When the weather outside turns for the worse, and conditions become wet, including rain, snow, sleet and slush, people tend to make a mess of the floor as they walk in! To make matters worse, some EXTREME circumstances require that people keep their shoes on, tracking water and filth through out the house, office, shop, building, or where ever they happen to be. This creates a mess, especially during the colder months. Cleaning staff, office personnel, or family then have to expend extra effort to remove the dirt and water! Imagine a world, a brightly lit, happy, cleanly world, in which this issue didn't exist!
Our solution was to dry the shoe upon entering the building! To dry the shoes quickly, we used a 970W heating element with a 5/8hp electric compressor that rotates at 20,000rpm. The air is channeled through a pipe system to deliver it evenly along the length of the shoe. The entire system is triggered by a switch that is compressed when a user steps onto it. The switch was a miniature snap-acting moment switch triggered by a pin plunger and rated for up to 25A. This means that the circuit will only be closed when a user is on top of the shoe dryer and will immediately turn off once the user leaves. Thus, no cats will inadvertently scare themselves to death by triggering the shoe dryer, unless they are quite portly, In which case they deserve the exercise.
From left to right: Shaun Stinger, Alec Hobbs, Jonathan Sena, Ken Weissheimer, Andrea Occhipinti, and Christian Nicholson