Preventing Ice Before it Forms

About this technology

Overview

A team of engineers at Ames Research Center invented an environmentally friendly anti-icing fluid to keep hazardous ice from building up on airplane wings. The typical approach to clearing off the ice is to use a deicing solution once the ice has built up. The fluid created by the Ames team, though, when applied to a dry surface, prevents the ice from even forming a surface bond, which saves deicing time and money, while also preventing excessive use of chemical solvents rivers, or bodies of water that support life. WorldSource, Inc., of Palm Desert, California, a developer and distributor of products for the consumer marketplace, is marketing the fluid as Ice Free, a spray for automobile windshields that can provide protection down to 20 ?F.