Right. The press release claims it's being used on some Airbus 350, but that may just mean "we treated a small part of the wing so we can see what happens".
Fragility is a big problem with most of these microsurface treatments. There's the "Never Wet" treatment you can buy now; it's a two-component paint that hardens into tiny points to which water cannot adhere. Works great when new, wears out easily. It has to be the top surface or it won't work, so there's no way to protect it.
Same for that "ultra black" material. OK for camera interiors and other protected optical systems, too fragile to expose.
Amusingly, a common laser process for steel does exactly the opposite of this anti-icing process. The idea is to roughen the surface for painting, but in a regular way. Same effect as sandblasting, but because the pattern is regular, you get a smoother paint surface and don't have to sand the primer layer. Used in auto manufacturing.
Fragility is a big problem with most of these microsurface treatments. There's the "Never Wet" treatment you can buy now; it's a two-component paint that hardens into tiny points to which water cannot adhere. Works great when new, wears out easily. It has to be the top surface or it won't work, so there's no way to protect it.
Same for that "ultra black" material. OK for camera interiors and other protected optical systems, too fragile to expose.
Amusingly, a common laser process for steel does exactly the opposite of this anti-icing process. The idea is to roughen the surface for painting, but in a regular way. Same effect as sandblasting, but because the pattern is regular, you get a smoother paint surface and don't have to sand the primer layer. Used in auto manufacturing.