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Inside Hoover’s Vortex

Original article date: May 1999

A fluid amplification technique from the oil and gas industry could soon be cleaning your lounge carpet. Alan Quinn reports on the latest Hoover development.

No bags to buy…no replacement filters to buy…that’s the proposition offered by the Hoover Vortex vacuum cleaner available this month to the electrical trade.

The Hoover triple Vortex system separates dirt particles from the air using centrifugal force in a multi-stage cleaning process. It is a form of fluid amplication whereby fine dust is continually scrubbed from the transport air over and over again. Whilst the principle of a bagless cleaner is not new the Vortex goes further and includes stages where the air is finely cleaned. It is this process which prolongs the life of the filter as the final stage is a further cleaning in a high efficiency vortex. And if the air is not clean around it goes through stages two and three again.

Hoover teamed up with BHR Group engineers at Cranfield. The cyclone technology known as amplified spin-cleaning was originally developed for the oil and gas industry. A compact in-line device known as Wellsep used to separate gas from crude oil was miniaturised at BHRand this was the starting block for the development of the Hoover Triple Vortex separation system.

The new separator comprises an entirely novel multi-stage vortex arrangement with a built-in or feedback loop. Three stages cooperate as follows: a first stage vortex is induced in the dust container which spins our more than 90% of the dirt. Semi-clean air is then drawn into a second-stage involute separator which induces a high velocity vortex to concentrate fine dirt into about 20 of the air flow. This portion of the flow is then cleaned using a third stage miniature cyclone – smaller cyclones generate higher g forces and are better at removing the finest particles. Transport air from the third stage is re-injected into the second stage vortex for a final “scrub” before exiting perfectly clean.

  • Hoover European Appliance Group
  • Caroline Knight
  • Tel: 01685 721222

May 1999

Added on 6 August 2009 at 4:52 pm | Read more machine building articles