ion-mask™: Invisible Technology, Visible Results

A few weeks ago we looked at Aridion™, our technology for electronics and the benefits that it can offer. This week our attention turns to ion-mask™. 

What is ion-mask?

ion-mask™ is our liquid repellent nano-coating technology for Lifestyle products such as footwear and textiles. Invisible to wearers the ion-mask™ protective layer is over one thousand times thinner than a human hair and is bonded to the whole surface on a molecular level making it extremely durable without affecting the look or feel of the product.

Furthermore, ion-mask™ lasts as long as the material itself and is not compromised by everyday wear and tear, it also resists the absorption of liquid and dirt helping to guard against stains, making products look newer for longer. See for yourself in the video below:




What are the benefits of ion-mask™ technology?
 

Protective: 
ion-mask™ gives lifestyle products superior liquid repellency, stopping external water ingress whilst allowing perspiration to escape.

Breathable:
Treated articles keep wearers comfortable and dry. Unlike membrane technologies,    ion-mask™ is not a physical barrier, delivering the full natural airflow of the chosen material.

Durable:
ion-mask™  is physically bonded at a molecular level, so it lasts as long as the material it protects and cannot be seen or felt.

Lightweight: 
Being only nanometers thin, ion-mask™  does not add any additional weight to products. In wet environments, the hydrophobic properties ensure that less water is retained.

Environmental:

ion-mask™  is solvent-free and uses only microscopic quantities of protective monomer, resulting in minimal waste and environmental impact.




ion-mask™  is already available on a range of footwear styles including; Golf, Running, Hiking, Boating and Leisure with brands including Hi-Tec, Timberland, Nike, Adidas, KSwiss, Teva, Mizuno and Van Dal.

Here are some links to videos featuring ion-mask™  technology:

- KSwiss: Kwicky Blade-Light
- Hi-Tec: V-Lite Infinity  / Liquid Mountaineering
- Timberland: What is P2i / Hiking through nature
- Teva: Lucky the penguin and his ion-mask™ boot
- Van Dal
 
You can find out more by visiting the website.  If you have a pair of shoes featuring ion-mask™, then we would love to hear your thoughts. Contact us at marketing@p2i.com

A penguin called Lucky and his special shoe

The internet has been filled with stories in the past week about a penguin from Santa Barbara Zoo who suffers from an impaired foot.

The young Humboldt penguin named Lucky was born with a leg that was not growing properly, causing sores to develop where pressure was put on the wrong parts of his foot. These sores could have turned into a life-threatening condition if a solution was not found.

X-rays showed that Lucky's bones were not broken and while penguins normally walk on their toes, the condition caused him to walk on an unpadded area of his foot. Zoo veterinarians wrapped his foot and padded the ankle area to compensate but it meant that Lucky could not swim as the wrapping would become very wet and heavy.

So the idea for a protective shoe was hatched when Santa Barbara Zoo CEO, Rich Block, recalled that Teva® had developed a special shoe for an elephant with foot issues at San Antonio Zoo. With Teva's headquarters only a few miles away it was worth enquiring to see if they could make a little penguin shoe suitable for Lucky.

With Teva's historic background in developing footwear for water adventures they instantly took on the challenge. Due to the language barrier, several versions were required but Lucky made it easy for Teva® as what worked and what did not. With each new version the boot was adapted until Lucky was happy with the finished product, and here is the result:

The Teva® penguin shoe

Teva's penguin shoe as worn by Lucky

Using different materials the shoe is designed to be lightweight, have superb traction to get out of the water as well as the ability to shed water. To do this, Teva® applied our ion-mask™ technology to Lucky's shoe making it completely hydrophobic enabling him to swim as freely as he likes. The shoes are also changed daily so Lucky always has a fresh pair for the start of each day.

Lucky modeling his new shoe

It really is a great story with a life-saving outcome and you can watch Lucky's story and how Teva® got involved in the video below:



Furthermore, in the fall this year, UK children's book author and illustrator, Sarah Aspinall, is writing all about Lucky in a book with the proceeds from sales being used to support Lucky and the other Humboldt penguins at Santa Barbara zoo.

Sneak peak of the cover

If you would like to know more about Lucky's species, the Humboldt penguins, you can here.

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Teva launch their first mountain bike shoe featuring ion-mask™

Outdoor pursuits in particular mountain biking, is popular the world over but ensuring you have the correct footwear to match the conditions can be problematic. Help is at hand now though, thanks to Teva and ion-mask™.

Founded by a guide on the Colorado River in 1984 (who went on to produce the world's first sports sandal), Teva now lead the way in which we can engage with our environments, especially those involving water.

As Chris Hillyer, Product Line Manager for Performance Products at Teva describes it: "Water presents a paradox to Teva. It provides a year round playground but also a number of challenges, as anyone who has ever ended up with soaking wet shoes can confirm."

With this problem in mind, Teva have taken their product development one step further with the introduction of our ion-mask™ technology to their latest range of shoes for mountain biking - the Links.

The Links bike shoe is Teva's first venture into mountain biking footwear and has been designed in conjunction with professional mountain biker Jeff Lenosky, also known as the 'father' of freeride mountain biking and creator of the Mountain Games. Teva, have sponsored the games for the last five years and it is now recognized as one of the premier freeride competitions in the country.

Teva's Links Mountain Bike Shoe

The Links shoes incorporate a host of features ensuring the user remains in maximum comfort throughout the biking experience. Designed specifically for use with flat pedals and featuring Teva's Spider365 sticky rubber soles to offer maximum grip, the shoes also feature a Shoc-Pad for cushioning while on the uppers, flexible armor has been introduced in the key wear areas. Adding to this, Teva has incorporated ion-mask™ to ensure that however wet the conditions are underfoot the wearer remains dry and comfortable.

The Links are due for launch in the UK in early August 2011 but they are already being reviewed online, including Bike Rader and Outdoors Magic and if you are in America, then they are available from the official Teva site.

You can find out more about Teva here or watch their official video below:




Want to know more about ion-mask™? 

ion-mask™ is our technology for lifestyle applications including footwear, textiles, gloves, hats and apparel. You can find out more on the ion-mask™ page or watch the technology in action below:



P2i

Aridion™ Technology: Transforming the reliability of electronic devices

Last week we looked at the beginnings of Nanotechnology. This week we turn our focus on Aridion™, P2i's nano-coating technology for electronic devices.

But first, what is P2i technology?

Our patented technology employs a special pulsed ionized gas (plasma) which is created within a vacuum chamber where a nanometer-thin (1000 times thinner than a human hair) polymer layer is applied over the entire surface of a product.

This process dramatically reduces the surface energy of a product, so that when liquids come into contact with it, they form beads and simply roll off:



Our technology is focused around two consumer brands: Aridion™ for electronics and ion-mask™ for lifestyle products. For industrial applications the technology is covered by the corporate P2i brand (which will be explored in later posts).

Aridion™ Technology: Transforming the reliability of electronic Devices

What is Aridion™ technology? Aridion™ is our coating for electronic devices. It coats every aspect of a finished product at the nanoscopic level offering a truly durable and invisible liquid repellent coating that does not affect the working components of electronic devices whilst maintaining look, feel and functionality. 

The benefits:

Protective:
Aridion™ delivers an amazing level of liquid repellency to whole devices, so that on treated surfaces, liquid forms beads and simply rolls off.

Reliable:
Aridion™ transforms the reliability of electronic devices containing delicate, expensive components at high risk of liquid damage through corrosion or electrical failure.

Durable:
The liquid repellent nano-coating is physically bonded at a molecular level, so it lasts as long as the material itself

Invisible:
The unique ultra-thin Aridion™ protective layer invisibly improves the performance of electronic devices without affecting the product's look or feel.

You can find out more by visiting the Aridion™ homepage or see the technology in action below in our video:

So what is Nanotechnology?

In this blog we have spoken about our two technologies ion-mask™ and Aridion™ but we haven't discussed what nanotechnology is or how it works.

Nanotechnology is the science of engineering matter on an astonishingly small scale - at the molecular or atomic level. To break it down further a nanometer (nm) is a unit of length equal to one billionth of a meter or one millionth of a millimeter. To put it another way, it is about one thousand times thinner than a human hair.

The term 'nano' comes from the Greek, meaning 'dwarf' and in the below video from 1977 entitled 'Power of Ten' demonstrates the magnitudes of size, where you can see for yourself just how small a nanometer really is:



Where did nanotechnology all begin?

The concept of nanotechnology or engineering from the bottom up, with atomic precision, was first suggested as long ago as 1959 by the renowned American physicist Richard Feynman. Famously, he delivered a ground breaking talk to the American Physical Society, entitled: There's plenty of room at the bottom which explored the ability to manipulate matter on an atomic scale.

But it was not until a 1974 paper that the term nanotechnology was first defined by Tokyo University of Science Professor Norio Taniguchi. Then, in the 1980's the term nanotechnology was popularized by the American engineer Dr. Kim Eric Erexler who promoted the significance of nanotechnology through speeches and books.

What is next for nanotechnology?

Research on nanotechnology is continually expanding, covering a number of fields including medicine, electronics, textiles, biomaterials and energy production. Even in the home, nanotechnology is present with nano-chemical sprays being developed that can digest grease and grime from kitchen surfaces, preventing them from coming back!

Over the next few years we can expect to see nanotechnologies becoming an increasing part of our lives.  The unbelievably small is set to become the next big thing!

If you would like to know more about our world leading liquid repellent nano-coating technology, please do get in contact or you can find out more about our technology in the video below:



Dr Stephen Coulson, CTO

'Running on Water' - Hi-Tec's Liquid Mountaineering featured on MythBusters

'Liquid Mountaineering', launched last April as a viral on YouTube, has taken the world by storm. With nearly 10 million views to date, it has even started a new sports phenomenon with a whole host of videos emerging of attempts to run on water, including Liquid Mountaineering arrives in America;  Ripple Runner and St. Andrews Surface Tension.

While all are very good, it is the original that has really captured the imagination:



All this exposure has caught the attention of Discovery Channel's 'MythBusters' program who were keen to put the myth to the test - can you actually run on water?

As you can see from the amount of views and spin-offs video that the viral has generated, it is a question that many people want an answer to. So on Wednesday's edition of MythBusters, the episode entitled 'Running on Water' was aired. You can see highlights from the after show edition below:



The viral all stems from Hi-Tec's development of their Infinity range which includes P2i's ion-mask™ technology or the 'totally water repellent coating' that is mentioned in the video. From this the 'Walk on Water' idea was born and a few months later Hi-Tec revealed all with the 'Making of Hi-Tec Liquid Mountaineering'...



Awarded the coveted: Best Viral Mockumentary from Ad Age, Liquid Mountaineering has been a huge success for Hi-Tec and the coverage on MythBusters tops off a very successful campaign.

Want to know more about the shoes featured in the video? You can see the collection and learn about the Infinity story here.

K-Swiss picks up the pace with P2i

K-Swiss, a leading American footwear company has teamed up with P2i and our ion-mask™ technology to revolutionize two of their product lines; the Kwicky Blade-Light and the California which you can see below:

Kwicky Blade-Light

California

K-Swiss are renowned for their premium range of running footwear with many of their customers competing in high level sports such as ironmans and triathalons.

K-Swiss are differentiating their 'running' brand with the introduction of ion-mask™, ensuring that the shoes remain lightweight throughout competition as the nano-coating repels water and allows for the natural breathability of the model. Watch the video for the Kwicky Blade-Light below:



The shoes were officially launched in February 2011 and revealed at the Trek/K-Swiss Triathlon camp in Kona, Hawaii. You can read a first review on the Triathlete Europe website.

You can find out more about ion-mask™ by visiting the website or see how the technology works in our video below:



If you own a pair of Kwicky Blade-Lights we would love to hear your review: Contact us