Physicist - The Motor and The Impeller

The Motor; how it works

This is an induction motor that runs on an alternating current. One of the main design features of this motor is the induction component; rather than have contact points with the rotor; it relies on the alternating magnetic field in order to induce a current in a secondary coil. The induced current also generates an opposing magnetic field to the original field. In order to calculate this current and magnetic field, you need to look at it with a surface integral. For this reason, my model will only include the calculations basic in order to calculate the power of the motor as well as the speed and torque. The other reason not to look at the internal forces operating the motor is because of difficulty in measuring the fields and current. For example; while we know what the current coming to the motor is, as well as the number of dipoles (the points on the motor where the magnetic field is concentrated), we would have to measure the wires resistivity, length would have to be estimated, current measured, and distance of the rotors measured. For this reason, all magnetic fields are internalized and assumed for this simulation. It is important to note the inaccuracies in the model due to ignoring the internal forces. This is mainly in “magnetic leak” in the coils and other heat losses due to resistance in said wires.

The Vacuum; the impeller

The impeller was the second component to this device, and is also one of the components that were not modeled. The reason for this is due to the complexity in creating a mathematical model of things involving the movement of air; it requires more complex mathematics to get an accurate model. While the motor also involved more complex math to fully model its working principles, It was not necessary to get a fairly accurate model. The impeller is, nonetheless, equally important to the operation of the vacuum; as is its design intentional for the product. The choice of an impeller was due to the ability of an impeller to force the airflow to the edge of the device, this way, it would keep the debris that pass through the filter away from the motor and other electronic components.

A final note to the design is a lack of safety features in the event of a power surge or water contact with the device. The only components within the simple circuit are a switch, a power chord/supply, and the motor.  

Cultural Understanding

Being a father, it is my primary objective to focus my attention on my family’s needs in order to make their lives better. I would like to express this in my field of work. When I lived in Japan almost 5 years ago, I enjoyed adapting to their culture and their way of life. 

In America, we established a strong clientele for a vacuum cleaner, which contains the necessary parts to develop our product. Our team has introduced a product that puts an emphasis on reducing the impact environmentally. This is done by not using any power cords or batteries. The product was designed to make an individual life easier and efficient when cleaning some debris within a house. We used the concepts of the pressure changing and volume work for our product.  There is 2 small vaults build on the container which enabled the air to flow through. The first vault builds on top of the container and the second vault builds at the end container.  As the handheld vacuum is sucking, the debris will collect by the dust collector and the air will flow through the vault. The volume of the container starting to increase and the pressure inside is lesser than outside. Thus, this will allow the first vault to seal the container once the volume of the container is maximized.  As we compress the handheld vacuum, the air will release through the second vault because the volume in the container decrease and the pressure force the second vault to open to let the air flow out. This product is not common in Japan, which makes it unique on a global level. However, we still stick with the Japanese‘s culture that is environment friendly.

For the time being our product had some impact on the society in Japan. With my knowledge of the Japanese’s culture that I learned when I was in Japan; our team is looking to make a huge impact in helping the household.

After many years of cleaning, I found that while I was in U.S, handheld vacuums only serve to clean up messes without care about components that made the handheld vacuum. There are huge differences in the US which they did not care about their product impact has on environment. Generally speaking, environment friendly is not part of the nation’s concern compared to Japan because recycling cost a lot of money per tons of components. Besides that, some components are difficult to recycle, such as plastic. Furthermore, the voltage in American is 120V which is different from Japan (100V) which require amount of electricity to run. But with our product, we can get the job done efficiency and eliminate the pollution that results from the components that make up the handheld vacuum. Handheld vacuums are very common household product that helps many Americans with the household chores.  We took the Le chatelier's principle making into our own handheld vacuum, which is a unique product that we are expanding in Japan. Due to the cultural differences, our team thought of this handheld vacuum specifically for Japan.

Xavier Charles

-Anthropologist of Handheld Vacuum

The design, functionality and cost of The Boss vacuum cleaner.

The Eureka Company has designed a corded handheld vacuum called The Boss. The Boss operates on a 120V power source and runs at 60Hz on a 2A current. The vacuum itself is a little over a foot long and can fit in a 4 inch by 4 inch area so this device is quite compact. The vacuum is simple and is made mostly of plastic with the other materials being steel and copper for the motor to operate the impeller to provide the suction for the vacuum to operate. The time this device came from and the functions of this device seems to suggest that the world needed a small compact vacuum that most likely had a low cost as well. Also the name is big on the top in clear view of the user suggests that maybe this product was well know. This may have adverse effects on the cost of a product, likely causing a higher sales price than need be. The customer most likely wanted a space efficient vacuum since The Boss is small and compact and was only meant to be used in a home as the cord was not very long. The customer who bought this most likely had money on the side to afford this device. Although this vacuum is small, compact, and saved space, it most likely was not the primary vacuum of a household. This would mean that the most probable owner of this device was more or less middle class and had the money to buy an extra vacuum. This vacuum has a power input of 120V with a current of 2A so the total wattage of the vacuum would be 240W and taking into account the cost of the electricity of the time to be around 14cents an hour it would cost about 4cents (actually 3.36 cents but rounded for simplicity) to run continuously for an hour, but if this vacuum ran for an hour it would quickly fill up the debris compartment and you would stop running the vacuum to empty out. the vacuum is made just to clean small debris, it doesn't have any suction settings or any variance os speed of the motor. It has one attachment which extends the mouth of the vacuum and changes the suction area to a smaller entry which effectively causes the suction to become a little more powerful. From records of the time, the average hand held dual purpose vacuum would cost about $40 and i think that this sum is a small amount if this is used only on small jobs and does not run for an hour or which realistically it wouldn't be able to without modifying the vacuum to have a larger debris chamber. Society as a whole would readily buy one of these vacuums and that means that most people are ready to pay for a small luxury as a handheld vacuum. This design with the use of an impeller can be seen in a jet engine or an automobile's torque converter where an impeller is present as well. 

How the device works

The device is a vacuum made by The Eureka Company. It is labeled The Boss Model 56 Type B. It's primary role was to use suction to suck up debris such as dirt, bits of paper, and various items that are small and light enough to be sucked in. It's power source is a cord that connects to a 120V power source. the motor itself operates at 60Hz. attached to the motor is the primary operating switch that turns the device on and off. it's case is made of plastic and the motor itself consists of aluminum and copper. The fan blade used to create the appropriate amount of suction is made of plastic and is different from most fan blades where each blade is an angle but rather the blades for this vacuum are perpendicular to the rotational spin of the motor. This device would be used for small vacuum jobs as it is a small device and would have to be emptied periodically since the debris compartment is small. Here is the layout of the vacuum cleaner's on and off switch.

ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

As we as a team considered the hand-held vacuum, I though it prudent to determine the impact that a handheld vacuum has on the environment. Generally speaking, you expect to get anywhere from 7 to 10 years out of a regular sized vacuum, but this is a smaller hand-held version. If we take it for granted that the hand-held version will only be used for minor cleanups we can logically assume that life expectancy will increase. Still, we can’t rule out the fact that the difference in motor size and quality will vary greatly between this model and what used to be your typical everyday vacuum.

 

The components comprising our vacuum fall into three categories:

Metal – 3 lb                             Plastic – 0.5 lb                Fibrous material (air filter) – 0.1 lb

 

Let’s generously say that our specimen will last 7 years and the average person/family will buy 2 in their lifetime. We’re assuming that needs change over the course of people’s lives and also acknowledging the fact that a handheld vacuum was not seen as a necessity in your average household. Data taken in the year 2009 revealed that there were 117,538,000 households in the US. We used this number to calculate the number of vacuums consumed over the course of one generation (50-80 years), and produced some startling numbers.

Calculated Waste:

Metal – 352,614 tons of waste

Plastic – 58,769 tons of waste

Fibrous material (air filter) – 11,753.8 tons of waste

Though it is possible to recycle metal and plastic but we know that recycling is not a priority for the majority of the nation. This is a shocking amount of waste attributed to an item that, in actuality, is unnecessary if a person is already the owner of a regular vacuum cleaner. Since handheld vacuums only majorly serve to save somebody the hassle of taking out their commercial vacuum to clean up messes, the goal should be to make a vacuum that can get the job done while eliminating the pollution that results from the components that make up the unit.