Durability Testing on Switch Tint
Heat cycles, cold mornings, and thousands of switches.
A product that works in a workshop is not a product. A product is something that still works after three Ottawa winters, and that is what this year has been about.
Our testing focused on three areas. Thermal: cars in this city go from minus thirty in February to a black interior baking in July. Film, adhesive, and electrical connections all behave differently at both ends, and the transition between them is where things fail.
Electrical: the switching mechanism has to survive being triggered thousands of times over the life of the vehicle, and it has to fail safe. If anything ever goes wrong, the glass should end up in a usable state, not a dangerous one.
Optical: clarity matters more than anything. A switchable film that is slightly hazy in its clear state is unacceptable, because you live with that haze every day you are not using the feature.
We are not going to pretend every prototype passed. Several did not, and that is exactly why we are testing instead of selling. When we put this on customer vehicles, it will be because we would run it on our own cars through a full year first — which is, literally, what we are doing.
Thinking about tinting?
We tint cars, homes, and businesses across Ottawa. Tell us what you need and we will give you a straight answer and a real number.
