Published in the July 2015 issue of “Die Porsche Kassette”

What does Robin Williams playing the role of Mork, from the Planet Ork have in common with a lotus plant and your Porsche?

There’s a company in the UK named Nano Labs which decided to emulate the properties of the lotus plant as it applies to painted surfaces, particularly for automobiles.

Unless you have a just Concour’ed Porsche, chances are that there are a number of contaminants on your car’s surface, among them: bird poop, stains from acid rain, road grime, pollen dust, soot, and remnants of insect collisions.

Our cars’ paint finish does not have the ability to repel those contaminants and that’s why it’s recommended that you protect those surfaces regularly with a thorough cleaning and a good waxing.

You don’t enjoy cleaning and prepping for a Concour D’Elegance? Not to worry. In the not-so-distant future, our cars may come from the factory with an eco-friendly paint finish that can degrade pollutants through a nanoparticle compound and natural light, known as nano-coating and is just one of many products and applications that result from nanotechnology. In essence the paint finish can prevent road debris, water, and even oil from sticking to it and drying on its surface. This revolutionary new coating known as “self-cleaning paint” is hydrophobic (repels water) and oleophobic (repels oil).

Nanotechnology is a new industry that is based around the study and development of nanoparticles, which are minute particles of elements so small that they have to be created in a lab. These nanoparticles have some very unique properties, especially in the way they react with ordinary (nature-made) particles.

The first car maker to put nano-coating on a vehicle was Nissan, but Porsche is anxiously awaiting the test results so that they can jump in as well.

The automotive nano-coating known as Ultra-Ever-Dry tries to achieve what the leaves of the lotus plant does so well, the ability to shed (repel) water and dirt from its surface.

The engineers who designed the coating figured out how to minimize the surface area where water, oil, and dirt cling, which then makes the water and other contaminants run right off.

Nano Labs says that other technologies in the market rely on texturization or high energy surfaces. In the case of texturization, dirt and pollutants are picked up by water droplets due to nano or micrometric architecture of the surface which minimizes adhesion. The other case, high surface energy materials, uses products such as Teflon to coat the surface. The problem with both of those approaches, according to Nano Labs, is that they are very expensive and hard to apply on large surface areas.

The novel approach by Nano Labs is based on a unique nanoparticle compound proprietary to them.

The Ultra-Ever-Dry coating is neither a texturized nor a high energy surface approach. It leverages natural light and proprietary nanoparticle system which allows any surface to literally keep itself clean from contaminants, dirt, dust, fungus graffiti, bird droppings or insect remnants.

Nano Labs also claims that the water-repellant property will prevent snow, ice and frost from building up by maintaining a layer of air between the top of the nano-coating and whatever touches it.

I wonder when can we get it in GT3 Orange, Speed Yellow, Guards Red or GT Silver?

For more information on automotive nano-technology and more, please visit my website: www PedrosGarage.com.

Happy Porsche’ing,