Lincoln Introduces Heated Windshield Wipers in the Aviator SUV
Cleaning our windshields from snow and ice is a daunting task, only for you to find out that the wipers won’t work. The reason for that is very straightforward – the rubber on the wipers becomes hard and brittle when it’s freezing outside, and ice and snow certainly make things even worse. When the rubber is hard, it isn’t able to remove snow, ice, or water from the windshield. It just glides over.
Fortunately, Lincoln will rectify that issue in the Aviator luxury SUV. The company introduced heated wipers that will melt the surrounding snow and ice. Furthermore, the heating element in the wipers will make the rubber softer and more pliable. Thanks to that, the wiper will have its original properties, and it will be able to remove water and snow better.
According to Geoffrey Johnson, a wiper engineer at Lincoln, the VisioBlade wipers contain a strip of thin metal foil that heats when electricity is applied to it. “It keeps the rubber soft, so it can conform to the shape of the glass. That drastically improves your wiping capability,” says Johnson. Apart from making the rubber pliable, the heated wipers can de-ice the surrounding area on the windshield in only four minutes. Interestingly, the heated wiper blades are fully automatic – they react according to the surrounding temperature.
Along with the new heating element, the new wipers will also disperse the windshield fluid. To be able to do that, Lincoln’s engineers equipped the wipers with laser-cut nozzles that disperse the liquid across the length of the wiper. Thanks to that, the driver will not be blinded by the windshield fluid anymore, and there will be a better dispersion. Lincoln also says that this system will save up to 50% of windshield wiper fluid.
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