Water- and ice-repellent coatings

Thick snow or ice adhering to the surface of an antenna used for radio communication ton impede telecommunication. So methods to reduce the build-up of snow and ice ore needed. The use of water-repellent coatings to prevent snow and ice sticking has been studied, and in this paper, results of tests on the adhesion of ice and how it is affected by the contact angle, surface roughness and thermodynamics were obtained. The results were as follows: 1. A new type of water-repellent coating exhibited a contact angle of 150 degrees. 2. The surface free energy of the water-repellent coating gives a linear relationship between the build up of ice. 3. The greeter the surface roughness of high wettability materials, the better the adhesion, and the greeter the surface roughness of water-repellent coatings, the worse the adhesion.