Date:         Wed, 29 Jan 97 11:15:19 PST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Al Knoll <alf@hpptc38.rose.hp.com>
Subject:      Rain-X

A quick note on how R-X works and why you may or may not like it.

R-X is an anti-wetting solution developed for high airflow situations such as
aircraft windscreens.  Yep, just like they say, the water beads up and blows
or falls off (depending on airflow).  The downside is using wipers AND R-X.
The fine structure analysis shows that wipers rely on a microscopic layer of
water to slip across the glass.  R-X eliminates that layer and the wipers will
skip, just like they were running on "dry" glass, which in fact they are.

The key is to use "specially aged" rubber in the wipers (read "old wipers").

The micro-surface on well used wipers is such that the rubber/glass interface
is poor enough to allow skip-free operation with R-X applied.  New wipers will
skip and deposit rubber marks at the excursion limits of the wiper arms as 
they quickly degrade to the desired "specially aged" condition.

So that's how the stuff works and why you may or may not like its performance.

It does seem to work well in snirt conditions (SNow,Rain,dIRT).

--
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         ___  / __   __/   ____/         Al Knoll HP Performance Technology /
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       _____/      /     /             916.785.9453    (Telnet 785-9453)  /
      /           /     /             email:  alf@hpptc38.rose.hp.com    /
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