Are there any real bladeless fans?

[Kinglet]

After face palming at the dyson "bladeless" fan, I wondered if anybody here knows any real bladeless fan designs. Even google only gave me results for the dyson "bladeless" fan.

Share any bladeless fan designs that you know!

[Kryten]

Define 'fan'. If all you want is air movement, a pulsejet would do, although it wouldn't be very refreshing.

[Kinglet]

Define 'fan'. If all you want is air movement, a pulsejet would do, although it wouldn't be very refreshing.

I would prefer refreshing non-lethal air movers but other concepts should also be posted

[N_las]

Maybe something like this, but with air instead of water: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetohydrodynamic_drive

[Kryten]

Maybe something like this, but with air instead of water: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetohydrodynamic_drive

That needs conductive fluid; you'd have to turn the air to plasma in order for it to work. So, also not terribly refreshing.

[vger]

If you figure out a way of building a fan that doesn't require blades (or a ridiculous amount of energy), you've probably also made a tremendous breakthrough in hover technology.

[Bioman222]

Now, this would be really loud, but what if you were to use sound to move air?

[vger]

Now, this would be really loud, but what if you were to use sound to move air?

You can get a pretty good blast of air if you sit in front of the aperture of a subwoofer.

[Camacha]

I guess that you could call a piston compressor bladeless. With a long enough or adequately shaped tube or multiple compression chambers it should be virtually pulseless too.

[cantab]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionocraft

These things will act as fans, though I can't imagine the draft would be very strong.

[magnemoe]

I would prefer refreshing non-lethal air movers but other concepts should also be posted

Lots of way to get air to move without fans, you can use other types of moving parts who would set air in movement, downside is that they would probably be more noisy or more bulky.

pistons is just one, airfoils who flaps is another.

An ring who generate air movement like the first thought who strike you about the dyson will not work as I see it, it will work with salt water or other conductive stuff.

[GoSlash27]

Positive displacement blowers don't have blades, but rather lobes. Likewise, centrifugal blowers have vanes.

How loosely are we defining "blades"?

Curious,

-Slashy

[goldenpeach]

you're welcome

[N_las]

you're welcome

Those have blades.

[sal_vager]

An air compressor doesn't use blades and the compressed air can be piped to where you want it and released, if released at a lower or equal rate to the compressor charging the air reservoir you'll have a constant flow of cooling air, especially as it'll be colder as it expands.

That's probably your only realistic option.

[lajoswinkler]

Piston compressing air which blows at you through a valve. Not terribly efficient, and quite noisy, too.

[Kinglet]

Those have blades.

I detest these fans. They are just made for marketing. They look pretty, use blades and are called "air multipliers". Not to mention that they are ridiculously fragile. Dyson does not make quality items. He only markets well.

[Nuke]

there were ionic air purifiers awhile back. i remember seeing a case mod that hacked one into a pc, the rig was set up without any moving parts. passive coolers on everything, even the hard drives were replaced by battery backed dram drives (this was before ssds). so not only did load everything really fast, it was also noiseless. here it is:

http://www.inventgeek.com/Projects/IonCooler/Overview.aspx

[lajoswinkler]

I detest these fans. They are just made for marketing. They look pretty, use blades and are called "air multipliers". Not to mention that they are ridiculously fragile. Dyson does not make quality items. He only markets well.

They're very loud, too. I was stunned because I thought all the hype must be because of something, I don't know... good. But it was all a good marketing.

there were ionic air purifiers awhile back. i remember seeing a case mod that hacked one into a pc, the rig was set up without any moving parts. passive coolers on everything, even the hard drives were replaced by battery backed dram drives (this was before ssds). so not only did load everything really fast, it was also noiseless. here it is:

http://www.inventgeek.com/Projects/IonCooler/Overview.aspx

Somehow I think this is not a good idea.

[Nuke]

i rather like the way they went to so much effort to isolate the hv supply from the rest of the machine. even built a little faraday cage around the thing to keep the noise down.

[dharak1]

What year is that noiseless computer from? He says 2 GB is enough for most people when windows 7 needs at least 2 GB and I use 4 just browsing.

[Nuke]

the cpu they are using is a pentium d 940, which was manufactured from 2005-2008. so its pretty old skool by today's standard. if you built one of these today you would probibly use an ssd instead of the battery backed ram drives.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Nuke

[Sky_walker]

I detest these fans. They are just made for marketing.

As pretty much every thing ever made by humans. Marketing is what makes thing sale.

They look pretty, use blades

Not on the outside, which is the core feature and allows them to produce more consistent flow of air - and that's pretty much the only reason why you might want bladeless fan, so I would say: it fulfils the purpose.

Not to mention that they are ridiculously fragile

Not particularly. If you treat them like you would treat any other fan - they'll work fine. If you'll start dropping them from heights - they'll break. No magic here. Plastic is plastic. Noone promised you aerospace-grade equipment capable of surviving mach 5 speeds, lol.

What year is that noiseless computer from? He says 2 GB is enough for most people when windows 7 needs at least 2 GB and I use 4 just browsing.

640K ought to be enough for anybody - that's my reaction to people suggesting how much RAM is "enough"

Edited July 28, 2014 by Sky_walker

[Camacha]

Not particularly. If you treat them like you would treat any other fan - they'll work fine. If you'll start dropping them from heights - they'll break. No magic here. Plastic is plastic. Noone promised you aerospace-grade equipment capable of surviving mach 5 speeds, lol.

Fans get banged around. If your fan can not handle that, you have made a bad fan.

[Nuke]

more research:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_ioniser