Windsheild wipers to be replaced by jet fighter ultrasonic technology which VIBRATES water off car

[dfergie]

It could cost as little as £10. Prof Paul Wilcox of Bristol University said the vibration would not be visible as it is at "nanometer level".

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[Kraven]

Blah!

A bored engineer here put an ol' jet engine in a corvette. Now that's some serious s***

 

[dfergie]

I'd go for this tech, pay once instead of about the same amount twice a year for wipers ...

 

[mike123abc]

I still wonder if it has been around for planes so long how come it has not made it to cars?

 

[king3pj]

It says that the vibration keeps anything from attaching to the windshield. I wonder if this works even when the car is turned off. The reason I ask is because certain days like today people around here might have a couple inches of snow on their windshield. Would this vibration be strong enough to remove snow or ice? Maybe it constantly runs to prevent snow and ice from ever sticking to the windshield in the first place but it seems like that would cause battery problems when the car is turned off.

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[dangue]

I wonder what this would do to windshields with chips or micro-fractures. Somehow I imagine this could be very expensive to operate in everyday driving conditions.

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[Ronnie-]

I wonder what this would do to windshields with chips or micro-fractures. Somehow I imagine this could be very expensive to operate in everyday driving conditions.

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My question too.

 

[Foxbat]

Windsheild wipers to be replaced by jet fighter ultrasonic technology which V...

Those wiper motors are so heavy... I would think the wiper blades and arms would contribute more fuel-draining drag than the five pounds worth of extra weight being driven around.

And the McLaren MP12 is hardly a fuel-efficient vehicle, despite being mostly carbon fiber.

 

[stimpson]

Back in the day when I crew chiefed F-15s, we used Rain X once a month. The aircraft also had bleed air tubes at the base of the windscreen the pilots could turn on to blow off the rain/snow.

 

[mike123abc]

What about when that truck in front of you sprays you with muddy, sandy, ice melt mist that is too heavy for the ultrasonic vibrations to remove? Or the giant pothole which douses the windshield with water?

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[navychop]

Didn't Ford try something like this a few years ago?

 

[mike123abc]

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have this technology in my car, but I would also like to have the regular wipers as a backup...

 

[TheForce]

I used RainX. It works great! I liked it so much I made a knockoff of the product and sold it in my chemical company back in the 80's.

If you use the Rainx product, you should avoid using your wipers over a glass treated surface as the polysiloxanes will rot the rubber on the wiper blade over time and more rapidly than when wiped over untreated glass.

 

[Foxbat]

The PAIA wipers I use are a silicone-based rubber. Part of the installation instructions are to clean the windshield, then apply this alcohol-based silicone windshield treatment. I wonder how close it is to RainX?

The wipers seem to leave a water-repellant film on the windshield as most rain wants to bead up and migrate off the windshield at highway speeds.

 

[Jimbo]

The PAIA wipers I use are a silicone-based rubber. Part of the installation instructions are to clean the windshield, then apply this alcohol-based silicone windshield treatment. I wonder how close it is to RainX?

The wipers seem to leave a water-repellant film on the windshield as most rain wants to bead up and migrate off the windshield at highway speeds.

Look up the blades your using and see if they might be down the way owned by rainex.

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[Hall]

If you use the Rainx product, you should avoid using your wipers over a glass treated surface as the polysiloxanes will rot the rubber on the wiper blade over time and more rapidly than when wiped over untreated glass.

My wife hates it when I use Rain-X and drive. I try, try, try and avoid using the wipers and can't wait until I hit about 40 mph when it really kicks in ! Although this can be a pain in around-town driving.... I've learned that none of the new variations they have (the spray-on kind like glass cleaner, the foam version, and especially the windshield-washer fluid version) work as well as the little 4-ounce, squeeze bottle that they started with. Even that stuff seems to have changed though. I can't ever get it to "glaze" like wax like it used to in the past when you apply it. Probably why it doesn't work as well as it used to (unless it's application error).

 

[Hall]

Look up the blades your using and see if they might be down the way owned by rainex.

In today's culture of mega-corporations, there could certainly be cross-ownership out there but they could have ZERO relationship, i.e. using the same products, sharing technology, etc. Rain-X isn't a super-secret formula so companies can certainly copy it or make a very similar product...

 

[TheForce]

I don't know if Silicone rubber blades will hold up better. I do know that RainX chemically is very corrosive, containing the active ingredient Polymethylsiloxane that causes the glass surface to be hydrophobic ( water repelling). But also methyl alcohol which evaporates but also a methyl acetate ( vinegar like odor) which probably is the cause of the rubber degradation or rotting since this would not evaporate. Usually, Buna N or Viton rubber is what might be more impervious to the RainX rubber rot. I doubt you can find wiper blades made with this. The game has always been if you use RainX plan on frequent wiper blade changes if you use them.

The RainX formula in various knock-offs has been around for decades. I'm sure there have been some formula modifications over the years, if for nothing else, raw material cost cutting.

 

[Hall]

The game has always been if you use RainX plan on frequent wiper blade changes if you use them.

Very true -- people who don't like RainX complain that it ruins their wiper blades. Okay, fine -- don't use it !! I don't buy the el-cheapo $4 wiper blades, nor do I buy the $25/ea blades, but usually ones in the $10-12 range.

 

[TheForce]

The choice is, have the benefits of RainX, at a real cost, or just put up with the less than ideal visibility of the wiper on a dirty windshield.

Personally, I avoided using it on my old Dodge Caravan and the wipers lasted for several years. I don't deal with freeze thaw problems either. For my new car, the Ford Escape, I have been debating putting it on. The main reason is, I plan to shoot 3D video through the windshield using a polarizer filter to cut glare, but I wonder if adding RainX will also help keep the windshield cleaner from road film after a short rainfall on the trip where I'll be shooting. Might be worth the experiment.

Oh, and with wiper blades, I do buy just the rubber inserts. I find replacing the rubber in the OEM Stainless Steel holder that goes in the OEM wiper arm just a few extra minutes and saves me a lot of money. Funny that the rubber part is pretty universal and the part that doesn't wear out is what is hard to find exactly to replace OEM design.

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