UK Defense Ministry Wants To Protect Your iPod
Well, not exactly. But a technology developed by British boffins to protect soldiers from chemical attack, called "ion-mask," has been released for civilian use to P2i in Oxfordshire, England. It's poised to become the method of choice for protecting electronic devices of all kinds from exposure to water. It doesn't rely on elaborate gaskets to keep moisture out of the case of a protected device. The entire device, including moving parts and circuit boards, can be coated and protected with the marvelous material.
Invisible to the naked eye, ion-mask causes water to bounce off treated surfaces like beads of mercury by decreasing the surface energy of the component materials, and, by applying a coating just nanometres thick, other properties such as colour, texture and feel are completely unaffected. Electrical items that would normally have moderate levels of water protection can be taken straight from the production line or even high street store and treated retrospectively - with no change to the look, feel or electronic performance of the product and the level of water protection is greatly enhanced.
Ion-mask is not a "barrier technology" that can alter the performance of delicate items such as microphones or is susceptible to pin-holes or make re-work almost impossible. Apart from increasing the protection of smaller items, ion-mask can also be used to ensure that larger, more complex items that can accommodate gaskets and o-rings are given an additional level of protection and provide further assurance of performance to high performance items.
Spiffy. Pretty soon when you forget you're wearing your iPod and go in the pool, you can say with impunity: "I meant to do that. Yeah, that's the ticket."
Invisible to the naked eye, ion-mask causes water to bounce off treated surfaces like beads of mercury by decreasing the surface energy of the component materials, and, by applying a coating just nanometres thick, other properties such as colour, texture and feel are completely unaffected. Electrical items that would normally have moderate levels of water protection can be taken straight from the production line or even high street store and treated retrospectively - with no change to the look, feel or electronic performance of the product and the level of water protection is greatly enhanced.
Ion-mask is not a "barrier technology" that can alter the performance of delicate items such as microphones or is susceptible to pin-holes or make re-work almost impossible. Apart from increasing the protection of smaller items, ion-mask can also be used to ensure that larger, more complex items that can accommodate gaskets and o-rings are given an additional level of protection and provide further assurance of performance to high performance items.
Spiffy. Pretty soon when you forget you're wearing your iPod and go in the pool, you can say with impunity: "I meant to do that. Yeah, that's the ticket."
