Windshield wipers are unsung heroes

September 6, 2017

Tint World® can help your vehicle with this vital need

Windshield wipers serve more important purposes than, as the old song goes, helping you keep time with the music on the radio.

With all due respect to rhythm, windshield wipers are key to driver and passenger safety. That’s why Tint World® offers a range of windshield-wiper components, including arms, motors, hinges, pivots and new wipers as part of our stable of after-market accessories and improvements.

They may be a diminutive and overlooked component of your car, but they are crucial to the safe operation of your vehicle – even if it’s not raining, as is the case with its application as a windshield cleaner.

Here are a few fast facts about windshield wipers:

  • An Alabama woman named Mary Anderson is generally credited with inventing the windshield wiper. She got the idea during a visit to New York City where she witnessed a trolley operator only using half the windscreen during a sleet storm because he couldn’t otherwise see. Anderson secured a patent for her invention, but it expired before becoming commercially viable.
  • Some of the first windshield wipers, circa 1905, needed to be manually operated by a hand lever inside the car.
  • Wipers weren’t motorized until about 1915, and they typically operated top-down as opposed to their modern sitting at the base of windshields.
  • Intermittent wipers were introduced in the 1960s.
  • Advances in wiring and electrical systems allow for multiple windshield wipers per vehicle – for instance, on the rear window and headlights — starting in the 1980s.
  • The design life of a wiper system – excluding blades – is more than 1 million wipes.
  • You should replace your wiper blades, on average, about every six months to a year.
  • Make sure you replace both blades simultaneously to ensure even wear and maximum performance.

 

Contact your local Tint World today® for more information on every aspect of your vehicle’s windshield-wiper system.