He soon had the vacuum cleaner in pieces on his workbench and was amazed to realise that the standard vacuum cleaner technology relied on holes in the bag to allow clean air to pass through. As soon as these clogged up (which starts to occur immediately) suction begins to deteriorate. Moreover, he quickly discovered that all bagged vacuum cleaners operate on the same principle. How, then, can this limitation be overcome? The idea came to Dyson while he was investigating a problem at his ballbarrow factory. To improve toughness the product was powder-coated and then heated. This involved spraying the powder coating, which was messy.