A company created by graduate engineers from the Public University of Navarre (UPNA) has designed and manufactured a body dryer that aims to reduce the consumption of water and electricity, thanks to obviating the use of towels, with the resulting savings in their washing and drying.

The project had the support of two UPNA lecturers on a Research and Development Contract (OTRI in its Spanish acronym), concretely José Ramón Alfaro and Carmelo Puyo, lecturers in Graphic Expression in Engineering at UPNA’s Tudela Campus.

The body dryer, known as Valiryo, is to be marketed through Lifeak, a spin-off of the Jobs Accommodation company. This firm was created by two UPNA graduate engineers and develops R+D+i projects aimed at achieving enhancements in the quality of life of disabled people.

The new product, already officially presented, has 23 blowers with which a homogeneous drying from head to toe is achieved in three minutes, with no need to bend over or squat. The involvement of the UPNA teachers in 2013 arose through a consultancy contract in order to achieve a design for a body dryer that was both more attractive and efficient.

Relations with the University

This is not the first time that Jobs Accommodation has developed technology through projects in which UPNA has also participated. In 2010, with the Special Centre for Employment-Elkarkide, they presented a new system for identify disabled persons in itinerant jobs. This study falls within the remit of an interdisciplinary line of research at UPNA, aimed at developing technology at the service of disabled people and, in this case, at enabling better adaptation in their jobs.

* Elhuyar translation, published in www.basqueresearch.com