Please use water-repellent coating silicone wiper blades prudently!

Water-repellent windshield wipers can be basically divided into two types according to the products sold on the market.

First type: natural rubber + water-repellent coating. The wiper strip itself is made of natural rubber, and a material that can produce water-repellent effect is added to the lubricating coating formula, and then the coating is sprayed on the rubber strip. The water-repellent material in the coating is applied to the surface of the windshield glass by dry brush of the wiper to form a coating film that can produce a water-repellent effect.

Second type: silicone wiper + lubricating coating( Teflon coating/ graphite coating), the wiper blade rubber strip refill is made of silicone, and the silicone oil in the strip is attached to the glass surface through friction of the silicone strip on the windshield glass during use, forming a layer similar to a lotus leaf which enables the rainwater on the glass surface to form small circular droplets, achieving the water-repellent effect.

However, the effect of the first type in the actual use process is very bad, and serious noise and shaking will easily appear in a short period of time. Here we would mainly analyze the second type( silicone wiper blade).

Silicone wiper blades was originated in Japan and is currently used more in Japan and Southeast Asia. Japan and Southeast Asian countries belong to the oceanic climate of island countries. The rain comes quickly and heavily. No matter how fast the ordinary windscreen wiper wipes in the pouring rain, it is still difficult to see the road conditions clearly. The water-repellent silicone wiper blade on the windshield of the silicone wiper can prevent the rain from falling. It is easy to attach to the glass surface, reducing the contact area between raindrops and the glass surface so that the raindrops can easily slide away, which is indeed helpful to driving safety in areas where heavy rain often occurs.

Is the silicone wiper really as miraculous as advertised by those merchants? Silicone wipers have so many benefits, why didn't vehicle manufacturing companies choose them? Let's analyze its pros and cons from a technical point of view:

1. Compared with natural rubber, silicone has better heat resistance, low-temperature resistance, ultraviolet resistance, ozone resistance, and abrasion resistance.

2. All hydrophobic coating products are inseparable from oily silicon elements, and automotive glass is graded tempered glass, which cannot absorb the oily substance, resulting in the formation of a silicon film that is never dry on the surface of the windshield glass, and silicon elements combine with dust in the air and Oxidation, causing the mixture attached to the glass surface not fall off for a long time, then windshield glass become opaque, astigmatism (there will be fog that is difficult to disappear when wiping), a series of problems such as noise, shaking, and blurring of the whole piece (this is the silicon element increase the resistance of the wiper sliding on the glass surface), also the glass will turn yellow after some period of time.

3. No car factories in the world equip the cars with silicone wipers. The reason is that they cannot pass the safety certification: when wipers move, the glass surface remains foggy, and when the lights on the front of the car illuminate at night, the light will be astigmatized, and the phenomenon make your eyes harsh and affect safety driving.

4. After using water-repellent wiper, and then using natural rubber wiper, you can see that there will be an obvious attachment on the rubber strip refills. This is the mixture of silicon and dust in the air, which will cause the wiper to vibrate violently and emit harsh noises.

5. For silica gel with silicone oil added, the more silicone oil is added, the tear strength and tension of the silica gel will become worse accordingly. The two properties of silicone is less than 20% of natural rubber, and the neck of the silicone strip refill is easy to break.

6. The normal use of silica gel must rely on the lubricating coating on the surface, otherwise the wiper will not be able to move on the glass surface at all (the silica gel has not been chlorinated after vulcanization, and the resistance of sliding on the glass surface is very large), but natural rubber can work normally without lubricating coating.

7. The application of silicone strips needs to fully consider the cross-sectional size design of the rubber strip, the pressure distribution structure of the wiper, the pressure of the wiper arm and the curvature of the glass, otherwise it is difficult to ensure the performance of the silicone wiper blade.

Therefore, All car manufacturing companies and leading international wiper blade brands still choose natural rubber windshield wipers.

In recent years, silicone materials have been widely used in the automotive and accessories industries, such as cylinder head gaskets, water pump gaskets, automotive connectors, spark plugs, tires, etc., but they are still not mature in the wiper industry.

So which is better for silicone wiper blade and natural rubber wiper blade? You must have the idea after reading this analysis.