Tag: static control bar

Localized Static Elimination with EXAIR’s Gen4 Ion Air Jet

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

EXAIR’s Gen4 Ion Air Jet is a compact ionizer that is capable of delivering a concentrated ionized airflow. This is particularly critical in sensitive applications where a large area of airflow could disturb the process or surrounding materials. The quiet, focused air stream can quickly eliminate the static charge on surfaces. At a pressure of 80 psig, the Ion Air Jet is capable of dissipating a 5kV charge in just 0.18 seconds!

In addition to providing rapid static decay, the Ion Air Jet also helps to minimize compressed air use while maximizing the ionizing airflow. Utilizing a specially designed shim, the Ion Air Jet entrains ambient air at a rate of 5:1. The Ion Air Jet can be adjusted from a “blast” to a “breeze” simply by increasing or decreasing the inlet pressure going to the ionizer.

The Ion Air Jet can be used in both fixed, permanent solutions and those that will require frequent re-positioning. For applications requiring a fixed position of the ionizer, the compact Gen4 Ion Air Jet is an ideal solution. It’s lightweight and easy to install with the 1/8 NPT male inlet. For applications where the positioning of the ionizer may need to be adjusted, look to the flexible Gen4 Stay Set Ion Air Jet. Utilizing a Stay Set Hose, The Gen4 Stay Set Ion Air Jet can be frequently adjusted to focus the air stream on a specific area. The hose will maintain rigidity and will not creep or bend, making it an ideal solution when accommodating different parts. The Gen4 Stay Set Ion Air Jet comes with a strong magnetic base that allows for easy mounting and portability. The 8910 Instant Blowoff Station is another option that includes the Gen4 Stay Set Ion Air Jet, power supply, foot pedal, and compressed air hoses for applications that can benefit from hands-free operation.

Cold weather is still upon us. With colder temperatures come lower levels of humidity. With lower humidity comes an increase in static problems. Don’t let static hold you down. Whether it’s cleaning glass jars, removing dust from plastic medical components in a clean-room operation, or keeping a laser lens clean to eliminate false readings, EXAIR has the solution to keep you running smoothly.

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

Press Release: New Varistat Benchtop Ionizer

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

At EXAIR, when something notable happens, our Marketing folks like to make a big splash for our customers with a Press Release. The latest one is all about one of the latest additions to our Static Eliminators Product Line: the Varistat Benchtop Ionizer.

Click above to get ALL the details!

Common topics of Press Releases include the introduction of a new product (like our 1/2 NPT Hollow Cone Liquid Nozzles for Cooling and Washing), the release of new media (like our New Air Atomizing Spray Nozzle Video), expanded certification of existing products (like the Upgraded Certification for our NEMA 4 Cabinet Cooler products), or when someone achieves a major industry-related accreditation (like when I got my Certified Compressed Air Systems Specialist certificate from the Compressed Air & Gas Institute). The Varistat is a similarly big deal, for some unique reasons:

  • It’s our first air blowing product that’s NOT compressed air operated. We do still take pride in being THE industry experts for quiet, safe, and efficient compressed air products, but with a couple of decades worth of expertise in static elimination, the Varistat rounds out our comprehensive line of Static Eliminators.
  • It’s also our first Static Eliminator with the ability to balance the polarity of ionization of the air flow. That means you can get more positive ions (and fewer negative ions), or more negative ions (and fewer positive ions). This is done by pressing the “+” or “-” polarity buttons on the top:
Blue lights to either side indicate the relative concentration of positive or negative ions generated. If none of the blue lights are lit (the green light simply indicates the unit is on), then a high concentration of both positive and negative ions is being generated.

Simple setup, simple operation…what more could you ask for? If you’d like to find out more about the Varistat Benchtop Ionizer – or any of our Static Eliminator Products – give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Active vs Passive Static Elimination

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

When static is an issue, there are two primary ways to eliminate it – Active Static Elimination, and Passive Static Elimination. But which method is better? To answer this, we need to know the difference between them:

Passive Static Elimination, as the name suggests, removes static passively. It is often in the form of a bare wire, or some type of conductive material like copper, which is used to provide a path for the static charge to dissipate. The advantages of this are that once it is in place you can forget about it (kind-of – we’ll come back to this). This type of static elimination doesn’t use any power, and has basically no operating cost. The downside to this solution is that the conductive material needs to be in contact, often dragging along the surface. This means that the eliminators can wear down over time, leading to them needing to be replaced (so you can’t quite forget about it!). If your product is delicate, then the contact from the eliminator can damage the surface. Additionally, passive eliminators are likely to collect dust and debris, which may be transferred to your product. Finally, a passive eliminator will have a difficult time making contact with shapes of varying size and complexity.

Static Eliminators

Active static elimination, such as the static eliminator product line from EXAIR, offer a variety of ways to eliminate the static on a surface without ever touching the product. Right away, this overcomes the downsides of passive eliminators just mentioned. If your product has a complex shape, the ionized airflow from many of our Gen4 products can be directed to contact every part of it. Without direct contact, active static elimination isn’t going to damage the surface either. There is also no concern about contamination of the product. In fact, our compressed air operated line of static eliminators are fantastic at removing dust and debris from a surface. Finally, our active static elimination products are not going to wear out over time the same way a Passive solution will.

On top of these great benefits, EXAIR will honor a 30-day guarantee to test our products in your facility.  As well as honor a 5 year built to last warranty on compressed air products and a 1-year warranty on any electrical component.

If you have an issue with static that you would like to discuss, please give us a call.

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Handheld Cleaning of Parts In A Clean Room

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

A few years ago, we released a handheld ionizer like no ionizer EXAIR has made before. The Intellistat Ion Air Gun was the first EXAIR product to carry a Clean room certification. The certification is for any rated Class 5 clean room and controlled environments per ISO 14644-1. This wasn’t the only revolutionary part of the Intellistat Ion Air Gun, it also used a 24VDC power transformer and had indicator lights to showcase proper operation or a malfunction. Most importantly of all, it can leave a balance of +/- 30 V.

Along with these functional benefits, we wanted the gun to be ergonomic and that includes a lightweight trigger pull along with an easy to use hook which permits users to easily store the gun when not in use. The entire ergonomic housing is of static-resistant polycarbonate while the replaceable emitter point is constructed of stainless steel. All of this leads to performance that speaks for the amount of design that went into this gun.

As shown in the table above, when utilizing the gun at 30 psig inlet pressure, it will only consume 2.7 SCFM all while still providing static-eliminating blowoff that will knock down a static charge on surfaces that the ionized air stream touches. 30 psig would be ideal for lightweight debris at inspection or packaging workstations where operators need to provide a final blowoff and remediation of static before the final seal of the package. If more force is needed, the unit can be operated all the way up to 125 psig inlet pressure. The Force/Discharge table below showcases that you can get up to .1 pounds of force out of the engineered nozzle on the Intellistat and that will dissipate a +/-1,000 V static charge to less than +/- 100 V charge within 0.6 seconds.

Being able to vary the amount of force with the operating pressure is nothing new to EXAIR compressed air products; this is one of the key benefits to the versatility of this gun. Being able to move it from a final inspection/packaging station that doesn’t require a lot of static removal or debris blowoff and then also being able to get into a production/assembly area where more force and static dissipation are needed, and you can utilize the same static eliminating gun at both.

If you want to discuss how the Intellistat Ion Air Gun can fill the need your static-ridden process has for blowoff and remediation, please contact an Application Engineer today.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF