Tag: static dissipation

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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Super Ion Air Knives Remove Static, Improve Bottle Cap Production

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

The leaves have all fallen. The sky, more often than not, is dreary. My winter coat is officially part of the “uniform of the day”. And I got shocked by the laundry room doorknob yesterday. All this means that winter is upon us (here in the Northern Hemisphere anyway), and as far as EXAIR is concerned, it’s “static season”. We’re seeing a definite uptick in the numbers of conversations we’re having about static charge-related issues…and solutions that we can provide.

I had the pleasure of speaking to a caller, last month, who works for the US division of a global manufacturer of bottle caps. A machine that sorts & orients plastic caps was particularly prone to static charge problems last winter, causing a marked decrease in their production, and they wanted to get out in front of the problem this year:

As the caps travel horizontally (white arrows), they pass under a static bar (supplied by the machine manufacturer) which provided some reduction in static charge, but was unable to keep up with the higher magnitudes of static charge experienced during the lower humidity winter months. Bottle caps (right) would pile up, slowing production.
A Model 112230 30″ Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Kit replaced the OEM static bar, resulting in dramatic improvement…no more piling up of bottle caps.

The increased static charge (beyond the OEM static bar’s ability to handle) reduced production by 1/3. The Super Ion Air Knife restored operation to full capacity for this machine…and three others, once they saw the results of the first one.

If static charge is causing you problems with dust clinging to your product, your product clinging to itself, sheets mis-feeding, materials jamming, tearing, or curling, or nuisance shocks to operators, EXAIR has a variety of safe and efficient Static Eliminator solutions. To find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Cleans Art!

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

I took a phone call recently from an artist who applies thin colored films to glass sheets. He then uses several panes of that colored glass to build beautiful simplistic art installations! They are so clean and clear every angle you look through you get a different color and view you wouldn’t expect. But he was having a problem, these sheets of glass were building a large static charge and making every bit of dust and dirt stick to the surface. They were spending countless hours painstakingly cleaning every panel of glass because one spec of dirt would ruin the end goal.

Colored Glass Walk Way

Originally they called in to look at the Super Air Knife, which is good to remove dirt, dust and debris – but does not eliminate static if that debris were to be held on to the glass with static. His idea was to poor water on the glass then use the Super Air Knife to blow the water off, messy but they were hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Getting rid of the static and cleaning the glass all at once. He was excited when I told him about out our GEN4 Super ION Air Knife! It would have the ability to neutralize the static charge and blow away any debris clinging to the surface.

The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife floods an area or surface with static eliminating ions. With a uniform airflow across its length, misalignment to critical surfaces, like a web, is avoided.  The force can be adjusted from a light breeze, to a full out blast of air. The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife is electrically powered, is shockless and has no moving parts.

How It Works

gen4siak_hwrks_800x
How The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Works

In the diagram above, compressed air flows through an inlet (1) into the plenum chamber of the Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife. The flow is directed to a precise, slotted orifice. As the primary airflow exits, it creates a uniform sheet of air across the entire length, pulling in in surrounding air (2). An electrically powered Gen4 Ionizing Bar (3) fills the curtain of air with positive and negative charges. The air stream delivers the static eliminating ions to the product surface (4) where it instantly neutralizes static and cleans off dust and other particulates.

The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knives are powerful tools, and very quickly dissipates 5kV of static even at low compressed air supply pressures. At 5 PSIG, only 3.7 SCFM (0.3 BAR, only 105 SLPM) of compressed air per foot of length is required!!  Sound levels are also very low, resulting in quiet operation.

super ion air knife performance

Added Features –

  • Compressed Air Inlets are provided on each end and the bottom of the Super Air Knife
  • Thicker shims can be installed easily if more force is needed.
  • Emitter points are durable stainless steel
  • The high voltage cable is armored to resist cuts and abrasion, and has integral grounding.  Threaded bayonet connector is fully assembled and ready to use
  • Electromagnetically shield cable protects sensitive electronics
  • Gen4 Ionizing Bars and Power Supplies are UL Component Recognized to U.S and Canadian safety standards and are CE and RoHS compliant
  • Power Supplies are 115/230 VAC selectable and come with 2 or 4 outlets
  • Standard lengths from 3″ to 108″ (76mm to 2743mm) are offered, and custom lengths are available to meet your process needs

Successful applications include web cleaning, pre-paint dust removal, shrink wrapper machinery, printing equipment, package cleaning,and bag opening/filling operations.

If you have questions about Gen4 Super Ion Air Knives, other types of Static Elimination products,  or any of the 16 different EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air® Product lines, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or any of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Image courtesy of Jared Yeh Rainbow Panorama, Creative Commons License Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Static Eliminator Selection Example

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I like jigsaw puzzles. I start with the outside…there’s something to be said for establishing the boundaries of any project…but I don’t necessarily work my way in from there. Oftentimes, a number of same-colored pieces go together quickly, and I make a little part of the big picture somewhere in the middle. If it’s a big enough picture and/or if there’s a sufficient number of pieces, I might get a few of those little parts going on, until some of them get joined together. Once that happens, the big picture develops faster & faster, and before I know it, the puzzle is solved.

As an Application Engineer for EXAIR, a jigsaw puzzle is an apt analogy for assisting a customer in selecting the right solution to an application. A recent situation proved what a good analogy this is: a caller from a custom label making shop needed to eliminate static from a bunch of thin Mylar film that was die cut into special little shapes so they could be laid out in specific arrangements. You know…like a jigsaw puzzle!

Now, there aren’t many better ways to generate a static charge than doing ANYTHING to Mylar. The magnitude of static charge created by the cutting process is downright vicious. As difficult as it was to put the first piece in place, it was IMPOSSIBLE to keep it there when they put the NEXT piece down adjacent to it. Same thing with the piece after that, and the piece after that, etc. They needed something to remove the static, and that something turned out to be an EXAIR Ion Air Knife. By installing a Model 8106 6″ Gen4 Standard Ion Air Knife along one side, they were able to gently blow a ‘whisper’ of ionized air that moved the freshly cut pieces from the die cutter’s platen so the operator could then lay them out to make the desired label design.

Gen4 Standard Ion Air Knife

So, how did we arrive at the Gen4 Standard Ion Air Knife? Wouldn’t the more efficient & quieter Super Ion Air Knife be the “go to” solution? In an awful lot of cases, it certainly is. A couple of things made the Standard Ion Air Knife more attractive here:

Profile-wise, a Gen4 Standard Ion Air Knife takes up less than half the space of a Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife.
  • Compressed air consumption: if this were an application for a continuous 36″ wide ionized air curtain in a fast moving product application with a high static charge, we’d have talked about the difference in consumption, at a high pressure (like 80psig) for the two different Ion Air Knives:
    • 36″ Super Ion Air Knife: 104.4 SCFM, or 12,528,000 standard cubic feet per year*
    • 36″ Standard Ion Air Knife: 123 SCFM, or 15,350,400 standard cubic feet per year*

*Eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year. Assuming a compressed air cost of $0.25 per 1,000 standard cubic feet, that’s an operating cost difference of:

(15,350,400 – 12,528,000) SCF X $0.25/1,000 SCF = $705.60 per year.

  • In this case, though, it’s a 6″ Ion Air Knife, blowing a short puff of ionized air a few times a minute, at about 5psig supply pressure…anything more would blow those small mylar pieces all over the place:
    • 6″ Super Ion Air Knife: 1.85 SCFM, or 23,088 standard cubic feet per year*
    • 6″ Standard Ion Air Knife: 1.5 SCFM, or 18,720 standard cubic feet per year*

*Three 2-second cycles per minute, eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year. Assuming a compressed air cost of $0.25 per 1,000 standard cubic feet, that’s an operating cost difference of:

(23,088 – 18,720) SCF X $0.25/1,000 SCF = $1.09 per year.

  • Sound level: again, this would be a prime consideration if they were operating at higher supply pressures. But, at the lower pressure necessitated by this application, the Standard Ion Air Knife’s 66dBA, a second or two at a time, is hardly noticeable.
  • Price: The purchase price (2021 pricing) of the Standard Ion Air Knife was ~17% less than the Super Ion Air Knife. Normally, we’ll talk about the operating cost…but not when the difference (see above) is just over a buck a year.
  • Air flow pattern: Since a curtain of ionized air was a good fit for this application, an Ion Air Knife (Super or Standard) was the logical choice. If a more concentrated flow was called for, we’d have used an Ion Air Cannon or Ion Air Jet. If they were looking for something handheld, a Gen4 Ion Air Gun or Intellistat Ion Air Gun would have been offered. For static dissipation on the entire circumference or perimeter of a part, we’d have talked about a Super Ion Air Wipe. The size & shape of the air flow, in fact, is frequently where we “start the negotiations” on product selection…sort of analogous to starting with the outside border pieces of a jigsaw puzzle!

EXAIR Corporation has a broad range of Static Eliminators, that are just one part of our diverse offering of Intelligent Compressed Air Products. If you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers…give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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Jigsaw Puzzle (detail) photo courtesy of James Petts Creative Commons License