Thursday 2nd May 2002
Wipe Out
The humble windscreen wiper hasn't evolved much in the last 70 years. Anyone got any better ideas?
Discussion
In america there is a product which one coats the windshield with, RAIN-X. It puts a teflon coating on the window and needs reapplication about once per month, and in a decent rain at low to normal speeds, wipers become a thing of the past, not required, the water is wisked right off. As for those misty days, just a single wipe of the blade or the use of delay and then you are done.
It's not Teflon in Rain-X it is ethanol.
Ethanol repels water, but eventually gets washed away, hence the re-application.
Rain-X is available from Halfords for about £5 a bottle.
The only thing is that (in my car anyway) you need to be travelling above 50mph to get the completely clear screen - otherwise it doesn't blow the water away properly.
Another system could be used such as the one on some ships which have either a rotating portion of the screen that goes through a stationary wiper or a screen that looks like a vertical, flexible, transparent conveyor belt.
The only other system I have heard about uses ultrasonic sound waves to vibrate the screen so quickly that the water droplets cannot form.
Ethanol repels water, but eventually gets washed away, hence the re-application.
Rain-X is available from Halfords for about £5 a bottle.
The only thing is that (in my car anyway) you need to be travelling above 50mph to get the completely clear screen - otherwise it doesn't blow the water away properly.
Another system could be used such as the one on some ships which have either a rotating portion of the screen that goes through a stationary wiper or a screen that looks like a vertical, flexible, transparent conveyor belt.
The only other system I have heard about uses ultrasonic sound waves to vibrate the screen so quickly that the water droplets cannot form.
Thanks!
Way off topic but ...
In the gulf war , apparently, US Air Force pilots were confused by hearing RAF pilots on routine surveillance reporting nothing to be seen, only "MMFD". After hearing this on the airwaves a lot somone finally asked what it meant.
"Miles and Miles of F*king Desert"
>> Edited by JohnLow on Thursday 2nd May 12:13
Way off topic but ...
In the gulf war , apparently, US Air Force pilots were confused by hearing RAF pilots on routine surveillance reporting nothing to be seen, only "MMFD". After hearing this on the airwaves a lot somone finally asked what it meant.
"Miles and Miles of F*king Desert"
>> Edited by JohnLow on Thursday 2nd May 12:13
quote:
Not to be too condescending, but ethanol certainly does not repel water - it is in fact infintely miscible with water. IIRC it is Teflon in Rain-x (or some other hydrocarbon based product)
I missed out the 'and silicon' in my previous post and realised it should have been methanol not ethanol.
Not a good post all round really
quote:
IIRC = If I recall Correctly..
AFAIK = As far as I know..
FWIW = For What it's Worth..
ISTR = I seem to recall..
STFUYM = Shut the f**k up you moron
What about 'LMAO', 'IMHO' and 'IMO'?
That rain-x stuff is good-ish until you need to actually use the wipers. Then the judder across the windscreen not doing very much. Pretty good at keeping the windscreen from frosting up though!
Sorry.. earlier link missed out som real important ones such as WTF and FFS
this is better: www.gaarde.org/acronyms/
this is better: www.gaarde.org/acronyms/
quote:(polytetrafluoroethylenes = PTFE = Teflon)
rain-x is based on SILANE ... Either silane or siloxane can also be cut in half and grafted to other chains such as polytetrafluoroethylenes.
from www.wcmail.net/archives/PreSep2000/March_2000/msg00003.html
Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff