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Inside Dyson's Research And Development Labs

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D9 is the top-secret research lab where the next 20 years of Dyson innovations will be born. Located on Dyson's 59-acre compound, D9 is a sleek two-story cube built with reflective glass so what engineers think up inside its walls cannot be detected from the outside. This brand-new $200 million-plus research facility is home to just 450 top Dyson engineers and is the cornerstone of founder James Dyson's ongoing efforts to lure engineers straight out of college to work for him.

Dyson is hoping that all those new engineers he is hiring will accelerate the company's pace of innovation: Dyson is planning to invest $400 million to develop at least 100 new products by 2020, nearly double what it now has on the market and equivalent to the number of products introduced since its founding.

Inside Dyson's main research facility, the motor development team simultaneously tests 332 motors. Dyson's 58 products generated $2.4 billion in sales last year and an estimated $340 million in net profits, even after Dyson reinvested 46% of the company's Ebitda in R&D, more than rivals such as Electrolux and Techtronic. Dyson owns 100% of the company, which is worth some $4.8 billion.

The latest wonder from his workshop is the Supersonic blow-dryer. Here, an impeller is built for Dyson's smallest motor, which goes inside the Supersonic blow-dryer.Dyson spent $71 million (and went through 1,000 miles of human hair) developing the $400 device.

The Dyson Supersonic hairdryer, which is supposed to eliminate heat damage and cut down on uncontrollable flyaways, took four years and 600 prototypes to go from idea in Malmesbury (company's headquarters) to launch in Japan in April 2016. It came to the U.S. in September 2016.

Dyson has applied for more than 100 patents for its Supersonic hair dryer. There are 16 patents pending for the attachments alone. While Dyson is mum on specifics, he reveals that many of the new products will be related to personal care or lighting. The lighting systems are the brainchild of his eldest son and heir apparent, Jake, 46, who spent two years at Dyson before leaving in 2002 to start his own business selling self-cooling LED light fixtures.

All of Dyson's products are tested in-house. Of the many products Dyson has developed, it is best known for creating the first bagless vacuum cleaner three decades ago, and his company still gets 70% of its sales from vacuum cleaners, many of which are now lightweight, handheld and battery-operated. Dyson also builds all of its products' motors in-house. They are manufactured in labs in Singapore.

Dyson's biggest bet is on batteries. In his view the current rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power most of the world's gadgets (including his own) don't hold a charge long enough and need to be safer. Rather than incrementally improve existing li-ion technology Dyson is forging a new path: experimenting with solid-state li-ion batteries that use ceramics.