Xeros aims to launch domestic bead laundry machine

This is the aim of Xeros, a Leeds University spin-out that has created a front-loading washing machine that cleans clothes using a combination of patented polymer beads, a proprietary detergent and relatively little water.

In use, water and detergent help to lift dirt from clothes during the agitation stage of the wash cycle, with the beads then absorbing and trapping the removed dirt.

Water inside a bead pump is used to push the beads vertically into the wash, and the same water is then re-circulated through the system in order to repeat the process, pushing back beads that have returned to the machine’s sump.

Based at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, the company’s current 25kg machine is in use at hotels in the US where Xeros is focussing on validating its technology prior to wider roll-out.

The company plans to license its technology for an 8kg domestic model and has revealed that a number of manufacturers are interested in this proposition as the technology can be incorporated in a way that does not require radically new production processes.