Is anyone working on an alternative to two pieces of rubber moving across glass to clean windshields?
Q
I’m sure you are familiar with the topical adhesive Rain-X. It’s a clear hydrophobic goo you slap on your windshield and the rain sheets off without obscuring your vision.
In other cars (Volvo’s or Mercedes), a single Mega-Wiper-Of-Doom sweeps the entire windshield.
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I know there’s some GM American car with a wiper like this.
I remember spring break in 1990 – we drove an old Beetle from Michigan to Florida. We lost the 6VDC generator (used before they introduced alternators) on the way back, to in order to prolong the battery life between stops to recharge it, we popped the fuses for all but a single tail/brake light, a single headlight, and we used RAIN-X on the Windshield to avoid the wipers! Worked like a charm!
I was thinking of something a little more exotic/technological. Maybe something to “bombard” the raindrops off the windshield as soon as they hit it. Then again, it could be that I just ingested the wrong kinds of mushrooms.
Q
Well, my cousin’s friend had so many damn subwoofers in his SUV that snow bounced off of it, but that approach might not be for everyone (or rain).
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- A well-traveled sister told me once that in many poor countries, poor people with vehicles will use the wipers until they break, and then they mount a giant visor over the front windshield. Not exactly high-tech, but it works better than nothing. - MC
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A TV “Car Guy” said you should keep a potato in your trunk as an emergency aid in case your wipers fail. You can cut open the potato, smear it on the winshield, and the fibers or starch in the potato will keep some of the water off.
I doubt that potatoes would be a long term alternative to rubber wipers.
I don’t even want to find out if they are a short term alternative.
Possible candidate: Hi-velocity boundary-layer hot air jet over the windshield in combination with Rain-X/potato type repellent.
Downfall: Would probably be ineffective against heavy downpours, where it may create a thick cloud of mist hovering a half inch in front of the windshield.
Indeed any “raindrop destroying” method – air blast, sonic waves, vibrating windshield, radiant heat, little air-defence lasers mounted on the antenna mast, would have this drawback.
Having observed that such conveyances as the Boeing 747 use the blade-type windshield wipers, it sure seems they’re the more cost-effective and least complex method.
jrd
Of course, if you had the room and had a reinforced windshield on which to mount it, you could put a Kent Clearview Windscreen in your windshield.
The Kent is a circle of armored glass driven by a motor that spins so rapidly that no rain, sleet, or snow can attach to it. The spinning also has the effect of blowing air across it for defrosting.
Of course, the widest one is about 16 2/3 inches across, so you may need to mount more than one on your windshield.
(They work really well on ocean-going ships, however.)
I’ve seen the spinning windscreen - on the bridge of my brother-in-laws’ Coast Guard cutter. (I’d read about them in the huricane novel “In Hazard,” so they go back at least to the 1920’s). As tomndebb observes, they’re not very big, and the one I saw had the motor mounted in the center of the circle. I’d have a larger pair with the motor mounted in the dash, while the discs spun on tracks. An alternative would to have a giant bubble dome (like on Homer Simpson’s dream car) that spun all around you. You’d have to fight the torque when turning against the spin direction.
Well since we haven’t discussed race cars with cameras aboard yet…The peel off plastic sheets might be the next revolution. Or how about a continuous roll of plastic that moves past the windshield