ClearBlade said its dual-blade design can make better use of the cleaning fluid on the windshield.

Today, not all hot new technological innovations are related to advanced autonomous driving and components full of futuristic artificial intelligence.

There are also windshield wipers.

"The wipers should be replaced?" The reason Jean Marie Thrower is an industry business development consultant who works with automotive suppliers in different fields. "Maybe it's not as sexy as autonomous driving, but automakers still want to hear about it."

Thrower is a former Army Airborne Logistics Officer and former Visteon Operations Manager, representing the other side of the industry's innovation wave. Dreaming and perfecting a technological breakthrough are one thing-selling it is another.

For the past three and a half years, Thrower has been assisting ClearBlade Inc., a Denver startup that is ready to produce original equipment dual-blade wiper systems for automakers.

ClearBlade claims that its dual-blade design-the outlet is embedded in the wiper and manages the cleaning fluid as the blade slides-doubles the cleaning effect and makes better use of the fluid flow. In traditional wiper systems, these fluids are before contact. The wiper blades are usually discharged.

Thrower said that ClearBlade has some similarities with products already on the market-"Magic Vision Control", a type developed by Mercedes-Benz and Valeo and introduced on Mercedes models a few years ago. The dual-blade wiper system introduced-this is not a problem. . In fact, this is the selling point of ClearBlade.

Thrower: simple design, low cost

Mercedes owners must take their vehicles to the Mercedes dealer and have the service technicians carefully remove and replace high-quality wiper blades. Service visits, including parts and labor, usually cost several hundred dollars.

The benefit of ClearBlade is its simpler design, and vehicle owners can install it in place in their driveway. This simplified structure makes the price as low as 15 to 30 US dollars.

ClearBlade received a design patent in 2016, and the company even mentioned its Mercedes competitors in its patent application to reveal its differences.

With the help of Thrower, ClearBlade purchased all the independent components of the system and established a manufacturing company in India with Padmini VNA Mechatronics to mass-produce the system. .

The ClearBlade team is now soliciting a list of automakers to discuss opportunities.

"It boils down to a simpler design," Thrower said. "Simpler design means simpler manufacturing, which means much lower cost.

"So it becomes a component that you can install on Ford Festiva or Nissan Versa. Do you see its appeal? You can afford to provide low-priced vehicles with what are considered Mercedes windshield wipers thing."

So far, Thrower has negotiated the ClearBlade team with automakers in the United States, China, Europe, and India.

While visiting a car manufacturer in the Midwestern United States, representatives of Thrower and ClearBlade flew to the city and rented a Ford Explorer at the airport. They left the taxi property and parked on the side of the road. Thrower gets out of the car and removes the Explorer wipers and inserts the ClearBlade system to replace them.

"It took three minutes," Thrower said. The purchasing managers they met were positive about the product, but were particularly interested in that it could be stuck on the existing windshield without worrying about factory specifications.

When the ClearBlade team returned to the rental company, Thrower removed the ClearBlade parts and reinstalled the wipers from the Ford factory.

"We hijacked their vehicle for a demonstration," Thrower said. "But it made a good point."

Thrower is pursuing other marketing strategies. One of them is selling directly to the aftermarket. The group is in discussions with an auto parts retailer who will package the system and sell it under the chain's brand name.

This year, the company also announced a partnership with the Chinese manufacturer Shenghuabo Group, which is one of China's leading suppliers of windshield wipers. Shenghuabo Group is interested in developing market shares in North America and Europe.

However, although windshield wipers appear inconspicuous in today's advanced electronics, they are still the home of many fierce global competitors.

In order to enter the market, ClearBlade must bypass Bosch, Denso, Valeo, especially Trico, the American manufacturer invented the windshield wiper in 1917.

Thrower also met with some mature suppliers to demonstrate this idea. But she warned her Denver customers that for a mature supplier, accepting another company's innovation will be a long process.

"It was more or less what they told us," she said of the interviews. "They have their own R&D department. Why do they need my people?

"But," she added, "we have things they don't. We have patents."

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