Tag: anti static air gun

Eliminating Injection Molding Particulate In Secondary Operations

Published on by EricKuhnash@EXAIR.comLeave a comment
Some applications call for a fixed-in-place solution, like the (above, from left) Super Ion Air Knife, Super Ion Air Wipe, Ion Air Jet, and Ion Air Cannon.) Others are best suited to the hand-held convenience of the Ion Air Gun

My career has always involved working with customers and helping problem solve to success. Back in the early 90’s, I was talking with a customer and asked their buyer what his worst job was with regard to price, scrap and overall headache and if he would let me quote it for him. He then showed me a car horn button assembly for a well known automaker. He just sourced this job out, but his current supplier could not make the daily rates, was overpriced and lacked consistent quality. He said if I could meet his objectives that he had other business coming up that he would let us bid and consider us as a new supplier.

I left my customer with the part drawing, yes part drawing because this was before our company had CAD, and we had to hand calculate everything for a quote, oh the good ole days. So I went back and had a discussion with my tooling engineer. We devised a system to manufacture this horn button assembly with a vertical molding machine and incorporate a hot stamp in the mold then assemble at the turntable. After this discussion we hit the Thomas Registry back then known as “Green Books” to find reputable vertical molding machines that would incorporate a rotating table for this operation.

Upon visiting 5 machine manufactures and 3 hot stamp suppliers we made our decisions and completed our quote all within 2 weeks, can you believe 2 weeks was a fast turnaround for a complex quote back then? Green books, part drawings, no cell phones, no GPS, no Internet, but I believe we did have a fax machine back then. So off we went on a three-day road trip to visit our suppliers of choice. We quickly made decisions and confirmed our pricing with our customer. He thought we were crazy and asked us to reevaluate our pricing as we were way too low compared to his current supplier. We felt comfortable with our quote and said we do not need to evaluate, and our price was good. He then told us that our price eliminated 11 operators when compared to our competitor. The customer officially awarded us the project when we guaranteed our price and delivery.

We ordered our equipment, built our molds and assembled our hot stamp machine to the rotary table of the vertical injection molding machine. Within 6 weeks we were ready for our first trial, it was almost an instant success. We did not account for static issues before hot stamping the horn button face. We were seeing contaminants under the hot stamped products, so we went back to our “Green Books’ and found EXAIR right in our own backyard. We talked with EXAIR over the phone, and they directed us to their Ion Air Jet and said this was a perfect application for this project and was also a stock item. We were just 30 miles from EXAIR, so we jumped in our car to pick up the “Will Call” order. EXAIR helped us resolve the static issue all within the same day eliminating our 4.5% scrap rate and all within hours of our initial phone call to EXAIR.

We then asked our customer to visit and watch our run rate, so our buyer would feel comfortable with our quote, quality and production rate. He mentioned through the entire process that he did not think we could hold our price or meet the annual requirements of 480,000 sets (LH and RH). He was pleasantly surprised with our work and saw first hand that we had a system that gave him a good run at rate, quality and competitive price.

Ion Air Jet on a Stay set hose.

EXAIR’s GEN 4 Ion Air Jet delivers a concentrated airflow that can cover a precise spot without disturbing other areas. This quiet, focused airstream provides incredibly fast static decay rates and cleaning ability. The EXAIR Ion Air Jet made a nice addition to the impressive engineering that went into this horn button assembly project.

Our customer was impressed with the solution, and it helped them keep their customer happy. Ultimately, we were able to get significant, future business from this customer. Without the help of EXAIR having competent products in stock, we might not have had such a good outcome. If you have the need for static eliminating products and not sure which one is right for you, please contact one of our Application Engineers. We can suggest which static eliminator is best for your application, answer your questions and provide material to help you decide on the best course of action.

Eric Kuhnash
Application Engineer
E-mail: EricKuhnash@exair.com
Twitter: Twitter: @EXAIR_EK

Application Database: Super Ion Air Knife Provides Multiple Benefits For Hand Cleaner Producer

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

When plain old soap & water just don’t do the trick, there are a number of hand cleaners available on the market to remove even the most stubborn dirt & grime. Some are lotion-like, and leave your skin moisturized. Others have abrasive grit, and don’t. They come in all sorts of containers, too, from small jars that you dip a portion from, to large jugs with pump dispensers. The latter is oftentimes found in industrial repair shops…and they’re made on the production line of a company who needed our help getting rid of static charge.

After the extrusion process, these jugs are conveyed through a series of prep stations before they’re labeled & filled. The static charge generated along the way was causing issues with labeling: it made them skew one way or the other, or wrinkle up at certain points, instead of being applied straight & smooth on the side of the jug.

Now, all it takes to generate a static charge is contact and separation of non-conductive surfaces. Every time a roller sent a jug moving on the conveyor, or a bumper changed its direction, the static charge built up. In most applications, the best place to remove static charge is right before it becomes a problem. There was a tunnel immediately prior to the labeling station that was an ideal location to install a Static Eliminator…so they did.

Non-conductive materials “trade” electrons when they contact & separate, resulting in a static charge on both surfaces.

The tunnel was 29″ wide inside, so this was a great fit for a Model 112224 24″ Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Kit. Blowing ionized air across the jugs as they moved through the tunnel eliminated the static charge, and their label problems.

Super Ion Air Knives come in lengths from 3″ to 108″. Kits include a Shim Set, Filter Separator, Pressure Regulator, and Power Supply.

They also noted an additional benefit: this wasn’t a huge problem, but occasionally, a jug would have some plastic chips or shavings clinging to it. Those would get rejected during quality inspection…they’d have to remove those labels and put them back in the line. Again, it wasn’t a huge problem, and was within their quality tolerances…but they went to ZERO after they started using the Super Ion Air Knife.

If you’ve got a problem with static charge, EXAIR has a variety of solutions that’ll take of them, and perhaps even others. Through the end of February 2023, we’ll even give you a free AC Sensor with any qualifying Static Eliminator Product purchase. Give me a call if you’d like to find out more.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Ionizing Points for Static Elimination Without Airflow

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I almost wore three socks this morning: one on each foot, and one inside the sleeve of my shirt. I don’t know if it got in there through the agitation & spin of the washing machine, or the tumbling action in the dryer, but I know how it stayed there through the removal from the dryer, folding, and placing in my shirt drawer: static charge. This was evident from the ‘snap, crackle, and pop’ it made when I pulled it out.

Static charge is all around us. It’s mildly annoying in the clothes we pull from the dryer or the packing peanuts we can’t shake from our hands when unpacking from that new whatever-I-just-ordered from that website. It’s surprisingly uncomfortable when we touch the light switch after walking across a carpeted floor. And it’s terrifying when a lightning bolt hits so close that there’s no discernible delay for the thunder.

It’s also prevalent in many industrial processes: molding, trimming, wrapping (or unwrapping), bag & bottle filling, printing…just to name a few. Some materials are more prone to it than others, but all it takes is contact, and separation, of non-conductive surfaces to generate a static charge. The faster and/or more frequent the contact & separation, the higher the charge, and oftentimes there’s no better way to build up static electricity than sliding or rubbing those surfaces together.

EXAIR has a wide variety of Static Eliminator solutions: Super Ion Air Knives for webs or sheets up to 9 feet in width, Ion Air Cannons or Jets for more focused, conical ionized air blowing, Ion Air Guns for handheld operations, Super Ion Air Wipes for tube, pipe, extruded shapes, etc., and Intellistat Ion Air Guns & Nozzles for laboratory or clean room situations. Two of our Static Eliminator Products – Ionizing Bars & Ionizing Points – require no compressed air at all for operation, and one of those is the point (‘pun intended’ or ‘spoiler alert’ – you decide) of today’s blog.

The EXAIR Gen4 Ionizing Point is compact, versatile, and easy to install. It’s perfect for applications where even a light breeze worth of air flow would be disruptive or problematic. It’s also great for ionizing an existing air flow, like in a blower duct or air conveyance line. If limited space is a problem, it’s got the smallest footprint of just about any static eliminator on the market.

The EXAIR Model 8199 Gen4 Ionizing Point packs a LOT of static elimination in a small package.

They have impressive static dissipation performance as well, as seen in the table below. The only maintenance that’s required is a periodic cleaning of the emitter point (with the Power Supply OFF, using a soft bristled, dry brush). Should the emitter point become fouled, it can also be easily replaced.

If you’ve got problems with static charge, EXAIR has a comprehensive offering of solutions…give me a call to find out more.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Intellistat: EXAIR’s Newest Static Eliminating Juggernaut

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

EXAIR’s Intellistat Ion Air Gun and Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle have both earned a Class 5 Clean room Rating making them ideal for static elimination in clean rooms for sensitive processes. There are manufacturing processes that require certain cleanliness standards for operation, such as scientific research, solar panel manufacturing or biotechnology industries. This means that any tool or material you use in this process has to meet a certain standard. EXAIR’s Intellistat was engineered to do just that.

  • 8505 Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle
  • 8500 Intellistat Ion Air Gun

The Intellistat Ion Air Gun is a patented handheld air gun for static elimination in sterile environments and clean rooms. This lightweight tool provides rapid static decay with a simple squeeze of a short-throw trigger reducing 5,000 volts to 500 in under second. Furthering the Intellistat’s utility, it has now been awarded the ISO 14644-1 Class 5 rating for clean rooms and controlled environments making it the perfect tool for electronics manufacturing, testing facilities and laboratories.

Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle: The Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle boasts the same abilities as the Intellistat ion air gun above, however this system comes on an easily adjustable bracket to aim and lock into place for hands off operation. It’s also been awarded the ISO 14644-1 Class 5 rating for clean rooms and controlled environments making it the perfect tool for electronics manufacturing, testing facilities and laboratories.

The Intellistat product offering is the ideal solution for static elimination in your sensitive processes. Learn more about the Intellistat’s as well as the rest of EXAIR’s large line of static elimination products at www.EXAIR.com or by contacting any of our Application Engineers.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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