This Clothes Dryer Does Not Use Heat

Have you heard of an ultrasonic clothes dryer?

In 2015, there’s a pocket-sized device that does the laundry for you by placing it with your washables. Called Dolfi, this brainchild of Swiss engineering lab MPI Ultrasonics is a portable ultrasonic washing device that uses 80 percent less energy than conventional machines and operates on a set-and-forget principle. But that’s just in washing clothes using ultrasonic waves. Now, we can also use ultrasound in drying them.

Ultrasonic Clothes Dryer (U.S. Department of Energy)

Researchers from the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and GE Appliances teamed up to create a technology that could make clothes dryers 70 percent more energy-efficient than they are now. Other than that, it also takes half the amount of time to get the job done.

The system they developed uses piezoelectric transducers wired to an amplifier, that expands and contracts upon application of voltage. Such enables vibrations at high frequencies that transform moisture into cool mist. This is different from the conventional blasting of hot humid air.

Ultrasonic Clothes Dryer (U.S. Department of Energy)

Ultrasonic Clothes Dryer (Source: Yanko Design)

The researchers conducted a comparative test with their transducer and an oven. Their system was able to dry a wet piece of cloth in just 14 seconds, while the oven took several minutes. They estimate that a whole load of laundry can be dried up in less than 20 minutes using their technology. In addition, it also commits lesser noise than the usual dryers.

Article Sources