Windscreen wiper

A windshield wiper or windscreen wiper (British English) is a device used to

remove rain, snow, ice and debris from a vehicle's front window. Almost all
motor vehicles, including cars, trucks, buses, train locomotives, and watercraft
with a cabin—and some aircraft—are equipped with one or more such wipers,
which are usually a legal requirement.

A wiper generally consists of a metal arm; one end pivots, the other end has a
long rubber blade attached to it. The arm is powered by a motor, often an electric
motor, although pneumatic power is also used for some vehicles. The blade is
swung back and forth over the glass, pushing water, other precipitation, or any
other impediments to visibility, from its surface. On vehicles made after 1969, Windshield wiper on a parked car. In
the speed is normally adjustable, with several continuous speeds, and often one this common design, the force from
the arm is distributed evenly with a
or more intermittent settings. Most personal automobiles use two synchronized
series of linkages known as a
radial-type arms, while many commercial vehicles use one or more pantograph whippletree.
arms.

On some vehicles, a windscreen/windshield washer system is also used to

improve and expand the function of the wiper(s) to dry or icy conditions. This
system sprays water, or an antifreeze window washer fluid, at the windscreen
using several well-positioned nozzles. This system helps remove dirt or dust
from the windscreen when it is used in concert with the wiper blades. When
antifreeze washer fluid is used, it can help the wipers remove snow or ice. For
these types of winter conditions, some vehicles have additional heaters aimed at
the windows, or embedded heating wire(s) in the glass; these defroster systems
A common windshield wiper arm and
help to keep snow and ice from building up on the windscreen. Less frequently,
blade
miniature wipers are installed on headlights to ensure that they function
optimally.

Contents
History
Early versions
Intermittent wipers
Power
Geometry
Other wiper geometries
Unusual wiper geometries
Other automotive applications
Rear wipers
Headlight wipers
Other features
Windscreen washer
Hidden wipers
 Rain-sensing wipers
Bladeless alternatives
Legislation
See also
Notes
References
External links

History

Early versions
One of the earliest recorded patents for the windscreen wiper is by George J.
Capewell of Hartford Connecticut, which was filed on August 6, 1896 [1]. His
invention was for an automated , motorised, wiper for "cars, locomotives, and
such land-vehicles".

Other early designs for the windscreen wiper are credited to Polish concert
pianist Józef Hofmann, and Mills Munitions, Birmingham who also claimed to Play media
A train windscreen wiper in operation
have been the first to patent windscreen wipers in England. At least three
inventors patented windscreen cleaning devices at around the same time in 1903;
Mary Anderson, Robert Douglass, and John Apjohn. In April 1911, a patent for
windscreen wipers was registered by Sloan & Lloyd Barnes, patent agents of Liverpool,
England, for Gladstone Adams of Whitley Bay.

American inventor Mary Anderson is popularly credited with devising the first operational
windscreen wiper in 1903.[2][3] In Anderson's patent, she called her invention a "window
cleaning device" for electric cars and other vehicles. Operated via a lever from inside a
vehicle, her version of windscreen wipers closely resembles the windscreen wiper found
on many early car models. Anderson had a model of her design manufactured, then filed a
patent (US 743,801) on June 18, 1903 that was issued to her by the US Patent Office on
November 10, 1903.[4][5]

A similar device is recorded 3 months prior to Anderson's patent, with Robert A Douglass
filing a patent for a "locomotive-cab-window cleaner" on 12 March 1903.[6]

Irish born inventor James Henry Apjohn (1845–1914) patented an "Apparatus for Capwell, 1898
Cleaning Carriage, Motor Car and other Windows" which was stated to use either brushes
or wipers and could be either motor driven or hand driven. The brushes or wipers were
intended to clean either both up and down or in just one direction on a vertical window. Apjohn's invention had a priority date in
the UK of 9 October 1903.[7]

John R. Oishei (1886-1968) formed the Tri-Continental Corporation in 1917. This company introduced the first windscreen
wiper, Rain Rubber, for the slotted, two-piece windscreens found on many of the automobiles of the time. Today Trico Products is
one of the world's largest manufacturers of windscreen wipers. Bosch has the world's biggest windscreen wiper factory in Tienen,
Belgium, which produces 350,000 wiper blades every day.[8] The first automatic electric wiper arms were patented in 1917 by
Charlotte Bridgwood.[9]
 Inventor William M. Folberth and his brother,
Fred, applied for a patent for an automatic
windscreen wiper apparatus in 1919, which was
granted in 1922. It was the first automatic
mechanism to be developed by an American, but
the original invention is attributed by others to
Hawaiian, Ormand Wall.[10] Trico later settled a
patent dispute with Folberth and purchased
Folberth's Cleveland company, the Folberth Auto
Specialty Co. The new vacuum-powered system
quickly became standard equipment on
automobiles, and the vacuum principle was in use
until about 1960. In the late 1950s, a feature
Douglass's 1903 locomotive Anderson's 1903 window
common on modern vehicles first appeared,
cab window cleaner cleaner design
operating the wipers automatically for two or three
passes when the windscreen washer button was
pressed, making it unnecessary to manually turn the wipers on as well. Today, an
electronic timer is used, but originally a small vacuum cylinder mechanically linked to a
switch provided the delay as the vacuum leaked off.

Intermittent wipers
The inventor of intermittent wipers (non-continuous, now including variable-rate wipers)
Apjohn's 1903 window
might have been Raymond Anderson, who, in 1923, proposed an electro-mechanical
cleaning apparatus design
design. (US Patent 1,588,399). In 1958, Oishei et al. filed a patent application describing
not only electro-mechanical, but also thermal and hydraulic designs. (US Patent
2,987,747). Then, in 1961, John Amos, an engineer for the UK automotive engineering company Lucas Industries, filed the first
patent application in the UK for a solid-state electronic design. (US patent 3,262,042).

In 1963, another form of intermittent wiper was invented by Robert Kearns, an engineering professor at Wayne State University
in Detroit, Michigan.[2] (United States Patent 3,351,836 – 1964 filing date). Kearns's design was intended to mimic the function
of the human eye, which blinks only once every few seconds. In 1963, Kearns built his first intermittent wiper system using off-
the-shelf electronic components. The interval between wipes was determined by the rate of current flow into a capacitor; when
the charge in the capacitor reached a certain voltage, the capacitor would be discharged, activating one cycle of the wiper motor,
and then repeating the process. Kearns showed his wiper design to the Ford Motor Company and proposed that they manufacture
the design. Ford executives rejected Kearns' proposal at the time, but later offered a similar design as an option on the company's
Mercury line, beginning with the 1969 models.[2] Kearns sued Ford in a multi-year patent dispute that Kearns eventually won in
court,[11] inspiring the 2009 feature film Flash of Genius based on a 1993 New Yorker article that covered the legal battle.

In March 1970, French automotive manufacturer Citroën introduced more advanced rain-sensitive intermittent windscreen wipers
on their SM model. When the intermittent function was selected, the wiper would make one swipe. If the windscreen was
relatively dry, the wiper motor drew high current, which would set the control circuit timer to a long delay for the next wipe. If
the motor drew little current, it indicated that the glass was still wet, and would set the timer to minimize the delay.

Power
Wipers may be powered by a variety of means, although most in use today are powered by an electric motor through a series of
mechanical components, typically two 4-bar linkages in series or parallel.
Vehicles with air-operated brakes sometimes use pneumatic wipers, powered by
tapping a small amount of pressurized air from the brake system to a small air
operated motor mounted on or just above the windscreen. These wipers are
activated by opening a valve which allows pressurized air to enter the motor.

Early wipers were often driven by a vacuum motor powered by manifold

vacuum. This had the drawback that manifold vacuum varies depending on
throttle position, and is almost non-existent under wide-open throttle, when the
wipers would slow down or even stop. That problem was overcome somewhat Pneumatic motor drive on a railroad
by using a combined fuel/vacuum booster pump. locomotive windscreen wiper. The
lever on the motor operates a valve
Some cars, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s, had hydraulically-driven wipers, to supply pressurized air.
most notably the '61-'69 Lincoln Continental.[12]

On the earlier Citroën 2CV, the windscreen wipers were powered by a purely mechanical system, a cable connected to the
transmission; to reduce cost, this cable also powered the speedometer. The wipers' speed was therefore variable with car speed.
When the car was waiting at an intersection, the wipers were not powered, but a handle under the speedometer allowed the driver
to power them by hand.

Geometry
Most wipers are of the pivot (or radial) type: they are attached to a single arm,
which in turn is attached to the motor. These are commonly found on many cars,
trucks, trains, boats, airplanes, etc.

Modern windscreen wipers usually move in parallel (Fig. 1, below). However,

various Mercedes-Benz models and other cars such as the Volkswagen Sharan
employ wipers configured to move in opposite directions (Fig. 2), which is
mechanically more complex but can avoid leaving a large unwiped corner of the
windscreen in front of the front-seat passenger. A cost benefit to the auto-maker Windscreen wiper arms and blades
occurs when wipers configured to move in opposite directions do not need to be on a 1954 DKW-IFA F8
repositioned for cars exported to right hand drive countries such as the UK and "Luxuscabriolet" from East Germany,
using a simple radial design with no
Japan.
visible linkages
Another wiper design (Fig. 6) is pantograph-based, used on many commercial
vehicles, especially buses with large windscreens. Pantograph wipers feature two
arms for each blade, with the blade assembly itself supported on a horizontal bar
connecting the two arms. One of the arms is attached to the motor, while the
other is on an idle pivot. The pantograph mechanism, while being more
complex, allows the blade to cover more of the windscreen on each wipe.
However, it also usually requires the wiper to be "parked" in the middle of the
windscreen, where it may partially obstruct the driver's view when not in use. A
Lever mechanism of a windscreen
few models of automobile sometimes employ a pantograph arm on the driver's
wiper. The motor in the middle
side and a normal arm for the passenger. Triumph cars, Lexus and several US converts the circular rotation to an
makes employ this method to cover more glass area where the windscreen is intermittent rotation. The lever arms
quite wide but also very shallow. The reduced height of the windscreen would have different lengths, so the stop
need the use of short wiper arms which would not have the reach to the edge of position at the reverse point is
the windscreen. different.
A simple single-blade setup with a center pivot (Fig. 4) is commonly used on
rear windscreens, as well as on the front of some cars. Mercedes-Benz pioneered
a system (Fig. 5) called the "Monoblade", based on cantilevers, in which a single
arm extends outward to reach the top corners of the windscreen, and pulls in at
the ends and middle of the stroke, sweeping out a somewhat "M"-shaped path.
This way, a single blade is able to cover more of the windscreen, displacing any
residual streaks away from the center of the windscreen.

Some larger cars in the late '70s and early '80s, especially LH driver American Simple parallelogram linkages on a
cars, had a pantograph wiper on the driver's side, with a conventional pivot on boat windscreen
the passenger side. Asymmetric wiper arrangements are usually configured to
clear more windscreen area on the driver's side, and so are mostly mirrored for
left and right-hand-drive vehicles (for example, Fig. 1 vs. Fig 10). One exception
is found on the second generations of the Renault Clio, Twingo and Scénic as
well as BMW's E60 5 Series and E63 6 Series, the Peugeot 206 and the Nissan
Almera Tino, where the wipers always sweep towards the left. On right-hand-
drive models, a linkage allows the right-hand wiper to move outwards towards
the corner of the windscreen and clear more area.

This 1974 Mercedes-Benz 220D

uses oppositely-pivoted wiper
blades. (Fig. 2)

Fig. 1: Most common geometry,

found on vast majority of vehicles,
mainly LHD cars; RHD Mercedes-
Benz W140

Pantograph windscreen wipers (Fig.

6) used on Mercedes-Benz O 405
NH

Fig. 2: Widely used alternative

configuration[a]
 Fig. 3: SEAT Altea, SEAT León II, Fig. 4: Simple-arc single-blade Fig. 5: Complex- or eccentric-arc
SEAT Toledo III system, used on the VAZ-1111 system, used on the Subaru XT as
Oka, Fiat Panda I/SEAT Marbella, well as the Mercedes-Benz W124,
Fiat Uno, Citroën AX, Citroën BX, R129, W201, W202, C208 and
Citroën ZX, SEAT Ibiza I and W210; eccentric design used for
1986-2003 Jaguar XJs passenger wiper on most late-
model Mercedes-Benzs

Fig. 6: Pantograph system, used Fig. 7: MAN, DAF XF, Toyota FJ Fig. 8: Obsolete design, found on
on some buses, some school Cruiser, Jaguar E-Type, MGB, MG some older firetrucks and utility
buses and the Mercedes-Benz Midget, Austin Healey Sprite (a vehicles, some school buses;
O305 as well as the rear wiper for 1968 US-only ruling required a same design on single windscreen
the Honda CR-X Si and the certain percentage of the for Jeep Wrangler YJ
Porsche 928 and for the driver's windscreen to be wiped).
side of the Triumph TR7

Fig. 9: US military wheeled Fig. 10: Like Fig. 1 but mirror-

vehicles, jeepneys, some school reversed, mainly seen on RHD
buses and utility vehicles, Hummer cars, LHD Mercedes-Benz W140
H1 and HUMVEE

Other wiper geometries

Works similar to Fig. 8 but not a split screen windscreen and rest state is at the bottom of the windscreen facing
outwards.

Alpine Renault A 310

Panhard Dyna Z
Unusual wiper geometries
Works as would Fig. 1, but uses a large, single wiper

Audi A2
Honda Today
Renault Twingo I
Citroen C1
Peugeot 107
Peugeot 108
Toyota Aygo
Lamborghini Murciélago
Lexus LFA
McLaren MP4-12C Toyota Yaris with large single wiper
Mitsubishi i
Tata Nano
Datsun Go
Toyota Etios/Yaris/Vitz (XP130)

Other automotive applications

Rear wipers
Some vehicles are fitted with wipers (with or
without washers) on the back window as well.
Rear-window wipers are typically found on
hatchbacks, station wagons / estates, sport
utility vehicles, minivans, and other vehicles
with more vertically-oriented rear windows that
tend to accumulate dust. First offered in the
1940s, they achieved widespread popularity in Single rear wiper on a Mitsubishi Double rear wipers on a Toyota
the 1970s after their introduction on the Porsche Outlander Camry (XV10) station wagon
911 in 1966 and the Volvo 145 in 1969.[13]

Headlight wipers
In the 1960s, as interest in auto safety grew, engineers began researching various headlamp cleaning systems. In late 1968,
Chevrolet introduced high pressure fluid headlamp washers on a variety of their 1969 models. In 1970, Saab Automobile
introduced headlight wipers across their product range. These operated on a horizontal reciprocating mechanism, with a single
motor. They were later superseded by a radial spindle action wiper mechanism, with individual motors on each headlamp. In
1972, headlamp cleaning systems became mandatory in Sweden.

Headlamp wipers have all but disappeared today with most modern designs relying solely on pressurized fluid spray to clean the
headlights. This reduces manufacturing cost, minimizes aerodynamic drag, and complies with EU regulations limiting headlamp
wiper use to glass-lensed units only (the majority of lenses today are made of plastic.)

Other features
Windscreen washer
Most windscreen wipers operate together with a windscreen washer; a pump that supplies
a mixture of water, alcohol, and detergent (a blend called windscreen washer fluid) from a
tank to the windscreen. The fluid is dispensed through small nozzles mounted on the hood.
Conventional nozzles are usually used, but some designs use a fluidic oscillator to
disperse the fluid more effectively.

In warmer climates, water may also work, but it can freeze in colder climates, damaging
the pump. Although automobile antifreeze is chemically similar to windscreen wiper fluid,
it should not be used because it can damage paint. The earliest documented idea for
having a windscreen wiper unit hooked up to a windscreen washer fluid reservoir was in
1931, Richland Auto Parts Co, Mansfield, Ohio.[14] Uruguayan racecar driver and
Windscreen washer in
mechanic Héctor Suppici Sedes developed a windscreen washer in the late 1930s.[15] operation

Since 2012, nozzles are replaced on many cars by a system called AquaBlade, developed
by the company Valeo. This system supplies the washing liquid directly from the rubber element of the wiper blade. This system
suppresses visual disturbances during driving and so reduces the reaction time of the driver in case of incident.[16]

Hidden wipers
Some larger cars are equipped with hidden wipers (or depressed-park wipers). When wipers are switched off in standard non-
hidden designs, a "parking" mechanism or circuit moves the wipers to the lower extreme of the wiped area near the bottom of the
windscreen, but still in sight. For designs that hide the wipers, the windscreen extends below the rear edge of the hood, and the
wipers park themselves below the wiping range at the bottom of the windscreen, but out of sight.

Rain-sensing wipers
Some vehicles are now available with driver-programmable intelligent (automatic) windscreen wipers that detect the presence
and amount of rain using a rain sensor. The sensor automatically adjusts the speed and frequency of the blades according to the
amount of rain detected. These controls usually have a manual override.

Rain-sensing windscreen wipers appeared on various models in the late 20th century, one of the first being the Citroen SM. As of
early 2006, rain-sensing wipers are optional or standard on all Cadillacs and most Volkswagens, and are available on many other
mainstream manufacturers.

The rain-sensing wipers system currently employed by most car manufacturers today was originally invented and patented in
1978 by Australian, Raymond J. Noack, see U.S. Patents 4,355,271 and 5,796,106. The original system automatically operated
the wipers, lights and windscreen washers.

Bladeless alternatives
A common alternative design used on ships, called a clear view screen, avoids the use of rubber wiper blades. A round portion of
the windscreen has two layers, the outer one of which is spun at high speed to shed water.

High speed aircraft may use bleed air which uses compressed air from the turbine engine to remove water, rather than mechanical
wipers, to save weight and drag. Effectiveness of this method also depends on water-repellent glass treatments similar to Rain-X.

Legislation
Many jurisdictions have legal requirements that vehicles be equipped with
windscreen wipers. Windscreen wipers may be a required safety item in auto
safety inspections. Some US states have a "wipers on, lights on" rule for
cars.[17][18]

See also
Automobile ancillary power
Squeegee
Clear view screen provides a window
of visibility, even in rough seas
Notes
a. Buick Verano, Mercedes-Benz W114, W168, W169, W245, W414 and W639, Smart Fortwo (1998-2015),
Volkswagen Golf Plus, Volkswagen Sharan I/SEAT Alhambra I, Volkswagen Touran (some models until 2011),
Datsun 510 (1968 only), Mitsubishi Delica, Mitsubishi Grandis, Honda Civic (2005–2011), Oldsmobile Cutlass
Supreme (5th Generation), some minivans, some buses, Peugeot 307, Peugeot 308 (2007-2013), Peugeot 407,
Peugeot 508, Peugeot 3008, Peugeot 5008, Peugeot RCZ, Ford Focus (third generation), Ford Mondeo (fourth
generation), Ford B-Max, Ford C-Max (second generation), Ford S-Max, Ford Galaxy, Ford Kuga (second
generation), Ford Transit Connect (second generation), Ford Transit Custom, Citroën C4, Citroën Xsara Picasso,
Citroën C4 Picasso, Citroën C5 II, Citroën C6, Citroën C8/Fiat Ulysse II/Lancia Phedra/Peugeot 807, DS 4, DS 5,
BMW i3, BMW i8, Opel Meriva, Opel Zafira, Opel Astra J, Opel Cascada, Chevrolet Volt/Opel Ampera, Renault
Scénic III, Renault Espace (2002–present), Renault Vel Satis, Plymouth Voyager/Dodge Caravan/Chrysler
Voyager/Chrysler Town & Country, Mazda MPV, some first generation Toyota Previas, third generation Kia
Carens

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External links
How Windshield Wipers Work (http://www.howstuffworks.com/wiper.htm) at HowStuffWorks

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Windscreen_wiper&oldid=916374903"

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