Have you ever set your phone down a little too close to some water? Coffee? Beer? The panic that sets in when you wonder if you’ve suddenly voided the handset warranty. Fear no more.
P2i is a company that has invented nano-coating technology that stops liquid from leaking inside of consumer electronics products, among other things. How smart is this? Pretty smart, actually. I talked with Dr. Stephen Coulson, who is CTO of P2i, about the company’s history. It turns out P2i was formed in 2004 out of the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense to protect military soldier’s garments from rain, petroleum, oil and other lubricants and the like. The ministry has since privatized the business and about 18 months ago, P2i began selling its technology to the hearing-aid industry, another community where you really don’t want to get your devices wet. The technology is also used in sports clothing, Coulson said. Coulson said the company is bringing the technology to cellphones later this year. (And all the people who have dropped cellphones in toilets and other puddles of water shouted “Huzzah!”) The company commissioned research that found that four in 10 people surveyed had damaged their cellphones by dropping them in water or spilling liquids on them. Scratching and staining was reported by one-third of the people who responded. (One-third? I am shocked. I would have guessed 80%. People are replacing their phones too quickly.) P2i’s Aridion nano-coating technology coats every aspect of a finished product, both inside and out, but it doesn’t make the product bulkier, Coulson explained. The technology is applied using a special pulsed ionized gas to attach a nanoscopic polymer layer to the electronic device. (I took that from a press release, in case you were wondering.) But here’s the part I do understand: the layer is 1,000 times thinner than human hair, so it’s skinny. Bring it on, I say!