Thermo-Wash

Pete Phillips, a production supervisor in a large plastics company was beginning to seriously think
about the possibility of profiting from a gadget he had recently designed and prototyped. The idea
stemmed from his annoyance at the poor cleaning job done by his car’s windshield washer in the first
minutes in extreme cold conditions. The winter was a mess up here and the windshield was hard to
clean in cold weather, especially when splashed with salt laden dirt and moisture. It inevitably ended
up streaky even though Pete always used the best windshield washer solvent he could find.

Pete realized that if the washer fluid could be heated quicker it would dissolve the salt and dirt much
more easily and the windshield would clean and dry faster. Being a practical fellow, he put together a
device to heat the washer fluid, and installed it in his own car and found it worked exceeding well. Over
the winter, in fact, he made a dozen or so of these devices and installed them in vehicles of some
family and friends. All of them were enthusiastic about the functionality of the device, a few noted
concern over slight leaks in the system.

The gadget, which he had tentatively dubbed the “Thermo-Wash” consisted of a rigid plastic cylinder 10
inches long and 3.5 inches in diameter. Inside this outer cylinder is a smaller inner cylinder. The
washer fluid goes from the reservoir under the hood through the small inner cylinder and then out to the
windshield wipers. The washer fluid is heated by the hot radiator fluid which passes through the larger
outer cylinder and circulates back to the radiator. The hot radiator fluid heats the washer fluid inside
the inner cylinders.

To install the “Thermo-Wash” a little more than 10 inches had to be removed from the tube connecting
the windshield fluid reservoir to the nozzles for the windshield wipers. The “Thermo-Wash” would then
be inserted in this space. A narrow hose would be attached to and from the radiator to allow for the
hot radiator fluid to circulate through the outer cylinder.

Pete visited a patent lawyer and was told the design could probably be patented. The lawyer pointed
out however that someone could reverse engineer it fairly easily and that another design approach to
the same problem could be marketed by someone else, and the patent would be of little help in
preventing this from happening.

Looking at his resources, Pete thought he had the means to proceed. His younger brother Bud was
“between jobs” right now and had time to devote to the project. Bud was a bright young man with an
engaging personality, but he had recently lost his sales jobs when his employer (office furniture) had
gone bankrupt.

In addition, Pete spoke to his manager and he was supportive and encouraged Pete to use the facilities
at the plastics company to produce another prototype version of the device. The plastics company
would be open to producing the “Thermo-Wash” device since they were in the plastic molding field
already, but his manger wasn’t sure that they would be interest in marketing it because they were
devoted to large industrial application

Both Pete and Bud had recently inherited $50,000 each from the death of a relative. Bud agreed to put
his share together with Pete to finance the next steps. The thought they had a good idea, an
interesting opportunity, some money, available manpower and production facilities, what was next?

This case was adapted from the original “Thermo-Wash” case by Ronald J. Abraira (2019) as a basis for class
discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation.