THANK YOU! I was hoping you wouldn't just wipe it off... I would have wondered what this would have resulted in for the rest of my life.... going to the grave with unanswered questions... LOL
I would love to see you do these tests on an actual ceramic coating. Avalon King, a well known high quality DIY ceramic coating can be found on Amazon for ~$20 under its alias Autokcan. That way you could affordably try out a true ceramic coating on a budget. But if money is no issue, the more expensive CARPRO CQUARTZ UK 3.0 is an even better product to test out. It is 70% si02 and is $69 and is more representative of a top tier DIY ceramic coating. Ok, thanks for the great content!
I love the follow-up. It makes RUclips still feel like a dialog :) I think your EDS results are most conclusive: there's just not much Si in there. I always wondered about these ceramic coatings for cars. I don't think any car manufacturers have advertised or used them.
There was a comment here that sorta made sense. Maybe the product design team included the Si to act as an abrasive and help the main material to remain better on the surface and the marketing team took it out of context? Maybe a thorough polish with the stuff could confirm this?
Thanks! Was fun to quickly turn around and test some of the ideas that viewers suggested. Definitely considering leveraging this pattern for future projects, especially ones where I feel stuck or got a negative result. Instead of just throwing away the work, might be interesting to "ask the audience". There are always great suggestions that I never thought about but often too late to do anything about it since I wrapped up the project.
Hi.... I am a professional car groomer and would be very interested in a proper analysis of some of the high priced "ceramic coatings".... To be honest the hydrophobic qualities are very good vs a standard high quality canubra wax
This is the RUclips controversy I subscribe for. Can't wait for the response video from the manufacturer, then the eventual apology video from breaking taps when it's uncovered he's in the pocket of windex...
Those "hybrid" coatings are meh. Most of the hydrophobicity is probably coming from the wax. Look into the 3M ceramic coating products (but these are still formulated to stick to paint). They are siloxane polymers, other functional siloxanes and the alcohol solvent. The amophous silica is just sol-gel filler, likely just TEOS based.
It's interesting how straight those scratches are when viewed so close - doing any curve at that scale takes some precision! Thank you for sharing, great video!
@@Dudleymiddleton Or derivatives. It's surprisingly hard to find a function where the n'th derivative doesn't eventually become linear (fractals being the notable class of exceptions). Almost everything is straight when viewed at a small enough scale.
Given how low the silica loading is in this spray, I probably wouldn't be too concerned - but small, hard particles are not best friends with guide ways, ballscrews and bearings! Very interesting video :) I always assumed these 'ceramic' coating sprays were pure marketing, but good to see some analysis.
I’m thinking that the marketing and product development divisions don’t talk. Product development probably put silica in as a polishing compound as it would do a good job of taking off the oxide layer from paint and helping the wax work better. Marketing see they have added silica and decide the better way to sell the stuff is making people think it’ll harden the coating.
I beg to differ: silicate glasses are ceramics, at least that’s what my glass and ceramics professors would say. I got my BS in Glass science at the Ceramic Engineering College at Alfred University, so I feel some authority on the subject. Roughly speaking, ceramics are compounds of inorganic oxides, usually formed under high temperatures. There are some glasses that aren’t ceramics, for example plastics. Some ceramics are very crystalline, some are amorphous, and some are mixtures.
that sounds too technical, almost to the point that perhaps the naming convention has failed. A lot of scientific literacy is made counterintuitive by new discoveries and should be changed eventually. New words might be the best option just to get away from common layman's terms.
Not a metal? Not a polymer? Then it’s probably a ceramic. In this case, glass is a definition of structure, hence bulk metallic glasses. Leggo, glazed pottery is definitely a very mixed multiphase material. In many cases you have crystalline grains with varying glassy phases bonding everything. This is what gives porcelain its “ring” but earthenware its thud. Working in “ceramics” I can tell you it is regularly misunderstood. Taps, keep up the good work.
I finished my grad in 2009 and even studying glass in a part discipline, my professors classified glass as a ceramic for the same reasons mentioned above. We also have amorphous metals that's are not ceramic, but because the amorphous structure are classified glass alike.
I think a collaboration with Larry at AmmoNYC would be pretty neat. He talks a lot about the material sciences, or at least the concepts, involved in restoring paint and shine on a car. I think it would be neat to have him come with some car paint samples and reaffirm his assumptions with your tools and techniques. Or even better, have him try a bunch of techniques and view the results under your imaging tools. As always, very interesting stuff!
It would probably be more interesting to have a meeting with the guys that formulate his products or representative from one of the big manufacturers. Then again I think most of us think of these types of products as gimmicks with a lot of marketing hype behind them. I actually liked the old Seal and Shine product better. As far as other consumer grade SIO2, I've had some fun with the McGuires, but I mean I'm not going to pretend that it's some kind of great quality ceramic but I would say like most things from the company it does the job well in a relatively friendly manner. I think something interesting to test would be something like say CarPro glass sealant if we were going to analyze it on a piece of glass. Unfortunately, there's just so much marketing that overshadows the entire industry. As far as generating water beads on a wet surface, a quick clay bar generally does the trick or a quick polish. If the surface is in good condition and contaminant free, the water will bead. A good portion of the car washes out. There will actually mess up the water behavior on the surfaces with their gloss enhancement additives. After a few days when does wear out then the beating returns to normal. It's a frustrating industry without a doubt to interact with as a consumer because if they don't make absurd claims then the general public just won't support the product.
Hah, probably would! Not sure I want to become the consumer product science guy though 🙂 Might mix in this kind of stuff more often though, it's a fun diversion and relatively quick to do compared to longer projects
Two minor points on the EDS: first, many Al alloys contain some Si. Depending on how much and the treatment, it may form Si precipitates. Second, polishing with SiC carbide paper will definitely embed SiC particles in the Al ( trust me, I have firsthand experience, use diamond or alumina). Seeing little bits of silicon inside crevasses isn’t very convincing. I totally agree that this stuff doesn’t seem to have much silica in it. It really shouldn’t be so hard to find.
Yeah those are both fair points! Definitely a brain-fart moment with the SiC paper, although the grit size (1500, ~12um) would hopefully have been pretty noticeable even after it breaks up some. The particle was a few hundred nm iirc. But yeah, could easily have been some embedded abrasive. Even less proof for the spray in that case 😔
@@BreakingTaps That did seem to be the case but maybe as an experiment you could acid etch the surface then apply it in small amounts with an atomizer and heat with a dryer slowly. Just another idea. Cool shop btw! 👍
One other possibility is that it's not silica nanoparticles, but a thin, uniform coating of functionalized amorphous silica that deposits on the surface. It would be difficult to see that with EDS depending on how thin it ends up. What is the pH of the spray? If it's decently alkaline, that would be a simple mechanism for dissolved silica that could drop out onto a surface when exposed to enough atmospheric CO2.
If you want the best in visibility through the CNC windows, I’d suggest something similar to a lens spinner from the film industry. I believe that high end CNC machines can have them added (I think AvE has access to a machine with one of these?) It’s basically a round piece of glass/acrylic/clear material that gets spun at a relatively high speed by a motor. The spinning action ensures that any liquid that lands on it will almost immediately get flung off the edge of the glass. It keeps that section of the window basically perfectly clean. They’re very impressive.
Thank you so much for going back and addressing those concerns. That's pretty awesome that you listen to your audience and address their concerns. Props to you! Your channel is one of the few! Thanks for all your work!
Interesting! Could you do one more follow up, to compare the results with a more expensive "premium" product? I've tested and tried them myself and i know they do work, but it would be super interesting to see how do they look like in the nano scales. I cannot think of a better channel to do this than you.
I'd love to see you test a professional grade ceramic coating like Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light Ceramic Coating or CarPro CQuartz UK 3.0 or something else along these lines.
After seeing this on the scuffed glass, it made me realize just how small and few these particles were. The bare aluminum was a great nail in the coffin. My only question is, if not the ceramic, what in the wax has changed? Older waxes I’ve used lasted weeks not months.
I use a brand that you spray on a wet car, when I apply it, it can last for around 3 to 4 months. Not very long but it does work. This was really neat to see, and I kind of figured it was a marketing thing. Thanks for the videos.
This was fascinating. Project Farm tested this product with really good results, which is interesting because both his and your tests seem really legit but kinda come to different results. I detail my own cars, would love to see more testing on paint protection products like ceramic coating concentrate vs paint sealant vs carnauba wax.
He was careful to state that the product may work well for its intended use, but that the "Ceramic" portion of it is probably just marketing and not doing much if anything.
I’m glad some one did some decently thorough tests that actually back up my findings of pretty much every hybrid ceramic I’ve tried on the market. I do think it would be really cool to compare this to a good wax, and the new graphene waxes that seam to do even less then the hybrid ceramics. I think a few good contenders would be turtle wax ice paste wax, any graphene coating, maybe some nu finish and an actual ceramic coating (which I’ve found last less time then a good paste wax, and yes, I’ve applied them properly to customers vehicles, level and polish the paint and then clean the paint extremely thoroughly to remove any waxes, oils or other contaminants, and ive used a plethora of ceramic coatings ranging from $30 coatings to $300 a bottle coatings, and they seam to not last. even in some vehicles, damage to the paint on vehicles that set outside 100% of the time occurred, causing sun burn really prematurely compared to before ceramic was done, and no, the paint correction was not the cause, as on most where the paint sun burned, did not get a major paint correction and only got a quick buff per customers demands and prior to starting paint thickness is tested and was in or above the acceptable range for paint correction. I’m a automotive detailer, just incase that was not obvious, but I’m always trying out new products per customer demand and even personal testing just to be able to provide feedback based off of my experiences. Sorry for the long details lol)
It would be interesting to explore how to get that complete coverage of particles you had originally expected. Concentrate the spray? Let it dry on the substrate rather than wiping it off? Bake it on?
I’ve been saying that since the last video. Seems obvious to get more on don’t wipe any off esp since his application isn’t really the use case the instructions were written for. That should ensure anything in the spray stays on the slide
Saw a fellow testing this stuff against a pile of others and this stuff was the champ. He let the coating dry before wiping it off. I was blown away by how hard it was to wear away.
I really enjoy your videos because I find they raise as many interesting additional questions as they answer. I would love to see a video where you have a painted body part from a junkyard and you could do a before and after comparisons of a number of different sprays and polishes. Maybe even comparing the hand polishing versus random orbital polisher. Great stuff!
1:29 that's a neat idea! But if you want "almost clear" vision, and mostly no auto-focus issues, for video recording purposes, as mikeselectricstuff suggested, you should install a centrifugal view port. AvE has a video about those - his is air-driven, iirc.
@@jhoughjr1 @Leggo MuhEggo you're going to need a great deal of static electricity to keep the jet from a 200 watt water pump that then hits a 20000rpm spindle off your glass
@@zyeborm Well applied science did a video showing pumping water with high voltage. Needing a large charge is not a show stopper. Hence why I said it would be interesting. Something with no moving parts is certainly worth experimenting with.
@@jhoughjr1 I'm suggesting the charge you need will be in the tens of millions of volts at significant current in order to apply enough force to the water. You can do that to your CNC mill. Personally I like being able to be in the same room as it
Very very interesting! I'm a former detailer and was absolutely shocked when another detailer friend recommended this stuff to me. We've mostly made fun turtle wax products in the past (it's only suitable for pranks) but at the moment this one product accounts for the majority of my lazy exterior car care. I'm not too surprised it didn't stick to the super flat surfaces of the glass, and I suspect any hydrophobic properties added there are waxes. Otherwise: application matters a lot, and differs from the markings on the bottle. I spray a little on to a microfiber and (nearly dry) buff on to the surfaces, multiple applications. This results in a very hydrophobic surface that lasts 2-4 months in my beachy, hot, regularly stormy environment. Hypothesis: too much solvent while wiping causes very little to stick in to the scratches. A dryer and repeated application builds up particle deposits. A little carnauba on/throughout that results in a smooth hydrophobic layer. I don't think this will help in the cnc though, I would imagine the coolant will remove the wax (and particles with it) pretty quickly.
Side note: I don't expect you'll keep going with this (great info already!) But if you do: modern paint is a far stretch from acrylic or enamel. Clear coat is very hard, very polished polyurethane resin and might actually be smooth enough to put under the SEM. Maybe you can steal a gas door off your neighbor's car without them noticing ;)
If you care to think about this any further, it might be interesting to look at or try one of the high end bottles of snake oil where there's a tiny bottle of "ceramic" coating that you apply in some ritualistic way after an intensive clean & wax process. I'm even seeing a really really real one that claims to be some kind of "graphene ceramic"
Regarding your problem of silicone oil based coating wearing off quickly from your CNC glass, you may acheive longer lasting effect by first coating the glass with a polymer varnish then coating it with silicone based hydrophobic solution. That way silicone should adhere to the varnish which is much less hydrophilic than glass, also it should penetrate it.
Cool video. I'm an Mechanical Engineer, so I can geek out over this stuff. If your looking for particles, I would consider measuring out a discreet amount of solution onto the glass and letting it dry completely. Do not wipe it off. This should give you a good estimate of the amount of particles per volume.
I've been looking into these ceramic coatings since they're becoming popular in the woodworking community and based on just the hydrophobic experiments its clear that A. ceramic coatings make a drastic improvement over traditional polyurethane but also B. not all ceramic coatings are the same and in order the achieve the desired results, the only ones that work are typically the expensive rub on versions and these spray on versions are basically worthless imitations. So I would love to see you do this with the stuff that Blacktail Studios came out with recently for example, most of these coatings seem to also be two coatings of varying hardness done in sequence.
If the aim is to keep the glass clear to improve visibility, why not install a wiper system - there's a rotating circular type (I don't know the correct terminology) that rotates super fast that would do the job well.
Ceramic knives keep their edge because they're so hard THEREFORE, adding random silica particles to a window cleaner MUST make it harder. Perfect marketing logic.
One thing I was curious about in the original video, and I apologize if this was covered to death in those comments. Also, this is probably a stupid question: I understood that you were disappointed by the apparent lack of ceramic nano particles. I, on the other hand, was confused by the lack of *anything* sitting on the slide. Where's the silicone? Where's the wax? Are those things just not image-able? Too small? Do they leave an atomically thin coating? As a layman, I was expecting an ocean of gooey wax coating the surface of the glass. What's up with that?
Ah sorry, I should have talked about that! Combination of a few things you said. It's likely leaving a pretty thin film, and the SEM won't really be able to see a thin film. Thin as in only a few nanometers thick. Silicones (and waxes to a lesser extent) love glass, and will smear out to make a really thin, consistent film. That's the major reason car waxes have instructions to apply and then buff it out... you want to remove the excess wax and leave behind that thin film which is clinging to the glass. The other complication is that waxy organic stuff doesn't provide a lot of contrast on the SEM, so unless it's thick it's hard to see. For example, the goop that was on the tape dividing line early in the first video is what you'd expect to see if you left a bunch of the stuff sitting on the slide without wiping it off. Big, gloopy, glowing mass of stuff :)
I guess the only additional experiment/comparison I'd like to see is applying the spray and not wiping the surface. Maybe even comparing wiped vs unwiped hydrophobic properties.
One other experiment that may have been interesting is to centrifuge and perhaps even wash a sample of the liquid to concentrate the particles, that way you could get better sample to look at and also to estimate the concentration of particles in the liquid
Interesting video. I'd love to see some analysis of different coatings, specifically specialty coatings advertised at the car market such Gyeon, Adams, nexgen, etc. I understand if that's too much time/money, but it would be incredible to have some actual science behind these coatings instead of a random joe on RUclips showing you a side by side of their car hood. Not that it isn't useful, but it is far from conclusive. As for your solution, I think that the tablet screen protector idea is pretty good, since it is easily applied and replaced. Under the same idea, you can purchase the coating that they use to make the surface oleophobic. I believe it is some type of fluorinated polymer. Environmental and toxicological concerns aside, it is a fantastic coating that would perform the same job as your screen protector, but applied directly to your viewing window. The one I've used with relative success has been the Crystal Armor: the top result for "oleophobic coating" on amazon. There is not a large market for such a coating, so I can't speak of other brands marketing something similar. As a chemist I'm both intrigued and highly skeptical of the expansive consumer "coatings" market. Ignoring the aforementioned environmental and toxicological effects--which are potentially severe, the tenability of many are suspect. The industrial use of coatings requires extreme precision and is basically like following a recipe for baking. Miss a step, or bake at the wrong temp, or for the wrong time, and you're highly likely to come out with a ruined product. Without controlled and repeatable conditions, they're impractical for an average consumer applying it in their home or garage (or, as in many automotive applications, outside! The horror...). I'm not an expert in the subject, but I am highly dubious. Companies are springing from nowhere with a "miracle" coating--and yet for many of them you'd be lucky to find a single coating engineer, material scientist, or even a chemist in their payroll. Anyways, rant aside, I hope to see more content like this if it's something you enjoy producing.
Could you make a comparison between fresh anodizing, straight out of the electrolyte, and one after the coloring/dyeing/pigmenting, and from after it went in the hot water bath for a while to "close the pores" of the honeycomb like (right?)
So much speculation and snake oil claims going on in the comments. All I know is that I use this stuff on my car and it goes 4-6 months of nice shine and water beads. Who cares what is actually making it work? I know from experience that a $12 bottle of this stuff is one of the best and easiest to apply "waxes" I have ever tried. I'm still using the first bottle two years in. Everyone seems so hellbent on debunking the product, but no one is actually trying it out for what is intended for... you know, like, actually go wax your car with it and then tell me what you think...The turtle isn't making this stuff to look pretty under SEM, they make it to make your car look pretty and it does.
I Assumed the silica in those sprays was actually for polishing the painted surfaces as it wont effect glass and was just a micro abrasive for oxidized paint, dirt etc
I realize it says to wipe it off after applying in the manual. But I am still amazed that you haven't even tried to do one where you just let it dry without any wiping.
I know this wasn’t the main point of the video, but you mentioned this was started because you want to see inside the machine better. There’s a technique where you install a spinning disc of glass/acrylic/etc. the centrifugal force clears the coolant from the viewing window
I paint cars for a living. I would happily send you painted samples to try as well. Also, I am curious about the stand alone ceramic coatings. Not the apparent snake oil in automotive parts stores, but the stuff you have to get professionally installed. I have those products as well I could send.
Have you considered testing those nano coatings made for car application that makes water sheet up instead of bead up? I wonder if that would work. Based on no CNC experience I still assume that form of liquid shedding would be preferable? Sure, the tablet screen protector looks WAY better compared to nothing but the view is still obscured by a lot of droplets. You still probably need a layer to apply it to instead of straight to glass. Maybe to the screen protector, the oleophobic coating probably wears off eventually. Or some other "stick on" plastic sheet.
The issue with sheeting is it’s hydrophilic which allows wetting of the surface. Nothing would change until there not enough water to break the surface tension and allow it to sheet off. Hydrophobic coatings prevent the wetting action which makes removal dependent on droplet size and surface angle. This is why windshield/glass coating are all beading, because if they were sheeting then the water would react the same as if there was no coating until it stopped raining, beading action isn’t dependent on removing the water source for its action to happen.
I would bet this would work even better on clearcoat as the particles may embed themselves into the substrate similar to how contaminants embed into clearcoat and can be removed by claying the surface.
Agreed! I'm noodling over how to see if we can image it. From skimming the literature I fear it's something like a fluorinated polymer monolayer, which I don't think I'd be able to analyze. 😢
I would like to see a follow up of some different products, especially the ceramic coating that you have to apply and wait for it to flash. 2 of the main ones I would like to see are Avalon King Armor Sheild IX and CarPro Flyby Forte. The Armor Sheild is marketed to work on anything. The Flyby Forte is a specialty coating for glass, but I am not sure if it is a ceramic based coating.
For the anodised aluminium sample, why not use BSE? Silica should show up very clearly under backscatter imaging, and it looked like you have it when you were doing EDS
I feel the silica a would make for a good polishing compound that would help to remove the oxide layer from the surface of paint. So combine that with wax could help. You would really have to buff the surface for proper effect though.
Usually in car care products, the spray version is always the diluted toned down version of the original thing, where it is supposed to be applied more frequently, and faster. Like applying it once every 5 washes or something, and i think the inclusion of carnauba wax here supports this. In a proper ceramic coat it does not have other ingredients than solvent and the whatever ceramic compound they have. (I also don't get how the coating inside properly stick to the paint when it is directly sprayed with some organic sticky compound... As in, normally, to apply ceramic coating, super cleaning the car completely from previous wax/grime/iron oxide is a necessity.) I would love to see you get a proper ceramic coating solution like some 3M with foam applicator! Though I also feel like you are already bored and moved on to the mext experiment ;D Also a side note for the sandpaper part: the car paint polishing compounds are close to or sometimes higher than 10k-15k grit, the ones you applied are more like typical swirl marks that are in the average car out there, but again they are highly recommended to be polished before applying a proper ceramic coating on a car. So I think in this product, its the carnauba wax's duty to fill those scratches... p.s. love all your videos man!
It's crazy to me that this stuff has anti rusting properties considering how little of the stuff we can see in this video I say that because I've applied it to bare metal, and it makes a crazy, crazy difference as long as the surface doesn't get scratched (left the metal out and about for 1-2 weeks)
I think a major reason why it may work much better on textured surfaces is that as you saw during this, it tends to gather in cracks and crevices rather than in the smooth parts, so applying this over a paintjob will probably be ideal since the paint in the video was so rough I wonder if that's the same for a clear coat.
Two great videos. Really fascinating. Please could you try the same tests using a proper ceramic coating like Avalon King. That would be really interesting
Also see Project Farm's video testing these ceramic spray coatings: ruclips.net/video/uYxKQwZah1s/видео.html This hybrid solutions spray did very well "Very Impressive!"
When I watched the original video I was thinking it would be interesting to see the difference between the "normal" hydrophobic spray vs the one with "ceramic nanoparticles", but I forgot to comment. 😐
What if those particles are supposed to be hydrophilic, so they act as points where drops form (and then subsequently fall faster)? That could explain why there are not a lot of them.
The real ceramic coating is the one in 30 or 50 mm bottles and you can tell is real ceramic when the applicator dries out hard also the towels we use are no longer good for anything since the ceramic makes them hard and super hydroponic however there's only one spray with real silicates the Gyeon wet coat. Any other spray "ceramic" are only solvents giving some hydrophobic protection for a few days but no protection.
Seeing how the particles accumulate in the scratched glass sample makes me wonder if this is the intended mechanism for the spray on car paintwork - we could assume that the un-scratched areas of paint still have some of their factory/original hydrophobicity, and it's the scratches that need to be filled to regain hydrophobicity on the macro scale. Perhaps the particles help the wax/silicone compounds to get a more secure key in the surface and last a little longer.
Just smoothing the surface will not make something hydrophobic though, which is what you comment seems to suggest. If that were the case, then this wouldn't be needed. Just a good buffing to smoothness. Water would still stick regardless of how smooth it is. Gotta get something between the surface and the water to make it hydrophobic, which is what the spray is supposed to do, not just to fill cracks to make the surface smoother.
@@BackYardScience2000 Yes I agree, smoothness itself isn't the goal. I probably should have put more emphasis on the last sentence about the particles potentially helping the hydrophobic compounds adhere in the crack for longer. The wax/silicones are actually doing the hard work :) My assumption about the unscratched areas is that unscratched = less wear, and hence the original coating may still be effective.
I wonder if something formulated for glass would work better for you, for example Griots has a glass sealant as well as a ceramic formula for glass that may net better results.
Given the massive size of a drop of water, I think the little dots spread out could prevent a drop from adhering. I'd be interested in seeing neverwet though
"hey, can you try to locate some silica nanoparticles on this paint sample for me?" sounds like a job you would give to your new graduate student on their first day
Why wipe if off at all, ie, lay it flat and put a drop on and let it dry naturally. That way we know what it's supposed to look like, and whether it's just light-ends that evaporate to nothing, ie, scam. We use increased surface profile to increase adhesion of paint. How about Scotchgard.
I wonder if one could be hacked with a harbor freight angle grinder. Nominal 11k rpm wouldn’t interfere with the frame rate maybe. For someone with a shop it might not be a hard build vs the cost to buy
Be nifty if you made your up with some aerogel dust/powder and tested that. Its supposed to be very hydrophobic. Would let you control the particle count a bit more, be interesting if you could count the particles with a laser squirting it through a tube and checking the level of light received. IOR of the silicone vs the emulsion of wax/iso should be different enough to cause scattering and give a basic result. Useful tool to have for checking solutions of nanoparticles if it works.
so much science ♥ noob question, why cant you use a transparent / translucent FEP sheet ? wouldn't it have the same non-stick properties and allow the coolant to slip away ? I have also seen some gadgets on the web that have a spinny thingy that keeps the view screen clear, perhaps a more practical approach.
WIping makes sense for the car protection applciation, but not for covering a small area. As soon as the micro fiber touches it i bet it whicks away the solvent and attracts the nano particles.
I'm way behind on your videos, but I've been using one of the tablet screen protector things in my CNC machine for about 8 months now, and it's still working great. I do have to clean it off a little more often than the glass (I just use windex) but it's still holding up great. I just wish I could find some that are a little closer to the right size for my window though
Seems like it would be pretty interesting to centrifuge the spray down to see just what the bulk of the junk in there looks like. I have real concerns about how likely those particles are going to stay suspended at all in the first place. Nevermind the debatable usefulness of having those particles at all.
Can you please please please do this to other ceramic coatings on the market? There are some really cheap ones on Amazon I’ve tried and had mixed results using. I think the cheaper $20 Amazon ones contain less ceramic then the more expensive ones. I would really love to see someone examine it because there nothing out there that goes into it like this video
🚨By popular demand, here's what happens if you just let it evaporate fully: ruclips.net/user/postUgkx274NLw9PHxLTc03dFt5fhUX-g1BN49mR 🚨
THANK YOU! I was hoping you wouldn't just wipe it off... I would have wondered what this would have resulted in for the rest of my life.... going to the grave with unanswered questions... LOL
I would love to see you do these tests on an actual ceramic coating. Avalon King, a well known high quality DIY ceramic coating can be found on Amazon for ~$20 under its alias Autokcan. That way you could affordably try out a true ceramic coating on a budget. But if money is no issue, the more expensive CARPRO CQUARTZ UK 3.0 is an even better product to test out. It is 70% si02 and is $69 and is more representative of a top tier DIY ceramic coating. Ok, thanks for the great content!
I love the follow-up. It makes RUclips still feel like a dialog :) I think your EDS results are most conclusive: there's just not much Si in there. I always wondered about these ceramic coatings for cars. I don't think any car manufacturers have advertised or used them.
There was a comment here that sorta made sense. Maybe the product design team included the Si to act as an abrasive and help the main material to remain better on the surface and the marketing team took it out of context?
Maybe a thorough polish with the stuff could confirm this?
Thanks! Was fun to quickly turn around and test some of the ideas that viewers suggested. Definitely considering leveraging this pattern for future projects, especially ones where I feel stuck or got a negative result. Instead of just throwing away the work, might be interesting to "ask the audience". There are always great suggestions that I never thought about but often too late to do anything about it since I wrapped up the project.
@@BreakingTaps Peer review works!
When I saw the first video I was thinking that I hope that Ben do a follow up video about this :)
Hi.... I am a professional car groomer and would be very interested in a proper analysis of some of the high priced "ceramic coatings".... To be honest the hydrophobic qualities are very good vs a standard high quality canubra wax
This is the RUclips controversy I subscribe for. Can't wait for the response video from the manufacturer, then the eventual apology video from breaking taps when it's uncovered he's in the pocket of windex...
Lol
Just a shill for Big Spray
Nothin beats that OG ammonia just saying
Those "hybrid" coatings are meh. Most of the hydrophobicity is probably coming from the wax. Look into the 3M ceramic coating products (but these are still formulated to stick to paint). They are siloxane polymers, other functional siloxanes and the alcohol solvent. The amophous silica is just sol-gel filler, likely just TEOS based.
It's interesting how straight those scratches are when viewed so close - doing any curve at that scale takes some precision! Thank you for sharing, great video!
It's the same principle of sheer scale - there are idiots that believe the Earth is totally flat just because it looks it.
@@Dudleymiddleton Or derivatives. It's surprisingly hard to find a function where the n'th derivative doesn't eventually become linear (fractals being the notable class of exceptions). Almost everything is straight when viewed at a small enough scale.
Given how low the silica loading is in this spray, I probably wouldn't be too concerned - but small, hard particles are not best friends with guide ways, ballscrews and bearings! Very interesting video :) I always assumed these 'ceramic' coating sprays were pure marketing, but good to see some analysis.
I’m thinking that the marketing and product development divisions don’t talk. Product development probably put silica in as a polishing compound as it would do a good job of taking off the oxide layer from paint and helping the wax work better. Marketing see they have added silica and decide the better way to sell the stuff is making people think it’ll harden the coating.
I beg to differ: silicate glasses are ceramics, at least that’s what my glass and ceramics professors would say. I got my BS in Glass science at the Ceramic Engineering College at Alfred University, so I feel some authority on the subject. Roughly speaking, ceramics are compounds of inorganic oxides, usually formed under high temperatures. There are some glasses that aren’t ceramics, for example plastics. Some ceramics are very crystalline, some are amorphous, and some are mixtures.
TIL! Gonna pin this for now, since I don't have any addendum material yet and this is very informative!
that sounds too technical, almost to the point that perhaps the naming convention has failed. A lot of scientific literacy is made counterintuitive by new discoveries and should be changed eventually. New words might be the best option just to get away from common layman's terms.
Yeah I hadn’t heard of crystallinity in ceramics before. I imagined my pottery was amorphous
Not a metal? Not a polymer? Then it’s probably a ceramic. In this case, glass is a definition of structure, hence bulk metallic glasses.
Leggo, glazed pottery is definitely a very mixed multiphase material. In many cases you have crystalline grains with varying glassy phases bonding everything. This is what gives porcelain its “ring” but earthenware its thud.
Working in “ceramics” I can tell you it is regularly misunderstood.
Taps, keep up the good work.
I finished my grad in 2009 and even studying glass in a part discipline, my professors classified glass as a ceramic for the same reasons mentioned above. We also have amorphous metals that's are not ceramic, but because the amorphous structure are classified glass alike.
This channel is one of the reasons I work at my current job! I'm working on TEMs (specifically on EELS) thanks for the inspiration :)
Yay! That's awesome, happy to hear! 🥳
EELS, honey. EEEEEEEEEELS.
What is TEMs?
I think a collaboration with Larry at AmmoNYC would be pretty neat. He talks a lot about the material sciences, or at least the concepts, involved in restoring paint and shine on a car. I think it would be neat to have him come with some car paint samples and reaffirm his assumptions with your tools and techniques. Or even better, have him try a bunch of techniques and view the results under your imaging tools. As always, very interesting stuff!
It would probably be more interesting to have a meeting with the guys that formulate his products or representative from one of the big manufacturers. Then again I think most of us think of these types of products as gimmicks with a lot of marketing hype behind them. I actually liked the old Seal and Shine product better. As far as other consumer grade SIO2, I've had some fun with the McGuires, but I mean I'm not going to pretend that it's some kind of great quality ceramic but I would say like most things from the company it does the job well in a relatively friendly manner. I think something interesting to test would be something like say CarPro glass sealant if we were going to analyze it on a piece of glass. Unfortunately, there's just so much marketing that overshadows the entire industry. As far as generating water beads on a wet surface, a quick clay bar generally does the trick or a quick polish. If the surface is in good condition and contaminant free, the water will bead. A good portion of the car washes out. There will actually mess up the water behavior on the surfaces with their gloss enhancement additives. After a few days when does wear out then the beating returns to normal. It's a frustrating industry without a doubt to interact with as a consumer because if they don't make absurd claims then the general public just won't support the product.
Bro, this channel would rocket to a million subs if you kept testing consumer products at a microscopic scale like this.
Hah, probably would! Not sure I want to become the consumer product science guy though 🙂 Might mix in this kind of stuff more often though, it's a fun diversion and relatively quick to do compared to longer projects
Good follow up, and very good turn around time! I personally like this quicker to make content in between big research videos. Keep it up
Two minor points on the EDS: first, many Al alloys contain some Si. Depending on how much and the treatment, it may form Si precipitates. Second, polishing with SiC carbide paper will definitely embed SiC particles in the Al ( trust me, I have firsthand experience, use diamond or alumina). Seeing little bits of silicon inside crevasses isn’t very convincing. I totally agree that this stuff doesn’t seem to have much silica in it. It really shouldn’t be so hard to find.
Yeah those are both fair points! Definitely a brain-fart moment with the SiC paper, although the grit size (1500, ~12um) would hopefully have been pretty noticeable even after it breaks up some. The particle was a few hundred nm iirc. But yeah, could easily have been some embedded abrasive. Even less proof for the spray in that case 😔
@@BreakingTaps That did seem to be the case but maybe as an experiment you could acid etch the surface then apply it in small amounts with an atomizer and heat with a dryer slowly.
Just another idea. Cool shop btw! 👍
Great follow up. Your channel deserves more subs! Glad I found it
One other possibility is that it's not silica nanoparticles, but a thin, uniform coating of functionalized amorphous silica that deposits on the surface. It would be difficult to see that with EDS depending on how thin it ends up. What is the pH of the spray? If it's decently alkaline, that would be a simple mechanism for dissolved silica that could drop out onto a surface when exposed to enough atmospheric CO2.
As a programmer I know how being hyperfocused can go and make you miss things.
If you want the best in visibility through the CNC windows, I’d suggest something similar to a lens spinner from the film industry. I believe that high end CNC machines can have them added (I think AvE has access to a machine with one of these?)
It’s basically a round piece of glass/acrylic/clear material that gets spun at a relatively high speed by a motor. The spinning action ensures that any liquid that lands on it will almost immediately get flung off the edge of the glass. It keeps that section of the window basically perfectly clean. They’re very impressive.
Thank you so much for going back and addressing those concerns. That's pretty awesome that you listen to your audience and address their concerns. Props to you! Your channel is one of the few! Thanks for all your work!
Interesting! Could you do one more follow up, to compare the results with a more expensive "premium" product? I've tested and tried them myself and i know they do work, but it would be super interesting to see how do they look like in the nano scales. I cannot think of a better channel to do this than you.
I'd love to see you test a professional grade ceramic coating like Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light Ceramic Coating or CarPro CQuartz UK 3.0 or something else along these lines.
I'd like to see what the ceramic car/phone/tabletop coatings look like now.
After seeing this on the scuffed glass, it made me realize just how small and few these particles were. The bare aluminum was a great nail in the coffin.
My only question is, if not the ceramic, what in the wax has changed? Older waxes I’ve used lasted weeks not months.
I dig this, you should expand into all different kinds of coatings!
I use a brand that you spray on a wet car, when I apply it, it can last for around 3 to 4 months. Not very long but it does work. This was really neat to see, and I kind of figured it was a marketing thing. Thanks for the videos.
This was fascinating. Project Farm tested this product with really good results, which is interesting because both his and your tests seem really legit but kinda come to different results. I detail my own cars, would love to see more testing on paint protection products like ceramic coating concentrate vs paint sealant vs carnauba wax.
He was careful to state that the product may work well for its intended use, but that the "Ceramic" portion of it is probably just marketing and not doing much if anything.
I’m glad some one did some decently thorough tests that actually back up my findings of pretty much every hybrid ceramic I’ve tried on the market. I do think it would be really cool to compare this to a good wax, and the new graphene waxes that seam to do even less then the hybrid ceramics. I think a few good contenders would be turtle wax ice paste wax, any graphene coating, maybe some nu finish and an actual ceramic coating (which I’ve found last less time then a good paste wax, and yes, I’ve applied them properly to customers vehicles, level and polish the paint and then clean the paint extremely thoroughly to remove any waxes, oils or other contaminants, and ive used a plethora of ceramic coatings ranging from $30 coatings to $300 a bottle coatings, and they seam to not last. even in some vehicles, damage to the paint on vehicles that set outside 100% of the time occurred, causing sun burn really prematurely compared to before ceramic was done, and no, the paint correction was not the cause, as on most where the paint sun burned, did not get a major paint correction and only got a quick buff per customers demands and prior to starting paint thickness is tested and was in or above the acceptable range for paint correction. I’m a automotive detailer, just incase that was not obvious, but I’m always trying out new products per customer demand and even personal testing just to be able to provide feedback based off of my experiences. Sorry for the long details lol)
It would be interesting to explore how to get that complete coverage of particles you had originally expected. Concentrate the spray? Let it dry on the substrate rather than wiping it off? Bake it on?
I’ve been saying that since the last video. Seems obvious to get more on don’t wipe any off esp since his application isn’t really the use case the instructions were written for.
That should ensure anything in the spray stays on the slide
Really interesting results. Grateful that you are willing to redo the experiment and to the audience for thinking things through in a different way.
Saw a fellow testing this stuff against a pile of others and this stuff was the champ. He let the coating dry before wiping it off. I was blown away by how hard it was to wear away.
I really enjoy your videos because I find they raise as many interesting additional questions as they answer. I would love to see a video where you have a painted body part from a junkyard and you could do a before and after comparisons of a number of different sprays and polishes. Maybe even comparing the hand polishing versus random orbital polisher. Great stuff!
1:29 that's a neat idea!
But if you want "almost clear" vision, and mostly no auto-focus issues, for video recording purposes, as mikeselectricstuff suggested, you should install a centrifugal view port. AvE has a video about those - his is air-driven, iirc.
Makes me wonder if plasma channel could make something electro static
@@jhoughjr1 @Leggo MuhEggo you're going to need a great deal of static electricity to keep the jet from a 200 watt water pump that then hits a 20000rpm spindle off your glass
@@zyeborm Well applied science did a video showing pumping water with high voltage. Needing a large charge is not a show stopper. Hence why I said it would be interesting.
Something with no moving parts is certainly worth experimenting with.
@@jhoughjr1 I'm suggesting the charge you need will be in the tens of millions of volts at significant current in order to apply enough force to the water. You can do that to your CNC mill. Personally I like being able to be in the same room as it
@@zyeborm
/watch?v=0dS7-I2c1Eg
Very very interesting! I'm a former detailer and was absolutely shocked when another detailer friend recommended this stuff to me. We've mostly made fun turtle wax products in the past (it's only suitable for pranks) but at the moment this one product accounts for the majority of my lazy exterior car care.
I'm not too surprised it didn't stick to the super flat surfaces of the glass, and I suspect any hydrophobic properties added there are waxes. Otherwise: application matters a lot, and differs from the markings on the bottle. I spray a little on to a microfiber and (nearly dry) buff on to the surfaces, multiple applications. This results in a very hydrophobic surface that lasts 2-4 months in my beachy, hot, regularly stormy environment.
Hypothesis: too much solvent while wiping causes very little to stick in to the scratches. A dryer and repeated application builds up particle deposits. A little carnauba on/throughout that results in a smooth hydrophobic layer.
I don't think this will help in the cnc though, I would imagine the coolant will remove the wax (and particles with it) pretty quickly.
Side note: I don't expect you'll keep going with this (great info already!) But if you do: modern paint is a far stretch from acrylic or enamel. Clear coat is very hard, very polished polyurethane resin and might actually be smooth enough to put under the SEM. Maybe you can steal a gas door off your neighbor's car without them noticing ;)
So cool to see, you're basically doing proper science but on RUclips. :)
If you care to think about this any further, it might be interesting to look at or try one of the high end bottles of snake oil where there's a tiny bottle of "ceramic" coating that you apply in some ritualistic way after an intensive clean & wax process. I'm even seeing a really really real one that claims to be some kind of "graphene ceramic"
Regarding your problem of silicone oil based coating wearing off quickly from your CNC glass, you may acheive longer lasting effect by first coating the glass with a polymer varnish then coating it with silicone based hydrophobic solution.
That way silicone should adhere to the varnish which is much less hydrophilic than glass, also it should penetrate it.
Cool video. I'm an Mechanical Engineer, so I can geek out over this stuff. If your looking for particles, I would consider measuring out a discreet amount of solution onto the glass and letting it dry completely. Do not wipe it off. This should give you a good estimate of the amount of particles per volume.
I've been looking into these ceramic coatings since they're becoming popular in the woodworking community and based on just the hydrophobic experiments its clear that A. ceramic coatings make a drastic improvement over traditional polyurethane but also B. not all ceramic coatings are the same and in order the achieve the desired results, the only ones that work are typically the expensive rub on versions and these spray on versions are basically worthless imitations. So I would love to see you do this with the stuff that Blacktail Studios came out with recently for example, most of these coatings seem to also be two coatings of varying hardness done in sequence.
If the aim is to keep the glass clear to improve visibility, why not install a wiper system - there's a rotating circular type (I don't know the correct terminology) that rotates super fast that would do the job well.
Clearview window!
Yeah there's several brands and they work really well !!!
I had recently bought some of these and just returned them to the store. Thanks for saving me some $$$
Ceramic knives keep their edge because they're so hard THEREFORE, adding random silica particles to a window cleaner MUST make it harder. Perfect marketing logic.
One thing I was curious about in the original video, and I apologize if this was covered to death in those comments. Also, this is probably a stupid question:
I understood that you were disappointed by the apparent lack of ceramic nano particles. I, on the other hand, was confused by the lack of *anything* sitting on the slide. Where's the silicone? Where's the wax? Are those things just not image-able? Too small? Do they leave an atomically thin coating? As a layman, I was expecting an ocean of gooey wax coating the surface of the glass. What's up with that?
Ah sorry, I should have talked about that! Combination of a few things you said. It's likely leaving a pretty thin film, and the SEM won't really be able to see a thin film. Thin as in only a few nanometers thick. Silicones (and waxes to a lesser extent) love glass, and will smear out to make a really thin, consistent film. That's the major reason car waxes have instructions to apply and then buff it out... you want to remove the excess wax and leave behind that thin film which is clinging to the glass.
The other complication is that waxy organic stuff doesn't provide a lot of contrast on the SEM, so unless it's thick it's hard to see. For example, the goop that was on the tape dividing line early in the first video is what you'd expect to see if you left a bunch of the stuff sitting on the slide without wiping it off. Big, gloopy, glowing mass of stuff :)
I guess the only additional experiment/comparison I'd like to see is applying the spray and not wiping the surface. Maybe even comparing wiped vs unwiped hydrophobic properties.
Would be interesting to see, as the bottle is probably so diluted, if the ceramic nano coating stuff in 20ml or whatever small bottles work similarly
"Posted 40 seconds ago" I *just* watched your previous video xD perfect timing
One other experiment that may have been interesting is to centrifuge and perhaps even wash a sample of the liquid to concentrate the particles, that way you could get better sample to look at and also to estimate the concentration of particles in the liquid
Interesting video. I'd love to see some analysis of different coatings, specifically specialty coatings advertised at the car market such Gyeon, Adams, nexgen, etc. I understand if that's too much time/money, but it would be incredible to have some actual science behind these coatings instead of a random joe on RUclips showing you a side by side of their car hood. Not that it isn't useful, but it is far from conclusive.
As for your solution, I think that the tablet screen protector idea is pretty good, since it is easily applied and replaced. Under the same idea, you can purchase the coating that they use to make the surface oleophobic. I believe it is some type of fluorinated polymer. Environmental and toxicological concerns aside, it is a fantastic coating that would perform the same job as your screen protector, but applied directly to your viewing window. The one I've used with relative success has been the Crystal Armor: the top result for "oleophobic coating" on amazon. There is not a large market for such a coating, so I can't speak of other brands marketing something similar.
As a chemist I'm both intrigued and highly skeptical of the expansive consumer "coatings" market. Ignoring the aforementioned environmental and toxicological effects--which are potentially severe, the tenability of many are suspect. The industrial use of coatings requires extreme precision and is basically like following a recipe for baking. Miss a step, or bake at the wrong temp, or for the wrong time, and you're highly likely to come out with a ruined product. Without controlled and repeatable conditions, they're impractical for an average consumer applying it in their home or garage (or, as in many automotive applications, outside! The horror...). I'm not an expert in the subject, but I am highly dubious. Companies are springing from nowhere with a "miracle" coating--and yet for many of them you'd be lucky to find a single coating engineer, material scientist, or even a chemist in their payroll. Anyways, rant aside, I hope to see more content like this if it's something you enjoy producing.
Could you make a comparison between fresh anodizing, straight out of the electrolyte, and one after the coloring/dyeing/pigmenting, and from after it went in the hot water bath for a while to "close the pores" of the honeycomb like (right?)
I didn't watch the first part yet but I still enjoyed this part. That SEM with the EDS is such a cool tool!
Excellent annunciation! 😄
I very enjoy that unique feedback loop comment/youtuber vibe!
Thumbs up from Montréal
So much speculation and snake oil claims going on in the comments. All I know is that I use this stuff on my car and it goes 4-6 months of nice shine and water beads. Who cares what is actually making it work? I know from experience that a $12 bottle of this stuff is one of the best and easiest to apply "waxes" I have ever tried. I'm still using the first bottle two years in. Everyone seems so hellbent on debunking the product, but no one is actually trying it out for what is intended for... you know, like, actually go wax your car with it and then tell me what you think...The turtle isn't making this stuff to look pretty under SEM, they make it to make your car look pretty and it does.
I Assumed the silica in those sprays was actually for polishing the painted surfaces as it wont effect glass and was just a micro abrasive for oxidized paint, dirt etc
I realize it says to wipe it off after applying in the manual.
But I am still amazed that you haven't even tried to do one where you just let it dry without any wiping.
I know this wasn’t the main point of the video, but you mentioned this was started because you want to see inside the machine better.
There’s a technique where you install a spinning disc of glass/acrylic/etc. the centrifugal force clears the coolant from the viewing window
I paint cars for a living. I would happily send you painted samples to try as well.
Also, I am curious about the stand alone ceramic coatings. Not the apparent snake oil in automotive parts stores, but the stuff you have to get professionally installed. I have those products as well I could send.
4:49 - That got high tech quickly 😊
That tablet screen protector is awesome! I bet it would work even better with an air jet blowing the beads off!
Have you considered testing those nano coatings made for car application that makes water sheet up instead of bead up? I wonder if that would work. Based on no CNC experience I still assume that form of liquid shedding would be preferable? Sure, the tablet screen protector looks WAY better compared to nothing but the view is still obscured by a lot of droplets.
You still probably need a layer to apply it to instead of straight to glass. Maybe to the screen protector, the oleophobic coating probably wears off eventually. Or some other "stick on" plastic sheet.
The issue with sheeting is it’s hydrophilic which allows wetting of the surface. Nothing would change until there not enough water to break the surface tension and allow it to sheet off. Hydrophobic coatings prevent the wetting action which makes removal dependent on droplet size and surface angle. This is why windshield/glass coating are all beading, because if they were sheeting then the water would react the same as if there was no coating until it stopped raining, beading action isn’t dependent on removing the water source for its action to happen.
I would bet this would work even better on clearcoat as the particles may embed themselves into the substrate similar to how contaminants embed into clearcoat and can be removed by claying the surface.
I would be really interested to see some of the ceramic coating offered in the car market under the microscope.
I wonder what’s in that Oleophobic screen protector coating. That’ll be cool to have and check out under your microscope!
That's the real question, I wonder if it's chemical or structural (or both)
Agreed! I'm noodling over how to see if we can image it. From skimming the literature I fear it's something like a fluorinated polymer monolayer, which I don't think I'd be able to analyze. 😢
@@BreakingTaps hmm sucks but how do they scan Teflon? Different tooling?
I would like to see a follow up of some different products, especially the ceramic coating that you have to apply and wait for it to flash. 2 of the main ones I would like to see are Avalon King Armor Sheild IX and CarPro Flyby Forte. The Armor Sheild is marketed to work on anything. The Flyby Forte is a specialty coating for glass, but I am not sure if it is a ceramic based coating.
For the anodised aluminium sample, why not use BSE? Silica should show up very clearly under backscatter imaging, and it looked like you have it when you were doing EDS
I was also thinking that
Instead of sprays you could try waxes / pastes with similar compounds and effects. I wonder if the more solid mediums will lay a thicker layer better?
I feel the silica a would make for a good polishing compound that would help to remove the oxide layer from the surface of paint. So combine that with wax could help. You would really have to buff the surface for proper effect though.
I hope i see an unwiped but evaporated slide. That should deposit the most.
Usually in car care products, the spray version is always the diluted toned down version of the original thing, where it is supposed to be applied more frequently, and faster. Like applying it once every 5 washes or something, and i think the inclusion of carnauba wax here supports this. In a proper ceramic coat it does not have other ingredients than solvent and the whatever ceramic compound they have. (I also don't get how the coating inside properly stick to the paint when it is directly sprayed with some organic sticky compound... As in, normally, to apply ceramic coating, super cleaning the car completely from previous wax/grime/iron oxide is a necessity.)
I would love to see you get a proper ceramic coating solution like some 3M with foam applicator! Though I also feel like you are already bored and moved on to the mext experiment ;D
Also a side note for the sandpaper part: the car paint polishing compounds are close to or sometimes higher than 10k-15k grit, the ones you applied are more like typical swirl marks that are in the average car out there, but again they are highly recommended to be polished before applying a proper ceramic coating on a car. So I think in this product, its the carnauba wax's duty to fill those scratches...
p.s. love all your videos man!
Nice follow up more people should follow your example.
it's astonishing how you managed 2 water repellant videos without showing its actual water repelling properties
Hah, well like I said, I was mostly interested in the silica! 🙂
Great analysis. I'd love to see there same for the Turtle Wax Graphene spray.
It's crazy to me that this stuff has anti rusting properties considering how little of the stuff we can see in this video
I say that because I've applied it to bare metal, and it makes a crazy, crazy difference as long as the surface doesn't get scratched (left the metal out and about for 1-2 weeks)
I think a major reason why it may work much better on textured surfaces is that as you saw during this, it tends to gather in cracks and crevices rather than in the smooth parts, so applying this over a paintjob will probably be ideal since the paint in the video was so rough
I wonder if that's the same for a clear coat.
Two great videos. Really fascinating. Please could you try the same tests using a proper ceramic coating like Avalon King. That would be really interesting
Also see Project Farm's video testing these ceramic spray coatings: ruclips.net/video/uYxKQwZah1s/видео.html This hybrid solutions spray did very well "Very Impressive!"
When I watched the original video I was thinking it would be interesting to see the difference between the "normal" hydrophobic spray vs the one with "ceramic nanoparticles", but I forgot to comment. 😐
What if those particles are supposed to be hydrophilic, so they act as points where drops form (and then subsequently fall faster)? That could explain why there are not a lot of them.
If you want to get into contact with someone in the know, Larry from Ammo NYC is the guy to try and contact
The real ceramic coating is the one in 30 or 50 mm bottles and you can tell is real ceramic when the applicator dries out hard also the towels we use are no longer good for anything since the ceramic makes them hard and super hydroponic however there's only one spray with real silicates the Gyeon wet coat. Any other spray "ceramic" are only solvents giving some hydrophobic protection for a few days but no protection.
Seeing how the particles accumulate in the scratched glass sample makes me wonder if this is the intended mechanism for the spray on car paintwork - we could assume that the un-scratched areas of paint still have some of their factory/original hydrophobicity, and it's the scratches that need to be filled to regain hydrophobicity on the macro scale. Perhaps the particles help the wax/silicone compounds to get a more secure key in the surface and last a little longer.
Just smoothing the surface will not make something hydrophobic though, which is what you comment seems to suggest. If that were the case, then this wouldn't be needed. Just a good buffing to smoothness. Water would still stick regardless of how smooth it is. Gotta get something between the surface and the water to make it hydrophobic, which is what the spray is supposed to do, not just to fill cracks to make the surface smoother.
@@BackYardScience2000 Yes I agree, smoothness itself isn't the goal. I probably should have put more emphasis on the last sentence about the particles potentially helping the hydrophobic compounds adhere in the crack for longer. The wax/silicones are actually doing the hard work :) My assumption about the unscratched areas is that unscratched = less wear, and hence the original coating may still be effective.
Honestly could you also install a cheap windshield wiper? Seems like a decent 10:90 solution.
I wonder if something formulated for glass would work better for you, for example Griots has a glass sealant as well as a ceramic formula for glass that may net better results.
Given the massive size of a drop of water, I think the little dots spread out could prevent a drop from adhering. I'd be interested in seeing neverwet though
Good to see the EDX but still think your first vid told the story...cheers.
On the original topic of keeping the windows clear on the CNC, what about setting up some compressed air to clear out a spot for the camera?
Could it be there are no nano particles of silica, just a sodium silicate (water glass) and it is marketed as amorphous silica?
"hey, can you try to locate some silica nanoparticles on this paint sample for me?" sounds like a job you would give to your new graduate student on their first day
Why wipe if off at all, ie, lay it flat and put a drop on and let it dry naturally. That way we know what it's supposed to look like, and whether it's just light-ends that evaporate to nothing, ie, scam.
We use increased surface profile to increase adhesion of paint.
How about Scotchgard.
You should check out AvE he added a wiper to his that automatically rotated to create a window for his camera.
I wonder if one could be hacked with a harbor freight angle grinder.
Nominal 11k rpm wouldn’t interfere with the frame rate maybe.
For someone with a shop it might not be a hard build vs the cost to buy
use fingernail polish if you still want to test enamel paint, it'd be a lot closer than that satin acrylic
Curious how the "proper" non-spray ceramic coating (the kind a proffesional would apply to your car paint) would compare.
Be nifty if you made your up with some aerogel dust/powder and tested that. Its supposed to be very hydrophobic. Would let you control the particle count a bit more, be interesting if you could count the particles with a laser squirting it through a tube and checking the level of light received. IOR of the silicone vs the emulsion of wax/iso should be different enough to cause scattering and give a basic result. Useful tool to have for checking solutions of nanoparticles if it works.
so much science ♥ noob question, why cant you use a transparent / translucent FEP sheet ? wouldn't it have the same non-stick properties and allow the coolant to slip away ? I have also seen some gadgets on the web that have a spinny thingy that keeps the view screen clear, perhaps a more practical approach.
I would love to see a video on those phone screen protective coatings
WIping makes sense for the car protection applciation, but not for covering a small area. As soon as the micro fiber touches it i bet it whicks away the solvent and attracts the nano particles.
I'm way behind on your videos, but I've been using one of the tablet screen protector things in my CNC machine for about 8 months now, and it's still working great. I do have to clean it off a little more often than the glass (I just use windex) but it's still holding up great.
I just wish I could find some that are a little closer to the right size for my window though
Seems like it would be pretty interesting to centrifuge the spray down to see just what the bulk of the junk in there looks like. I have real concerns about how likely those particles are going to stay suspended at all in the first place. Nevermind the debatable usefulness of having those particles at all.
Maybe you could design some wipers for the windows of your CNC machine.
So... would it stick better to ground glass? It would be cool if, when you sprayed it, it made the ground glass more transparent and....
The adhesion of ceramic coatings will take the most effective uniformity on a painted surface.
I always wondered if the silica worked as a buffing/ polishing compound in a water-repellent (rain-x) carrier.
Can you please please please do this to other ceramic coatings on the market? There are some really cheap ones on Amazon I’ve tried and had mixed results using. I think the cheaper $20 Amazon ones contain less ceramic then the more expensive ones. I would really love to see someone examine it because there nothing out there that goes into it like this video
Just wondering if the particle's function is to act as a nucleus for condensation to clear fogging? They would not need to be too numerous