OMIT

What it does

OMIT is a non-electric vacuum cleaner that works by small action. It does not have the same power as a general vacuum cleaner, but it works silently and is handy. It can be used during any time of the day, and in any place without electric supply.

Your inspiration

The idea came out of my own daily life. Living with flatmates, I usually cannot use the vacuum cleaner during weekdays, because of the noise. This made me investigate the problem of vacuum cleaner. I realized that about 70% of users can use vacuum cleaner only in the weekend, because of noise and trouble with cables. Even rechargeable ones, can forgotten to recharge. However, more than 80% people use it for house cleaning. Furthermore, I found that before electric vacuum cleaners, manual vacuum cleaners were used in the 19th century. I thought that vacuum cleaners can be less noisy and more handy by omitting electricity.

How it works

OMIT works by turning the knob several times and the force is transmitted to the suction fan while increasing the number of turns by a special mechanism. By 5 turns of the knob, OMIT keeps working 10 seconds. In order to make enough suction power, the mechanism I developed works with several key elements. One is the planetary gear: this is to increase the number of turns from 1 to 600. However, the gear needs to have huge force to turn. In order to make the force, the mechanism has a torque spring as the second key element. It not only transmits rotation power, it accumulates rotation power and makes OMIT work longer. The third key element is the needle bearing. The bearing only rotates in one direction. This bearing transmits the force of the torque spring to the planetary gear steadily. Thanks to the new suction mechanism, it is possible to arrange all components on one line. The gathered dust goes to a washable dust container, which is of easy maintenance.

Design process

The most time consuming part of this project was to prove functionality. I disassembled several vacuum cleaners and made some functional mock-ups with different principles until I found the best one: - Pumping Principle With Vacuum Tank In order to make the vacuum tank work, around 10 pumps were needed. After the pumping, a valve needed to be opened to suck the dust, which it did quite well. However, it was hard to pump and remove the dust from the tank. Thus I felt it was not realistic. - Bellows Principle The principle needs big effort. It sucks only when the bellows are pulled. The bellows makes the vacuum cleaner bigger and cannot accumulate suction power. - Free Wheel Principle To pull a string makes a wheel spin constantly with the centrifugal force of the wheel. However, the action of pulling the string makes the nozzle position unstable and the action is physically hard to keep suction power long enough. Through this I figured out how to control the air direction and saw potential in the Free Wheel Principle. In order to make spinning more easy and stable, I added torque spring and planetary gear. The combination makes small action translate to big number of spins. When I found the principle, I designed the optimal component layout which defined the minimal shape.

How it is different

Most of the developments of vacuum cleaners start on the assumption of using electricity. To doubt this kind of fundamental element made the solution go further. OMIT could be a new typology within cleaning products, more powerful than the broom and less consuming than the vacuum cleaner. This is why OMIT looks different from an ordinary vacuum cleaner. However, it is not because of aesthetic aspects alone. Every appearance came from the functional aspect and usability themselves. OMIT was designed with all the components, as minimum as possible. OMIT is ideal for cleaning small spaces such as kitchens and desktops as well as car interiors. It motivates people to clean small spaces more often.

Future plans

The next step of this project is to attract manufacturers and brands, which are able to produce a more powerful and precise non-electric vacuum cleaner. In order to refine all of the components I would like to collaborate with an engineer. Furthermore, the mechanism of OMIT could be installed in other products such as a paper shredder, a torch light, etc. I would like to expand the possibilities of more manual products in a realistic way.

Awards

The project has not won any yet.