Film lovers will remember the
1951 Ealing Comedy with Sir Alec Guinness, The Man In The White Suit,
in which a company - British, of course - developed a suit that
couldn't get dirty. It resisted stains actively.
The concept was
purely fictional at the time, but half a century later, the research
company P2i Labs has brought it a step closer to reality with the
launch of its patented ion mask technology.
Demonstrated last
week, it involves treating materials in what looks like a big microwave
oven and coating them at molecular level with a substance that isn't so
much waterproof as water-repellent (hydrophobic): a treated kitchen
towel and J-Cloth can be simply brushed dry.
The clever bit,
however, is that because the coating is microscopic it doesn't add
weight or restrict air passage through the coated substance, which
retains its characteristics. So the first products based on the
technology to be available to the public - waterproof boots from Hi-Tec
- keep feet dry but are as well-ventilated as their soakable
counterparts.
Possibly more important applications are those
outside the clothing industry. Dr Ian Robins, P2i's business
development director, says that a maker of pipettes has started using
it. "The ion-mask process reduces the surface energy of the pipette tip
and therefore almost completely eliminates the retention of any fluids,
hence making far more accurate dispensing of fluids."
Cars will
also benefit from the idea. "The ion-mask process is also used for the
treatment of filter media, making filters more able to be used with
very low surface tension liquids such as octane and pentane," Robins
says. "One application is used for the treatment of filters used in
automotive applications where resistance to octane is vital." It's also
being applied to some surfaces of Formula 1 cars to make water slip off
them.
P2i Labs is also investigating the use of the treatment to
reduce the misting and fogging of lenses and to increase water
resistance from electronic devices. This is aside from some of the fun
stuff that happens in the labs. Chief executive Carl Francis says that
some of the developers have tried processing their spectacles to see
whether their vision improves in the rain at all. There's been no
formal report on the results, but they certainly don't see any worse.
Francis
confirms that the limitations on the applications are logistical rather
than technical: the small research company can't support all of these
applications and it has to prioritise where to point its efforts. Sir
Alec would have been proud.
