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

Every great product starts with a problem worth solving. For us, it didn’t even begin with cars.

It started with the idea of building a custom home.

While planning the design, one thing kept standing out, traditional blinds felt outdated, bulky, and clunky. We began looking for smarter, cleaner ways to control visibility in a space. That led us to PDLC (polymer displaced liquid crystals): a material that could go from opaque to clear with the push of a button.

That discovery would eventually lead us to the foundation of the Vanish Plate, but not before a long series of failures, engineering pivots, and breakthroughs.

PDLC: The First Attempt

The first idea was to use PDLC film over a license plate to achieve instant privacy. In theory, it was perfect. In practice, it came with serious issues:

- Distance requirement: PDLC needed to sit several millimeters away from the plate to block it out fully. That made the unit bulky. We tried stacking multiple layers to reduce the required distance, but that introduced new problems.

- Edge clarity failure: Even when "clear," the film blurred the plate when viewed from sharp angles. It just didn’t work unless you were dead-on.

- Constant power draw: PDLC requires constant voltage to stay transparent. That meant the system would constantly draw power, draining the battery if left active in a parked car. PNLC could've been an alternative but it would cost twice as much and need double the amount of layers.

- No real waterproofing: If water made contact with the film’s exposed edges, it would instantly fail. Manufacturing around this was unreliable and led to high failure rates. It wasn’t viable long-term.

So we scrapped it. Completely.

The Breakthrough: LCD

The pivot came from a place no one expected, an old calculator lying around the shop. We cracked it open to see how it generated those crisp black digits. It was LCD. We held the screen over some printed text, and it blocked it completely.

That moment was a turning point.

If we could scale it up, shape it, and engineer it correctly, we’d have the perfect medium for controlled visibility.

But once again, scaling introduced new problems.

Solving What No One Else Could

As the screen got larger, we realized that the light still leaked through. So we focused on optimizing the liquid crystal density per square centimeter. Through trial, error, and extensive R&D, we found the correct ratio to ensure the screen fully blacked out at all angles, a problem most of our competitors still haven’t solved.

Once the screen tech was stable, we began iterating on coatings, sizes, and clarity. Eventually, we developed our proprietary Nano coating, which not only minimized haze and reflection, it actually amplified plate visibility by creating a diffused backlight from ambient light.

Mounting Challenges and Reinvention

At first, our mounting system was overbuilt. It was a two-piece bracket: one part mounted to the car, the other held the screen with a plexiglass cover. It worked, but not for long.

- Expansion and contraction from temperature swings caused the plexiglass to flex and crack the screen.

- Dual layers of material introduced severe reflection and glare issues.

- A matte finish helped reduce this, but not enough. It still looked off.

We needed a cleaner, slimmer solution.

So we redesigned everything.

The Current Generation

Today’s Vanish Plate is the result of years of refinement:

- Slim iPhone-like bezel for minimal visibility and maximum screen space

- No external cover, the LCD mounts directly to the housing

- Universal rear mounting point, using a proprietary TPU bracket made from high-grade Bayer material (Germany)

- Nano-coated screen for optimal clarity and reduced glare

- Improved viewing angles and enhanced brightness from light diffusion off the inner surface

Every design choice was made to eliminate failure points and enhance performance. We engineered this from scratch, and that’s why we understand it better than anyone else in the market.

 

What’s Next

We’re not done.

With each batch, we refine materials, improve clarity, and optimize power systems. New accessories, features, and versions are already in development. We’re not a drop-ship brand selling someone else’s idea. We’re building the future of car tech, piece by piece.

Vusi Studios