Tag: static electricity control

Super Ion Air Knife Removes Static from Flour Packaging Process

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment
Static Eliminators
Static Eliminators

Recently I had the pleasure of working on an application with one of our South American distributors, AYRFUL. Their customer is an OEM manufacturer of packaging machines that deals with a variety of different industries in the region. They had a machine in the field operating in Argentina that was posing some issues for a company that processes flour.

Static was building up on the packaging material and was causing flour particles to stick to the outside of the package. If there was any residual flour stuck at the top of the bag after filling, it wouldn’t allow the package to seal properly. This would result in bags of flour that would be improperly sealed, this caused housekeeping issues as some would spill out, but also some of these bags have to be thrown out due to potential contamination.

SIAK web

They reached out to our distributor who was able to go see the application and confirmed that the static was causing the problem with a Model 7905 Static Meter. The web was 27” wide, making our Model 112030 30” Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife a near perfect fit. By placing the Super Ion Air Knife just prior to the filling operation, we were able to remove the static charge on the material and blow off any residual flour that was still stuck to the outside of the packaging. This immediately mitigated the static on the material and allowed for the packages to seal properly, resulting in a production improvement of almost 20%!!

We’re smack in the middle of winter here in the US with drier air causing an uptick in static problems across a wide variety of industrial processes. With a wide range of Static Eliminator solutions available from stock, EXAIR has the ability to solve your problem QUICKLY!

Get in touch with us via phone, chat, or e-mail and an Application Engineer will be happy to assist you in selecting the most suitable Static Eliminator based on the application.

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

Video Blog: Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Conversion

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The video below provides details on the simple conversion to the new Gen4 style Super Ion Air Knife from the previous style or the addition of a Gen4 Ionizing Bar to an existing Super Air Knife to add static elimination to an existing blow off.

If you have questions about the Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife 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.

Brian Bergmann
Application Engineer
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Twitter: @EXAIR_BB

EXAIR Webinar 11/7/18 2pm EDT: Understanding Static Electricity

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

Halloween has passed, temperatures are dropping, and you’ve had enough of constantly raking up leaves. It’s clear to everyone that summer is over (much to my dismay). As temperatures decline, so too does the amount of moisture in the air. As this happens, issues related to static electricity begin to increase. If you’ve ever walked across a carpeted surface, only to be shocked as soon as you touch a doorknob, you’re familiar with the effects of static electricity. In addition to painful shocks, static can contribute to a variety of problems within industrial processes.

We’ve talked here on the EXAIR blog about several of these different applications. Some examples include: removing static on plastic packaging, stopping dust from clinging to product, or aiding in part removal in an injection molding application. These types of applications can certainly occur year-round, but the absence of humid conditions dramatically increases the potential for them to occur.

summer static
In this photo, a static charge present causes the plastic particles to cling to the end of a suction wand.

They key to combating static electricity is first understanding how it it’s generated and how to test for it. To help you gain some more knowledge about static electricity and the problems it can cause, EXAIR is hosting a FREE webinar this week. Within this webinar you’ll learn how to identify a static charge, the series of events that are causing the charge, as well as various ways to eliminate this nuisance.

twitter-fall-webinar

Brian Farno, EXAIR’s Application Engineering Manager, will be conducting the webinar at 2:00 ET on 11/7/18. Immediately following the presentation will also be a brief Q&A. If you can’t attend, don’t let that stop you from registering! A link to view a recorded version of the webinar will go out to all registered participants whether you’re able to attend live or not.

Click here to register and view details on this upcoming webinar. Make sure you’re educated on the issues associated with static electricity before it’s too late!

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

Gen4 Super Ion Air Knives Remove Pesky Dust from Crepe Paper Manufacturing Process

Published on by John BallLeave a comment
Paper Measuring Equipment

A paper manufacturer was having issues with their measuring equipment (reference photo above).  They were producing 6” (152mm) wide crepe paper which is very thin and dusty.  As it would pass through the machine, a real-time measurement of basis weight and moisture content was being performed.  The basis weight of the sheet was around 14g/m2 which is like facial tissue.  The machine was giving false errors in the basis weight measurement.  As they opened the device, they noticed dust particles on the optical lens.  Because the basis weight was so small, any dust would cause a false reading.  They contacted EXAIR to see if we could help with their problem.

With a dry fibrous material like crepe paper, static can be a big issue.  Static has a strong force that can cause small fragments to “stick” to surfaces.  As you can see in the photo, the paper material is sticking to the sides and lens of the measuring device.  For this application,  I recommended two pieces of the model 112206 Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Kits.  The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife is uniquely designed to have two functions; remove static and blow off dust.  The Gen4 Ionizing Bar creates both positive and negative ions to remove any type of static charge.  The Super Air Knife creates a laminar air stream to carry the ions and also generate an even blowing force to remove the dust particles from the surface.  With this combination, it becomes a very effective non-contact way to remove the contamination.  This was an important requirement as the crepe paper is very thin and could break very easily.  They were able to mount one Super Ion Air Knife above and below the paper in order to blow the dust particles in a counter-flow direction.  This would keep the particles from entering the measurement device.

Super Ion Air Knife Kit

The Super Ion Air Knife Kit includes the Super Air Knife with a Gen4 Ionizing Bar attached.  The kit also includes a power supply, filter, regulator, and a shim set.  The power supply is specifically designed for the Gen4 Static Eliminators.  The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knives use the high voltage from the power supply to generate enough ions to remove static from the paper at a running speed of 49.5 ft/sec (15m/sec).  The filter will remove any contamination and liquid water from the compressed air system before it enters the Super Ion Air Knife.  This is important to keep the product clean.  The shim set is a set of three different shims with a thickness of 0.001” (0.025mm), 0.003” (0.076mm), and 0.004” (0.1mm).  They are used to dramatically change the blowing force from the stock shim at 0.002” (0.05mm) thick.  Being that the paper was extremely thin, they opted to put the 0.001 (0.025m) thick shim inside the Super Ion Air Knife.  With the regulator in the kit, the customer could “dial” in the correct amount of force to keep the machine running optimally without breaking the delicate paper.

When the customer installed the Gen4 Super Ion Air Knives just before the entrance into the measuring device, the air stream was able to carry the ions to neutralize the static and to remove the dust from the paper surface.  The system was now able to make accurate measurements without disruptions.

For this customer above, the Gen4 Super Ion Air Knives made their system run accurately and consistently by removing any pesky dust particles.  If you have an optical device that needs to stay clean, you can contact an Application Engineer to review your application.

John Ball

Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb