Car wipers - devices for cleaning the anterior (front) windows of vehicles (car, trolley bus, tram, etc.), as well as the rear glass and glass headlights the car from rain and dirt. Cleaning is oscillating motion of rubber brushes.
Clean the slides!

Car wipers - habitual and ordinary thing for any motorist. But, as the car itself, they were a long way to go to a car windshield in the form in which we see them now.

Probably everyone has ever been at the show retro. Next time, pay attention not only on the car itself, as well as a small but important detail, like a brush, and feel the difference between the small chrome strips of metal and leather and modern designs.

Car wipers construction

Consider the close of what constitutes the most common today wiper. This is the node attached to the leash, the system clamping rocker, or just a clamping system, as it brushes frameless spring, and she Wiper.

Mount

All modern brushes mount for versatility is removable. The pin at the base of brush is put on the adapter, ensuring compatibility with various types of fasteners leashes. Adapters from different manufacturers have different forms, it affects the reliability of the connection.

Clamping block

Clamping unit in its classical form consists of a system of articulated rocker. Their number in the block depends on the length of the brush and ranges from three to six. The most common system with five rockers.

Rocker themselves are made of metal or plastic (brushes CHAMPION). When used as a metal material in the joints Metakhim rocker made plastic insert. They seal the joints, prevent the ingress of sand and some degree of moisture.

Already in the legs themselves rocker is a rubber brush, and the throat holder must be such that the brush is freely walking along them. In order to while working, it does not fly in, made stops or is fixing one edge of the gum.

Wiper

Gum is probably the most important part of the brush, in fact it eventually clears the water and dirt from the windshield. Its form - a product of years of work, and its every detail and every ledge carry their functional load. For quality of gum should be to combine a lot of contradictory properties. To be both flexible and rigid, hard and soft. And to achieve the ideal compromise, developers are still looking for new solutions.

Profile brushes of  car wipers virtually the same for all manufacturers. Its main parts - a blade brush and a system of spring elements - they are joined together by thin rubber bridges.

Knife brush has a trapezoidal shape, it is very sharp at the end, and thickens to the ground.

The system of spring elements consists of three strips of rubber of rectangular cross section. The first band, located just after the knife is used to impart additional stiffness in the field of strong deformation due to the intrinsic bending. And between the second and third strip is inserted leaf spring, made generally of stainless steel, this unit is needed to give the longitudinal stiffness of the knife.

How we tested the car wipers

It was decided to conduct the test in two stages.

First, the results of which we present in the pages of this issue - is a rapid analysis of the quality of new brushes.

They assessed the quality of work in the winter off-season when they are installed on the driver and passenger of the windshield. At the same time the car was put products from different manufacturers, after assessment visits brush interchanged. We also evaluated the plastic material properties of rubber knives during their cooling down to -18 ° C.

We decided to abandon the method of artificial aging of coatings by his mechanical wear and replace it with natural aging. This is due to the fact that the mechanical wear - it’s just one of the factors affecting the material. At work there are also a natural process of oxidation, thermal effects and exposure to ultraviolet radiation, which leads to the conclusion or amendment is part of the rubber plasticizer. Because of this brush are losing flexibility.

Brushes were chosen most standard sizes - 50 cm and 51 cm in our test involved a brush with five and six rockers, as well as frameless brush.

Frameless brush

The human desire for perfection will never stand still, and often encroaches on the mundane and familiar things, showing them on the other side and doing better. The automotive is one such innovative industries, where new technologies appear suddenly, and where they are, it happens and not wait.

Not so long ago was made “assault” on a standard design wiper blades: A number of companies have proposed to get rid of rocker to ensure a uniform fit brush to the glass surface, and proposed a new frameless technology.

What’s wrong with rocker?

Clamping system rockers has consistently improved almost from birth, wiper blades, and probably in modern brushes have already reached its peak of development. The producers of brushes all the time trying to keep up with new developments automakers, but they all tend to increase the visibility of the driver’s seat, to expand the area of the windshield, while it increased demands for safety. Wiper blades 50’s were only 25 cm in length, whereas now the most common size of 50 cm and to ensure uniform clamping brush to the surface of the number of used rocker arm increases today are standard of five-and six-rockers.

Increasing the number of rocker leads to an increase in the height of brush and, accordingly, its lateral motion at high speeds. Because of this brush is lifted above the surface of the glass and her work is getting worse. To reduce this effect, the manufacturers suggest using a special wing for the brushes.

In winter, the Achilles heel of the skeletal system is the freezing point of articulation, because of what the brush is frozen in one position and out of just cleaning. Knowing this, developers have offered special options for winter brushes. They mechanism is enclosed in a rubber boot. But to get rid of moisture in the cover still hard, because when the temperature changes the water condenses on the metal from the air, which is why in a cover made drainage holes, and this, in turn, leads to the ingress of moisture from the outside. Case himself to the same easy to damage, such as a brush for cleaning the snow, which again may lead to penetration of moisture inside the cover. By ultraviolet radiation from the sun rubber boot also loses its elasticity, which leads to the formation of cracks and ruptures. Sail brushes cover more than a simple koromyselnoy. That’s a vicious circle turns.

Down with the carcass!

Once and for all get rid of these shortcomings, developers have proposed opt out of what had been previously, and simply use the elastic band and an elastic pressure plate.

These car wipers are deprived of the above disadvantages, they all season, and have low windage.

Minus frameless brushes can be called a failure replace broken rubber element. But how many of the users of ordinary brushes used this opportunity? Basically, all the preferred replacement brush entirely.

So technology has made a step forward, now it’s up to the buyer, who, as usual, should vote their pocketbooks.