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Quickclear is a European trademark used by the Ford Motor Company for its electrically heated windshield technology. Instaclear was the name used sometimes in the United States.
First seen on the Rolls-Royce in 1969[ citation needed ] then the 1985 Ford Scorpio/Granada Mk. III in Europe [1] and the 1986 Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable in the U.S., the system uses a mesh of very thin heating wires, or a silver/zinc oxide coated film embedded between two layers of windscreen glass. [2] The overall effect when operative was defogging and defrosting of the windscreen at a very high rate. Land Rover (UK) also fitted a similar screen to their Discovery range in the early 1990s, some of which were imported to Australia undetected by authorities, because at that stage they were not legal in any state. Owing to the high current draw, the system is engineered to operate only when the engine is running, and normally switches off after 10 minutes of operation. The metallic content of the glass has been shown to degrade the performance of certain windshield-mounted accessories, such as GPS navigators, telephone antennas and radar detectors.
"Instaclear" was the introductory name on American models. In early promotional Ford sales literature for Europe, the feature was referred to simply as "Rapid Windscreen De-ice", but the "Quickclear" name began to appear from around 1989 onwards. The system can now be found as either standard equipment or an optional extra on most vehicles produced by Ford or its subsidiaries around the world, but in the U.S. market it was never popular. Besides the original Taurus/Sable, it appeared briefly in the Lincoln line in the early 1990s, and in some Land Rovers as well. GM has produced a somewhat similar system called Electriclear (ThermaTec in Opel/Vauxhall cars).
One problem with the system is that the heating elements can sometimes stop working, leaving one side of the screen uncleared. If this is the result of burn out, total replacement of the screen is the only remedy as the wires are actually embedded in the glass, (as opposed to a rear defogger, which can usually be repaired with conductive paint). The problem is sometimes caused by the power cable coming loose from its mounting near the base of the screen. The loose cable then catches on the windscreen wiper mechanism and fatigues over time. The remedy is then to reattach the wire to the foil at the base of the screen, but this can be problematic since the system requires such high current (~30 amps). This type of screen is also known to cause serious problems with tollway recording tags unless the tag is placed in the correct area behind the rear view mirror.
The Ford Taurus is an automobile manufactured and marketed by the Ford Motor Company in the United States for model years (MY) 1986-2019. Introduced in late 1985 for the MY 1986, six generations were produced over 34 years, with a hiatus for MY 2006-2007. For MY 1986-2009, Ford marketed the Taurus alongside its rebadged variant, the Mercury Sable; four generations of the high-performance Ford Taurus SHO were manufactured. The Taurus also served as the basis for the first ever front-wheel-drive Lincoln Continental (1988–2002).
The windshield or windscreen of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike, truck, train, boat or streetcar is the front window, which provides visibility while protecting occupants from the elements. Modern windshields are generally made of laminated safety glass, a type of treated glass, which consists of, typically, two curved sheets of glass with a plastic layer laminated between them for safety, and bonded into the window frame.
The Ford Scorpio is an executive car that was produced by Ford Germany from 1985 to 1998. It was the replacement for the European Ford Granada line. Like its predecessor, the Scorpio was targeted at the executive car market. A variant known as the Merkur Scorpio was sold briefly on the North American market during the late 1980s. While Ford's Taurus was of a similar size, Ford maintained the need for two parallel cars – while Scorpio buyers valued high-speed stability, a tight turning radius, and a sizable rear seat, American buyers had other requirements.
A windscreen wiper or windshield wiper is a device used to remove rain, snow, ice, washer fluid, water, or other debris from a vehicle's front window. Almost all motor vehicles, including cars, trucks, buses, train locomotives, and watercraft with a cabin—and some aircraft—are equipped with one or more such wipers, which are usually a legal requirement.
The Ford Five Hundred is a four-door, five-passenger, front-engine, front- or all-wheel drive, full-size, high-roof sedan manufactured and marketed in North America by Ford in a single generation for model years 2005-2007. It was a direct byproduct of Ford's 1999 acquisition of Volvo Cars; a strong market shift in automotive tastes away from sedans to minivans and SUV/CUVs — and a concerted effort by Ford to rethink the traditional sedan/wagon formula.
Merkur is a defunct automobile brand that was marketed by the Lincoln-Mercury division of Ford Motor Company from 1985 to 1989. Drawing its name from the German word for Mercury, Merkur was targeted at buyers of European executive cars in North America, selling captive imports produced by the German division of Ford of Europe.
The Land Rover Freelander is a series of four-wheel-drive vehicles that was manufactured and marketed by Land Rover from 1997 to 2015. Initially a compact SUV built on a body-on-frame chassis, the second generation model, sold from 2007 to 2015 in North America and the Middle East as the LR2 and in Europe as the Freelander 2, transitioned to a car-based platform which placed it into the compact crossover SUV class, and was developed alongside the Volvo XC60, the Volvo S80 and the third generation Ford Mondeo. The name 'Freelander' is derived from the combination of 'Freedom' and 'Lander'.
The Mercury Sable is a range of automobiles manufactured and marketed by the Mercury brand of Ford Motor Company. Introduced on December 26, 1985, as the replacement for the Mercury Marquis, the Sable marked the transition of the mid-size Mercury product range to front-wheel drive.
A window film, sometimes called tint, is a thin laminate film that can be installed on the interior or exterior of glass surfaces in automobiles and boats, and as well as on the interior or exterior of glass in homes and buildings. It is usually made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family, due to its clarity, tensile strength, dimensional stability, and ability to accept a variety of surface-applied or embedded treatments.
The Ford Taurus SHO is the high-performance variant of the Ford Taurus. Originally intended as a limited-production model, the SHO would be produced for the first three generations of the model line, from the 1989 to the 1999 model years. After an 11-year hiatus, the model was revived for 2010, continuing through the 2019 discontinuation of the Taurus model line.
The AXOD was a 4-speed automatic transaxle for transverse front wheel drive automobiles from the Ford Motor Company. It was introduced in the 1986 Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable. The AXOD and its successors are built in Ford's Van Dyke Transmission plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Production of the final member of the family, the 4F50N, ended in November 2006.
In aeronautics, ice protection systems keep atmospheric moisture from accumulating on aircraft surfaces, such as wings, propellers, rotor blades, engine intakes, and environmental control intakes. Ice buildup can change the shape of airfoils and flight control surfaces, degrading control and handling characteristics as well as performance. An anti-icing, de-icing, or ice protection system either prevents formation of ice, or enables the aircraft to shed the ice before it becomes dangerous.
Windshield washer fluid is a fluid for motor vehicles that is used in cleaning the windshield with the windshield wiper while the vehicle is being driven.
Tempered or toughened glass is a type of safety glass processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength compared with normal glass. Tempering puts the outer surfaces into compression and the interior into tension. Such stresses cause the glass, when broken, to shatter into small granular chunks instead of splintering into large jagged shards as ordinary annealed glass does. These smaller, granular chunks are less likely to cause deep penetration when forced into the surface of an object compared to larger, jagged shards because the reduction in both the mass and the maximum dimension of a glass fragment corresponds with a reduction in both the momentum and the penetration depth of the glass fragment.
The Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is a four-door, body-on-frame sedan that was manufactured by Ford from 1992 to 2011. It is the police car version of the Ford Crown Victoria and was the first vehicle to use the Ford Police Interceptor name.
The first-generation Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable are automobiles produced by Ford as the first of six generations of the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable. Launched on December 26, 1985, as a 1986 model, the front-wheel-drive Taurus was a very influential design that is credited with saving Ford from bankruptcy, bringing many innovations to the marketplace and starting the trend towards aerodynamic design for the American automakers in the North American market. Ford of Europe had launched the 1980s move to aerodynamic design for the company with the 1982 Ford Sierra.
The third-generation Ford Taurus is an automobile that was marketed by Ford from the 1996 to 1999 model years. While the chassis underpinnings were largely carried over, the redesign gave the Taurus its first complete exterior redesign since its 1986 introduction. Slotted between the compact Ford Contour and full-size Ford Crown Victoria, the third-generation Taurus was again offered as a four-door sedan and as a five-door station wagon, marketed alongside the Mercury Sable.
The fourth-generation Ford Taurus is an automobile that was produced by Ford for the 2000 to 2007 model years. While mechanically similar to its 1996-1999 predecessor, major revisions to the bodyshell of the sedan were done to alter its controversial styling as well as add interior room; it was available in four-door sedan and five-door station wagon models.
The fifth generation Ford Taurus is a front- or all-wheel drive, five passenger sedan, manufactured and marketed by Ford for model years (MY) 2008-2009. Marking the return of the nameplate after a hiatus of less than a year, the revived Taurus is a midcycle revision of the Ford Five Hundred full-sized sedan. After its retail withdrawal following the 2007 model year, the Crown Victoria was replaced by this generation of the Taurus, making it the flagship Ford sedan for the first time.
The sixth generation of the Ford Taurus is the final generation of the model range manufactured by Ford. Introduced for the 2010 model year, the sixth-generation Taurus is the second generation of the model line produced as a full-size car; it was the heaviest sedan sold under the Ford brand worldwide. While sharing its D3 chassis underpinnings with the previous generation, the sixth generation marked the first North American use of Kinetic Design design language.