Tag: static electricity control

Out with the Old, in with the NEW!

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

Like many of us, my household is in the full swing of outdoor projects and tasks. Entering into our second summer at our new house, we still have quite the laundry list of things we’d like to accomplish this year. Currently, I’m working on replacing an old privacy fence in my backyard and also having a new driveway poured. The old fence has been up since the house was built in 1973 and the driveway has without a doubt seen better days.

Last year we introduced the last few products within our NEW Gen4 Static Eliminator product line.

EXAIR PR Hero Images

Some features of the new Gen4 Static Eliminator include:

  • UR recognized power supply and products. The unit is constructed of UL Recognized components that have been independently tested to meet safety standards set forth by UL
  • CE Compliance available for both the power supplies and all ionizers. The previous rendition of Static Eliminators included CE Compliance for the Power Supply only.
  • Single-wire, integrated ground design on the high voltage cable. The grounding is integrated into the steel conduit, protecting the inner cable.
  • Stainless steel connectors on the Power Supply. This replaces the previous plastic connections and dramatically enhances durability.
  • Replaceable parts on the Power Supply: An integrated fuse (0.1 amp 240V, fast blow), power switch, and modular power cable.
  • Power Supply voltage selection: With the turn of a switch, the Power Supply is now suitable for use with either 115 or 230 VAC.
  • Armored high voltage cable, built to withstand tough industrial environments and resist cuts and abrasions.
  • Enhanced performance, Ion Bars are now capable of eliminating a static charge at a distance 2x that of the older versions without a compressed air supply.

No matter the application, EXAIR has a Static Eliminator ready to tackle the job! If you have an older model Static Eliminator, be prepared to make the upgrade to the new Gen4 Static Eliminators. With the increased durability and enhanced performance that the Gen4 models offer, it’s time to bid adieu to the old-style Ionizers. Give us a call and upgrade your Static Eliminators today!

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

Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Removes Fibrous Material from Conveyor Belt

Published on by John BallLeave a comment
Conveying System

A factory was having some issues in losing plastic material underneath and around their conveyor system.   The conveyor moved plastic fibers from an extrusion process into a hopper.   The conveyor belt was made of a rubber material that was 17” wide, and the plastic fiber was made from HDPE.  As the conveyor went around the end to dump the fibers into the hopper, some of it would stick to belt and sides of the conveying system.  Some fiber material would fall onto the ground which would require cleaning and loss of material.  They attempted to place a brush flap against the conveyor belt to knock the material off, but it was not very effective.  The brush flap actually generated more static as well as created wear marks on the belt from contact.  The customer sent a picture of the problem and wondered if EXAIR could help them with this application.

Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Kit

With plastic fibrous material and rubber belts, the two non-conductive surfaces will generate static.  Static can have a strong force that will cause the material to “stick” to surfaces.  The higher the static voltage, the stronger the force.  As you can see in the photo, the material is sticking to the belt as well as to the sides.  For this application,  I recommended the model 112224 Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Kit.  The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife is uniquely designed to have two functions in this application.  The Super Ion Air Knife uses 40 parts of ambient air with every one part of compressed air, making it very efficient.  With the laminar air stream that comes from the Super Air Knife, it can carry both positive and negative ions from the attached Gen4 Ionizing Bar to remove any type of static charge.  With this combination, it becomes a very effective non-contact scraper to remove the fibers and not wear on the conveyor belt.  The model 112224 kit includes the 24” (610 mm) long Super Air Knife with a Gen4 Ionizing Bar attached; power supply, filter, regulator, and a shim set.

The reason for the 24” (610 mm) extended length was to keep the fibers from collecting to the outside area of the conveyor (as shown in the photo above).  With the compact and lightweight design, it could easily be positioned below the conveyor.  As the fiber material would come around the conveyor, the ions carried by the air stream would neutralize the static as well as remove the material from the belt and the sides.  When the customer mounted the Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife in place, the plastic fibers dropped into the hopper and not onto the floor underneath.

Spillage is wasteful, costly, and time consuming to cleanup.  If you have excess waste from your conveying system, EXAIR will have the product to help you.  For the customer above, the Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife made it possible to claim more material, removed the hazard from buildup on the floor, and reduced cleaning time.  You can contact an Application Engineer to review your application.

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

 

What is a Super Ion Air Wipe?

Published on by Leave a comment
1st Pic.jpg
Rendering Of The GEN4 Super Ion Air Wipe In Action

 

EXAIR’s GEN4 Super Ion Air Wipe provides a uniform 360° ionized airstream that is simple to clamp around a part for reducing static electricity and cleaning contaminants. It is great for use on pipe, cable, extruded shapes, hose, wire and much more. We offer the GEN4 Super Ion Air Wipe in either 2” or 4” inner diameter, it is powered by compressed air and an external power supply. The GEN4 Super Ion Air Wipe generates both positive and negative ions that are transmitted the emitter points located on the i.d. of the wipe. Since static charges can be either negative or positive it is easy to eliminate both states of charge due to the mixed polarity of ions being generated. The power supplies are available with either 2 or 4 outlets (can power up to 2 or 4 GEN4 Static Eliminators simultaneously) and are UL recognized, CE and RoHS compliant. The power supplies also have a selectable input voltage for either 115 or 230VAC.

Another great feature of the GEN4 Super Ion Air Wipe is the split collar design that utilizes a clamp and hinge making it easy to clamp around the surface of the material moving through it eliminating the need for time consuming “threading”.

2nd Pic.jpg

How does the Super Ion Air Wipe work? The Super Ion Air Wipe envelopes the part passing through it with a stream of compressed air to strip contaminants and bathes it with ions to diminish any static charge. The airflow follows the surface of the material passing through it and can be effective up to 15′ (4.6m) away from where the Super Ion Air Wipe is located. The optional pressure regulator allows for fine adjustments of the air volume and velocity and the optional shim set allows for large air volume and velocity adjustments.

3rd Pic.jpg
How The GEN4 Super Ion Wipe Works

 

If you would like to discuss reducing static and/or cleaning of continuous runs of  materials, I would enjoy hearing from you…give me a call.

Steve Harrison
Application Engineer
Send me an email
Find us on the Web 
Follow me on Twitter
Like us on Facebook

Levitating Spoons – is it Magic or Static Electricity?

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

I remember as a young lad watching a magician making a dollar bill disappear or a paper clip levitate.  The power of illusions.

An injection molding company was having issues in removing their parts from a tool.  This company made plastic spoons in a multi-cavity tool.  During the start of the operation, they noticed that some of the spoons (reference photo below)  were “sticking” to the mold surface.  Some spoons looked like they spoon were “defying gravity” .  It was not an illusion of levitation, but static.

Static charges can dramatically slow down production rates with plastic materials.  In this instance, the operator had to remove the spoons manually prior to restarting another cycle on the machine.  They measured roughly 30% of the time that they would have to stop their operation.  To counteract the parts sticking, they attempted to mount a pipe with drill holes above the tool.  They tried to use the force from the compressed air to remove any stragglers that remained in the tool.  This is a simple and easy-to-do method; but with this type of blow-off, it is very loud, inefficient and not real effective.

They only saw a slight improvement in part removal as they still had to stop roughly 28% of the time.  The bottom portion of the cavities still had spoons remaining in the tool.  With the amount of money being lost from slow production rates and the possibility of tool damage, they decided to contact EXAIR.

Spoon not falling from tool

In today’s injection molding market, tool coatings are commonly used to extend tool life and increase lubricity.  When a buffer is placed between plastic parts and the tool surface, static can be generated and become a real issue.  With the company above, the spoons were sticking in different areas of the tool depending on the static buildup.  If they can neutralize the static charges, then the spoons cannot defy gravity.

I recommended our model 112212 Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Kit.  The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife is designed to efficiently blow air and to carry both positive and negative ions to remove any kind of static charge.  For this model, it comes with a 12” (30.5 cm) long Super Air Knife with a Gen4 Ionizing Bar attached.  With the compact and lightweight design, it could easily be positioned above the tool to operate.  The kit also includes a power supply to power the ionizer, a filter to clean the compressed air, a regulator to control the force, and a shim set to modify force changes.  This complete kit had everything required to begin operations to remove static.

The customer only had to attach the unit to a compressed air source.  Once they started using the Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife, the removal rate of parts went to 100%.  As an added benefit, when the drilled pipe was replaced, the noise level dropped as well as the compressed air usage reduced.  By adding an EXAIR Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife to their process, the production rate was now maximized.

Model 112212 Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife

Static within injection molding processes can cause crushed parts, slower production rates, and even more costly; tool damage.  If you believe that static is causing things to “defy gravity”, EXAIR has a great range of Gen4 Static Eliminator products to remove that “magic” force.  And, for the company above, they didn’t have to continually watch their money “disappear”.

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

 

Photo by: Magic Hat by KCADRC.  Creative Commons CC0.