Dyson is releasing its first upright vacuum cleaner to feature technology that makes filter maintenance obsolete with the promise that it will not lose suction for 10 years.

The Malmesbury-based company launched the "cyclone" technology last year that prevents dust from sticking to the filter, describing the development as its most significant since it produced the first bagless machine in 1993.

The £460 Dyson Cinetic Big Ball has a self-adjusting head that adapts to every floor type and an articulating chassis and central pivot point for negotiating tight turns and circumnavigating sofas.

A team of 29 engineers went through 50 iterations of the cyclone technology at a cost of £7.5 million to perfect material that was not too hard or too soft in order to create the perfect airflow speed to move dust through the machine, the company claims.

As well as being slammed sideways into steel blocks 200 times in side impact testing, engineers spent 9,000 hours and £136,000 on test dust to assess its performance.

Dyson said the team spent time in real homes to calculate how much dust would be picked up over 10 years and tested the machine with the equivalent amount to prove that it could maintain constant suction.

Some 2,000 prototypes were developed to create the new machine, which has 195 patents and patents pending worldwide.

Sir James Dyson said: "Removing the bag from a vacuum solved one hassle but filter maintenance remained an annoying problem that needed fixing.

"Dyson engineers have spent six years perfecting cyclone technology to make filter maintenance obsolete.

"The constant flexing of Cinetic tips ensures the cyclones do not block as microscopic dust is spun out of the air - not trapped in a cyclone or on a filter."

Dyson, which employs more than 3,600 staff worldwide, was founded in 1992 and now sells machines, including hand dryers, in more than 50 markets.