.

 

There is a company in the US already making a combo device that does this. Been available of a couple years. It is actually pretty nice the significant reduction in the need for paper towels if you use it. Less cost and less unnecessary use of a resource.

The guy here worked hard to get the dry time down as low as possible. This seems to be the main beef people have with them. They were claiming 12 seconds IIRC. They put a lot of effort into making the air as dry as possible. They concentrate it and did a loot of work to reduce the noise. I am no clear on the configuration of the air, it didn't sound like a typical air knife. I think I heard it on an NPR show. Nice interview. Sorry I couldn't find a link for it.

 

How about "give 'em a shake, rub 'em briskly together and they'll be dry in the time it takes you to walk back to the bar"?

 

Ok, so it has been done before. Seen them in toilets, they obviously weren't as flash as this and the dryer was average too but the one thing it did have was the soap dispenser!! Hi James, one important thing if you want to wash your hands properly all in one

Rich man's toy but could definitely see it in an airport, they will just have to add the soap part and might get somewhere. If it were anywhere else you'd probably only be able to afford one of them so you'd have a cue building up at the tap to wash and dry your hands instead of having two stations...

Brian, Ha ha did you read the article, there is already 110 patents granted with another 100 pending. It's a super patent machine!!!!

 

Wow, guess I will have to quit using my pants to dry my hands