I wish more cars would use the Benz approach. The wipers spray the fluid in the actual rubber lubricating them and keeping you from blinding yourself.
Tesla has applied for a patent for a new electromagnetic windshield-wiper system
61–70 of 142 posts
Re: Tesla has applied for a patent for a new electromagnetic windshield-wiper system
#621990: Soon all cars will have ultrasonic windshield wipers
Still waiting on that.
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/10/business/patents-ultrason...
https://www.autoblog.com/2013/12/17/mclaren-ultrasonic-winds...
Re: Tesla has applied for a patent for a new electromagnetic windshield-wiper system
#63That looks like a linear motor, which unless I'm missing something is spectacularly power hungry. By the looks of it, it also need linear bearings, which are difficult to seal against leaves, dirt, moss, ice and snow. I'm going to wager £20 and say its not a game changer.
This article is full of breathless praise for an idea it's just seen sketched on paper. Calling it "like a maglev", oh except there is no levitation involved.
Saying this will give increased reliability, claiming stuff like "time and weather can lead to corrosion, making the traditional setup less effective over time" which is clearly nonsensical.
I've driven cars that are 30 years old with original wiper motor assemblies still in place. This is not uncommon. There is effectively zero room to improve reliability.
Re: Tesla has applied for a patent for a new electromagnetic windshield-wiper system
#64This may be a stupid question but, is there a reason cars don't just have a single blade that goes straight across, rather than wiping in this arc motion? It seems like it'd do a much better job of wiping and avoiding streaks if it just went straight across.
Mechanical simplicity and standardisation. The windscreen wiper is very likely to be outsourced to a 3rd party company, and they can reduce costs by having a repeatable design. In terms of a blade going on a straight line, it’s much easier to rotate a wiper blade from a motor than translate that into a linear movement. It’s worth nothing that other systems exist ( https://www.a1-windscreens.co.uk/news/windscreen-wipe…
I actually don't think they're outsourced and they're typically designed in-house. I remember the reason being the windshield wipers are almost always engineered last after almost everything else in the engine compartment. So the wiper engineers are typically given very oddly shaped small spaces that they have to fit the wiper system into, and those differ between cars so it can't just be generically outsourced.
Here's a Hyundai engineer talking about wipers: https://www.digitalengineering247.com/article/the-back-and-f...
Re: Tesla has applied for a patent for a new electromagnetic windshield-wiper system
#65That looks like a linear motor, which unless I'm missing something is spectacularly power hungry. By the looks of it, it also need linear bearings, which are difficult to seal against leaves, dirt, moss, ice and snow. I'm going to wager £20 and say its not a game changer.
> That looks like a linear motor, which unless I'm missing something is spectacularly power hungry. They are, by themselves, not more power hungry than the corresponding type of rotary motors. Their biggest problem regarding power usage is that they can't use gears to gain mechanical advantage. Since electric motor losses are roughly proportional to their torque (or force, in case of linear motor), it is often the ca…
The primary advantage of linear motors are acceleration and precision, neither of which are useful here.
Certainly it will work for this case but ...
Re: Tesla has applied for a patent for a new electromagnetic windshield-wiper system
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
>the one thing you don't want to fail I wouldn't dare correct you as I have no data, but I suspect many people would put brakes or a seatbelt ahead of wipers
Touché haha. The thing with wipers are they are typically not used often in most places, so you won't know they are broken until you really need them. Brake and seatbelts typically display warning signs before failure (but not always of course).
Wipers are important, and underrated. Seatbelts are mostly muscle memory if not absolutely required, and you have to use the brakes basically to even start the car or get anywhere. But wipers you don't use on every trip.
One time I was taking a winter defensive driving course, and was the first person in the car to go. It wasn't my car, so it was unfamiliar. They had a number of skid pads, cones, etc. They were also pouring out water to make sheets of ice to help teach skid control.
Some of the water hadn't frozen yet, and the instructor told me to go through it. It put a full sheet of water on the windshield and I was fumbling looking for the wipers, because they weren't on the stick (it was a pull button for some reason). Of course, everyone else knew how to use the wipers by their turn. I didn't lose control of the car, and kept my cool, but it made me realize, ALWAYS check where the wipers are when driving an unfamiliar car. Even if it's not raining, if something gets on your windshield (mud, bugs, dirt), you need to know how to clean it, and fast.
Re: Tesla has applied for a patent for a new electromagnetic windshield-wiper system
#67Tesla mentions that the mechanical components of the traditional wiper blade create a lot of friction, which requires more power to the motor that moves the arm back and forth. I thought it was the friction of the wipers themselves on the glass that takes the most power... In any case, some research reveals that typical wiper motors are <50W, which even if that was reduced to 0, would be an insignificant fraction of…
Silicone wipers naturally leave behind a thin silicone film on the glass. Once this film is in place, the water serves as a pretty decent lubricant so long as it's raining.
Re: Tesla has applied for a patent for a new electromagnetic windshield-wiper system
#68Click bait title - not in anyway is this a game changer
Re: Tesla has applied for a patent for a new electromagnetic windshield-wiper system
#69Tesla mentions that the mechanical components of the traditional wiper blade create a lot of friction, which requires more power to the motor that moves the arm back and forth. I thought it was the friction of the wipers themselves on the glass that takes the most power... In any case, some research reveals that typical wiper motors are <50W, which even if that was reduced to 0, would be an insignificant fraction of…
Silicone wipers naturally leave behind a thin silicone film on the glass. Once this film is in place, the water serves as a pretty decent lubricant so long as it's raining.
You can test this by putting your wipers on high when the windshield is dry, then spraying washer fluid. The speed will increase dramatically.
Re: Tesla has applied for a patent for a new electromagnetic windshield-wiper system
#70Tesla mentions that the mechanical components of the traditional wiper blade create a lot of friction, which requires more power to the motor that moves the arm back and forth. I thought it was the friction of the wipers themselves on the glass that takes the most power... In any case, some research reveals that typical wiper motors are <50W, which even if that was reduced to 0, would be an insignificant fraction of…
For 50W, you may as well dim the infotainment display and turn off the music for more power savings.
That's a worse slogan though. Compare "Now with 10% more efficient windshield wipers!" and "Now with 10% dimmer screens!"