System and method for removing liquid from rear window of a vehicle
AssigneeGuardian Industries Corp.
InventorsRyan E. Pike, Vijayen S. Veerasamy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for efficiently removing rain water and the like from a rear window (backlite) of a vehicle. A rear spoiler or air deflector is provided for redirecting air toward the backlite and causing the speed of air flow to increase. A hydrophobic coating is provided on the major exterior surface of the backlite. Air directed by the air deflector over and/or across the surface of the backlite functions to remove the rain water and the like from the backlite. In certain embodiments, the hydrophobic coating may include diamond-like carbon (DLC) deposited on the substrate in a manner to increase its hydrophobicity.
Claims17
A system for enabling rain water to be removed from an exterior surface of a backlite of a vehicle, said system comprising:
- an air deflector for redirecting air from flowing in a first direction across the surface of the vehicle to a second direction in which air flows downwardly toward the backlite, and for causing at least a portion of the air flowing in the second direction to flow faster than air in the first direction;
- and
- wherein said backlite includes a substrate with a hydrophobic coating comprising diamond-like-carbon (DLC) thereon, said hydrophobic coating having an average hardness of at least about 10 GPa and being formed so that the exterior surface of the backlite has an initial contact angle θ of at least about 80 degrees.
A method of blowing water off of a rear window of a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a vehicle including the rear window and an air deflector mounted at an elevation above at least a portion of the rear window, an exterior surface of the rear window including a diamond-like-carbon (DLC) inclusive coating thereon, said coating having a contact angle θ of at least about 80 degrees and an average hardness of at least about 10 GPa, and wherein sp3 carbon—carbon bonds of the DLC are subimplanted into a glass substrate of the rear window;
- the air deflector redirecting air flow flowing over an upper surface of the vehicle and causing the redirected air flow to flow toward the rear window at an increased rate;
- and
- the redirected air flow flowing across an exterior surface of the rear window having the contact angle θ of at least about 80 degrees so as to remove water from the surface of the rear window.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.