Tag: Ion Air Jet

Do I need a Gen4 Ion Air Jet or Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle?

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EXAIR has been making a comprehensive line of Static Eliminators for decades. Like any air blowing application, the first consideration in selection is the size & shape of the airflow that’s needed to get the job done. If you’re looking for a tight, focused airflow, we have four products to choose from: a Gen4 Ion Air Gun or Ion Air Jet, or an Intellistat Ion Air Gun or Ion Air Nozzle. So, the next step in selection is whether you want something operated by hand, or mounted in place:

The Ion Air Guns are just hand held & operated versions of the Ion Air Jets/Nozzles.

From there, it’s all about where you’re going to use it, and for what. First, let’s talk about the environment:

  • First off, neither of these can be used around flammable materials or gases. If you need a static eliminator for those kinds of areas, call us and we’ll provide some leads based on your specific requirements.
  • If you’re going to use it in a laboratory or cleanroom environment, the Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle is the clear choice, hands down. It has an ISO 14644-1 Class 5 Cleanroom classification. The stainless steel mounting bracket makes installation & positioning quick & easy.
  • For more industrial environments, consider the compact and rugged construction of the Gen4 Ion Air Jet. They have 1/8 NPT threads for the compressed air connection, and a 5ft cable to attach to the Power Supply. We can also provide them with Stay Set Hoses & Magnetic Bases for ease of mounting & positioning.

Then, details about the nature of the application will be considered:

  • To prevent nuisance shocks to personnel that have to handle the material, you can likely use either. The Gen4 Ion Air Jet DOES have a faster static dissipation rate: 0.18 seconds to dissipate 5,000V, but the Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle can dissipate the charge from 5,000 to 500V in 0.6 seconds. Either way, you need at least 2,000-3,000V for a noticeable ‘zap’ so if the charge is EXTREMELY high, AND you don’t have any more than a second or two, then we can make a case for the Gen4 Ion Air Jet. Otherwise, the environment is the deciding factor.
  • If you need to get the static charge to as low of a level as possible, the balanced ionized air stream from the Intellistat’s +/- 30V offset means it can reliably reduce the static charge to 100V or less, regardless of the material and where it falls on the triboelectric series. This is going to be especially important when you’re trying to prevent damage or faulty operation of sensitive electronics, for instance.
  • Some applications require not only ionized air, but a fairly strong flow of it. We did an Efficiency Lab test for a snack food maker recently where they need to blow open a plastic bag with a gusset on the bottom and set it upright on a conveyor. They also need it to remain open so they can fill it, so they need ionized air to remove static charge. The Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle blew the bag open and dissipated the static charge just fine, but it didn’t have the flow & force necessary to expand the gusset so the bag would sit upright. The Gen4 Ion Air Jet did it every time, though.

No matter what you need to remove static from, EXAIR can help. If you’d like to discuss your application and product selection, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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The All-Around (Literally) Best Answer For Static Elimination: EXAIR Gen4 Super Ion Air Wipe

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Static charge is a surface phenomenon, which means it has to be addressed on the entire surface that it’s causing a problem on. For sheets, plates, films — anything that’s flat and stacked or rolled, really — EXAIR Gen4 Super Ion Air Knives are a popular solution. They generate a laminar, even curtain of ionized air that’ll dissipate the static charge on a surface up to 9 feet wide quietly, effectively…and quickly. For smaller pieces & parts, we’ve got Ion Air Jets and Ion Air Cannons that create a more focused stream of ionized air. For portability, the Gen4 Ion Air Gun is essentially a handheld version of the Ion Air Jet.

For pipe, hose, tube, wire, cable, extruded or molded continuous strands…anything that needs static elimination on all sides, really…EXAIR Super Ion Air Wipes are a great fit. They generate a uniform 360° ionized airflow to eliminate static on the surface of those kinds of products. They come in two sizes: one with a 2″ inside diameter, and one with a 4″ inside diameter. The split clamp design means you don’t have to ‘thread’ the material through…you simply undo the latch on one side and fit it back around the material or part. 

360° blow off AND fast, efficient static dissipation: EXAIR Super Ion Air Wipe.
Gen4 Super Ion Air Wipe

Both of the photos above show Super Ion Air Wipes used for plastic hose — and that is indeed a VERY popular application for them. They’re also successfully used for tubing, wire, pipe, extrusions, anything that can pass through the 2″ or 4″ inside diameter & needs to have static charge removed from it.

If you have problems with static charge, EXAIR has solutions. Give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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RoHS, EXAIR, And You

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The 20th century was an amazing time for technological advances. In just 70 years, the science & engineering communities went from believing that powered flight was impossible, to actually powering a flight that took three astronauts all the way to the Moon…and back. In the 50 years or so since then, the computers with the power required for space travel went from needing a whole room, to being able to fit on our desks, and eventually, our pockets.

All three of these: a state of the art computer from 1962 (left), the desktop computer I’m writing this blog on (middle), and a smart phone being used for its most popular function (right) all have about the same amount of computing power, believe it or not. (full disclosure: I believe it because I used my smart phone to look that up on the internet)

Along with these amazing advances in technology came exponential increases in the materials it takes to make devices like desktop (or laptop) computers and smart phones…and some of those materials don’t get along well at all with the environment, and by extension, those of us who live in said environment. This doesn’t normally matter as long as those materials are housed inside an operating computer or cell phone (or myriad other electronic devices), but it DOES become a concern when they’re disposed of. When stuff like that ends up in landfills, for instance, it has a bad habit of making its way into the water table…and that’s not good for anyone.

In 2002, the European Union (EU) started pursuing legislation to restrict the use of certain hazardous substances, to get out ahead of disposal issues by keeping them out of products from the very beginning. This led to the creation & implementation of the RoHS Directive. It’s been revised, amended, and updated over the years, because it turns out there are no viable substitutes for SOME of those substances in SOME situations. Among these exceptions:

  • Mercury is used extensively in a number of energy efficient CFL light bulbs and fluorescent tubes, so there are exemptions for that, and it works because there’s a whole industry devoted to the proper recycling of these products.
  • My personal favorite is the specific exclusion for lead in the manufacture of pipe organs. Seems that the lead based alloy that’s been used for centuries is critical to the tonal qualities of the sound that the pipes produce. Since disposal rates of these are negligible (the use of this alloy is one of the reasons they LAST for centuries), pipe organ pipes don’t have to be RoHS compliant.

Compliance with the RoHS Directive is so important to EXAIR, it’s part of our Sustainability Plan. All of our products that are subject to the Directive have certificates of compliance (available upon request) that document their compliance. Per the specifics of the Directive, these are comprised of certain products in our Optimization, Static Eliminators, and Cabinet Cooler System product lines:

  • Optimization:
    • EFC Electronic Flow Control Systems
    • Digital Flowmeters
    • Digital Sound Level Meters
    • Ultrasonic Leak Detectors
  • Static Eliminators:
    • Super Ion Air Knives
    • Standard Ion Air Knives
    • Ionizing Bars
    • Super Ion Air Wipes
    • Ion Air Cannons
    • Ion Air Guns
    • Ion Air Jets
    • Power Supplies
    • Intellistat Ion Air Guns
    • Intellistat Ion Air Nozzles
    • Static Meters
  • Cabinet Cooler System products:
    • Electronic Temperature Control Systems
    • Thermostats & Capacitors
    • Solenoid Valves

These are all of our products that are electrical or electronic in nature. Our broad line of engineered compressed air products are not subject to the Directive, as they have no electrical or electronic components. We DO make sure these comply with other regulatory directives, as applicable, such as:

  • Conflict Mineral Free: All compressed air products
  • CE: All products
  • UL: Static Eliminators and Cabinet Cooler Systems are UL Listed, HazLoc Cabinet Cooler Systems are UL Classified
  • ATEX: These are a brand new line (as of this writing) of Cabinet Cooler products

If you’d like to find out more about EXAIR’s commitment to compliance with any of these standards or directives, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Static Eliminator Product Configurations

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I recently had the pleasure of discussing an Ion Air Jet application with an engineer at a company that makes medical devices. They needed to remove static charge, and statically clung dust, from certain parts as they’re being packaged and sealed. Because of the specific geometry of the parts, they wanted to use two Model 8194 Gen4 Ion Air Jets, aimed directly at the geometric features of the part where the clinging dust was most problematic. The engineer started the conversation with questions about two Model 8494 Gen4 Ion Air Jet Kits, and was quite pleased when I recommended only one Kit, and an additional Ion Air Jet.

The Model 7960 Gen4 Power Supply that comes with the Kit has two ports, so it can be used to energize any two EXAIR Gen4 Static Eliminators. That’s two Ion Air Jets, two 3″ Super Ion Air Knives, two 108″ Super Ion Air Knives, one Super Ion Air Knife and one Ion Air Gun, etc.

The only exception is our Super Ion Air Wipes, which come in two sizes: 2″ and 4″ (left). Since they have two emitter points and hence, two cables, they’ll use both ports on the 2-Outlet Model 7960 Power Supply (right). If you want to run two of them (or one of them and any two other Static Eliminators), you’ll want the 4-Outlet Model 7961 Power Supply (far right).

Why would you need more than one Static Eliminator? Well, the most popular answer comes from the fact that static charge is a surface phenomenon. You can expose one side of a statically charged film to ionization all day long, and it won’t change the static charge that resides on the other side one bit. Super Ion Air Knives and Ionizing Bars are oftentimes operated in pairs for this very reason.

Two Gen4 Ionizing Bars + one Power Supply = Static elimination on both sides.

It also may be necessary to eliminate static, on the same material, more than once. Remember, all it takes to develop a static charge is contact & separation of non-conductive materials. I worked with a user once who had a machine that die cut shapes from a sheet of open cell foam…similar to the stuff that you wrap fragile items in for moving or transport, but a little thicker. Anyway, this foam sheet came off the roll with enough static charge to make it bunch up instead of moving smoothly into the cutting chamber, so it passed through an “over/under” pair of Ionizing Bars (similar to the photo above). Then, the die cutting caused enough static charge to make the pieces stick to the dies (think “cookie cutters” because that’s EXACTLY what they looked like), so two strategically aimed Ion Air Cannons were used to blow the “cookies” into the collection bin at the outlet of the machine. It was pretty compact (the foam sheet was only 10″ wide, and the “cookies” were “bite sized”) so all four Static Eliminators were energized from one Model 7961 4-Outlet Power Supply.

The “one Super Ion Air Knife and one Ion Air Gun” that I mentioned earlier is another popular answer to that question. The laminar, even flow from a Super Ion Air Knife is ideal for sweeping across a flat surface, but if there are any features to your statically charged material that might be “hidden” from the Super Ion Air Knife’s curtain, another dedicated device can be used for static elimination and blow off from those areas.

EXAIR Gen4 Static Eliminators have 5ft (1.52 meters) cables, except for Ion Air Guns, which have 10ft (3 meters) cables. As long as the cables will reach the Power Supply, you’re in business. If the Static Eliminators will be farther away than that, though, you don’t necessarily have to use separate Power Supplies for them. We can make any Static Eliminator with a custom length cable, up to 50ft (15 meters) in length.

If static charge is causing you problems, we’ve got solutions. To find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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