Behind the Design: How the Vanish Plate Was Engineered from the Ground Up

Every innovation begins with a problem worth solving. For us, that problem didn’t even start with cars. It started with the dream of building a custom home.

As we laid out the design, one detail kept standing out: traditional blinds. They felt bulky, outdated, and clunky, an odd contrast against the clean, modern spaces we wanted to create. The question became simple: how could we control visibility in a way that felt seamless, modern, and smart?

That search led us to PDLC (polymer-dispersed liquid crystals), a material capable of switching from opaque to transparent with the push of a button. It was sleek, futuristic, and unlike anything we had seen before. What we didn’t realize at the time was that this material would eventually form the inspiration for something much bigger: the Vanish Plate.

But the journey between discovery and execution was anything but easy. It would take years of failures, pivots, and breakthroughs before the product you see today came to life.

PDLC: The First Attempt

The earliest version of the idea was straightforward, use PDLC film over a license plate to achieve instant privacy. In theory, it seemed like the perfect solution. In practice, it was riddled with challenges.

The film had to sit several millimeters away from the plate to fully obscure it, creating a bulky and impractical unit. Attempts to stack multiple layers only made things worse, introducing new clarity issues and thickness that made installation difficult. Even when “clear,” the film blurred the plate when viewed from sharp angles, meaning it only worked if you were looking straight on.

Power management was another obstacle. PDLC requires a constant voltage to remain transparent. That meant the system would continuously draw power, draining a car battery if left active while parked. PNLC was a possible alternative, but it required even more layers and came at twice the cost, hardly a viable option for a product meant to be practical.

The final nail in the coffin was waterproofing. PDLC film edges were incredibly sensitive, and even minor water exposure could cause instant failure. Manufacturing around these vulnerabilities proved unreliable, with failure rates far too high for long-term success.

At that point, the decision was clear: the PDLC approach had to be abandoned completely.

The Breakthrough: LCD

The turning point came from an unlikely source, an old calculator. Inside, we found a simple LCD screen producing crisp black digits with ease. Curious, we held the screen over printed text, and to our surprise, it blocked it out entirely.

That moment sparked a new idea. If LCD could be scaled up, shaped, and engineered correctly, it could become the perfect medium for controlled visibility. What seemed like a dead end suddenly opened into a new path forward.

Of course, scaling up wasn’t easy. As the screens grew larger, light began leaking through. The solution was to optimize the density of liquid crystals per square centimeter. Through trial, error, and extensive R&D, we achieved the right ratio to ensure complete blackout at all angles, a problem many competitors still struggle with to this day.

With the core screen technology stable, we began fine-tuning clarity, coatings, and performance. This led to our proprietary Nano coating, a breakthrough that reduced haze, minimized reflections, and even amplified plate visibility by diffusing ambient light across the surface.

Mounting Challenges and Reinvention

With screen technology advancing, attention shifted to the mounting system. Our first design was functional but overbuilt: a two-piece bracket where one part attached to the car and the other held the screen beneath a plexiglass cover.

It worked, for a while. But real-world testing exposed critical flaws. Temperature swings caused the plexiglass to flex, which eventually cracked the screen. The extra layers of material created glare and reflections that no amount of matte finishing could fully resolve. While it technically worked, it wasn’t the clean, slim solution we envisioned.

So we went back to the drawing board. The mounting system needed to be stronger, slimmer, and more adaptable, without introducing failure points. That realization sparked a complete redesign.

The Current Generation

Today’s Vanish Plate represents the culmination of years of refinement. Every design decision was made with performance and longevity in mind.

The screen features a slim, iPhone-like bezel for maximum visibility with minimal distraction. The LCD mounts directly to the housing, no external cover, no extra layers, just a clean, integrated design. The universal rear mounting point is secured with a proprietary TPU bracket, molded from high-grade material sourced from Bayer in Germany, delivering the perfect balance of strength and flexibility across vehicle types.

Our Nano-coated screens set a new benchmark for clarity. They reduce glare, improve viewing angles, and enhance brightness by diffusing ambient light across the surface. Each improvement removes potential failure points and adds measurable performance.

This is not an adaptation of someone else’s product. This is an engineered solution, built from scratch, designed with purpose, and refined through iteration. That’s why we understand it better than anyone else in the market.

What’s Next

The story doesn’t stop here. With each new production run, we continue to refine materials, optimize clarity, and push forward with innovations in power systems. Accessories and new versions are already in development, expanding what the Vanish Plate can do and how it can integrate seamlessly with vehicles.

At Vusi Studios, the Vanish Plate isn’t the end of the story. It’s the beginning of a future where automotive technology blends seamlessly with design, durability, and innovation.