Despite staring at them for hours on end while out on the open road, a lot of drivers don’t have a clue what those black dots on their car windscreen are actually for.
However, it turns out that this distinctive design choice is a lot more important than you might think, as it’s not just a pretty pattern which jazzes up the glass screen on the front of your whip.
These days, the majority of cars are kitted out with all sorts of fancy technology to make life easier for motorists.
There’s the ‘off’ button which you need to stay far away from, swanky air filtering systems, and that weird circle that sits on your dashboard – but before all of these came along, there was the humble ‘frit’.
This term describes the black dots or lines which border a car windscreen that are also sometimes known as ‘dot matrices’.
Although they do add to the aesthetic and make the transition to the rest of the glass a bit subtler, these spots have a much more important purpose than simply adding to a vehicle’s appearance.
So, let’s have a look at some fun facts about frits.
The black dots which line your windscreen have an important job to do (Getty Stock Image)
A frit helps to distribute temperature evenly across the glass screen.
As a result of this, the chance of optical distortions and lensing is drastically reduced for drivers.
That’s because when there is too much heat in one part of the glass, it will impact your vision of the road as straight lines can appear curved or bowed inwards.
Therefore, frits make it a smoother and safer journey.
Experts at Autoglaze explained that this vision-bending phenomenon occurs when ‘the frit band (the solid black one) heats up much faster than the windscreen’s glass’.
It creates an optical distortion ‘that makes either straight lines look curved or bowed inwards toward the centre’.
The ‘gradually sinking’ black dots dissipate the heat and spread it out evenly, lessening the potential of a warped view of the roads for motorists.
The handy dots also help to ‘preserve the urethane sealant used to bond the glass to the frame’, which keeps your windscreen firmly in place.
The majority of motorists have no idea what the dots are for (Getty Stock Image)
As well as this, they serve as a ‘contact point between the glass and car frame’.
Autoglaze explained: “They create etches on the surface, making them rougher so the adhesive can stick better to the glass.
“Frits are also there for aesthetic purposes. If you look closely, the contrast between the dark band and the transparent glass can look too obvious even when viewed from afar.
“Creating a halftone pattern or dot-matrix allows a gradual decrease in size, making the transition much more subtle and easier on the eyes.”
This was news to a lot of social media users, who took to Reddit to share their amazement after finding out more about frits.
One said: “That is brilliant and simple. So simple that it isn’t believable but so believable that it can’t be that simple!”
Another said: “I am stunned at the amount that I have learned about frit today.”
A third added: “Huh.. I always thought they had some type of functionality like defrosting the windows.”
And a fourth chimed in: “To adhere and protect. Sounds like a good life purpose!”
