Quickclear is a European
trademarkA trademark or trade mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or services from...
used by the
Ford Motor CompanyThe Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake...
for its electrically heated
windshieldThe windshield or windscreen of an aircraft, automobile, bus, motorcycle, or tram is the front window. Modern windshields are generally made of laminated safety glass, a type of treated glass, which consists of two curved sheets of glass with a plastic layer laminated between them for safety, and...
technology.
Instaclear was the name used in the United States.
First seen on the 1985 Ford
Scorpio/Granada Mk.IIIThe Ford Scorpio is an executive car produced by the Ford Motor Company at its factory in Cologne, Germany between 1985 and 1998. Known within Ford by its codename DE-1, it replaced the Ford Granada...
in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and the
Ford TaurusThe Ford Taurus is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States. Originally introduced in the 1986 model year, it has remained in near continuous production for more than two decades, making it the fourth oldest nameplate that is currently sold in the North American...
/
Mercury SableThe Mercury Sable is a mid-size or full-size luxury sedan car model created by the Ford Motor Company and sold under the Mercury brand...
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.The overall effect when operative was defogging & defrosting of the windscreen at a very high rate.
Quickclear is a European
trademarkA trademark or trade mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or services from...
used by the
Ford Motor CompanyThe Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake...
for its electrically heated
windshieldThe windshield or windscreen of an aircraft, automobile, bus, motorcycle, or tram is the front window. Modern windshields are generally made of laminated safety glass, a type of treated glass, which consists of two curved sheets of glass with a plastic layer laminated between them for safety, and...
technology.
Instaclear was the name used in the United States.
First seen on the 1985 Ford
Scorpio/Granada Mk.IIIThe Ford Scorpio is an executive car produced by the Ford Motor Company at its factory in Cologne, Germany between 1985 and 1998. Known within Ford by its codename DE-1, it replaced the Ford Granada...
in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and the
Ford TaurusThe Ford Taurus is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States. Originally introduced in the 1986 model year, it has remained in near continuous production for more than two decades, making it the fourth oldest nameplate that is currently sold in the North American...
/
Mercury SableThe Mercury Sable is a mid-size or full-size luxury sedan car model created by the Ford Motor Company and sold under the Mercury brand...
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.The overall effect when operative was defogging & defrosting of the windscreen at a very high rate. Landrover (UK) also fitted a similar screen to their Discovery range in the early 1990's some of which were imported to Australia undetected by authorities because at that stage, 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 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
LincolnLincoln is the luxury brand of Ford Motor Company. Founded in 1917 by Henry M. Leland and acquired by Ford in 1922, Lincoln has manufactured vehicles since the 1920s. Leland named the brand after his longtime hero Abraham Lincoln.-History:...
line in the early 1990s, and in some Land Rovers as well. GM has produced a somewhat similar system called
Electriclear.
One problem with the system is that the heating elements can sometimes burn out, leaving one side of the screen uncleared. As the wires are actually embedded in the glass, total replacement of the screen is the only remedy (as opposed to a rear
defoggerA defogger or defroster is a device for clearing condensation from a window, and is also useful for melting frost, ice, and snow that has collected on the window surface. They commonly exist in automobiles, in two basic varieties.-Forced air:...
, which can usually be repaired with conductive paint). Some owners have been known to smash the screen and submit a fraudulent insurance claim for stone damage, as Quickclear screens are expensive replacement parts and many insurance policies offer a low excess (deductible) for windscreen damage. This type of screen is also known to cause serious problems with tollway recording equipment (E-Tag etc.)