Tag: static electricity

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

Send me an Email
Find us on the Web 
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Twitter: @EXAIR_JS

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

Static Season is in Full Swing, Super Ion Air Knives can Remove the Shock!

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

The Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife is a powerful static eliminator that prevents jamming, tearing, shocks and dust build up by neutralizing static and blowing away the debris.

They combine the quiet and efficient Super Air Knife with the compact design of the rugged Gen4 Ionizing Bar resulting in a total solution to remove static electricity from plastics, webs, sheet stock and other product surfaces. Removing the static helps reduce or eliminate the process issues that the static electric causes, allowing for greater production speeds, improved product quality and a cleaner product. Some of the issues static causes include, dirt and dust buildup on surfaces, misreads for sensors, poor quality from ink jets, poor print quality on printed surfaces, and personnel getting shocked.

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 webs 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

Send me an Email
Find us on the Web 
Like us on Facebook
Twitter: @EXAIR_JS

Eliminating Static in Industrial Processes

Published on by codybiehleLeave a comment

Ever wonder what causes that annoying shock you get when you go to grab a plastic or metal piece. That is a phenomenon caused by static electricity. This static is an electrical surface charge that is generated and when two surfaces come in contact with each other and generate an electrical charge from friction, separation, or simple contact. If the material in question is not grounded properly the electrical charge will continue to accumulate until it comes in contact with a proper ground or the path of least resistance to discharge the built up static and return to a neutral state.

Static

Static is generated on the atomic level from the exchange of valance electrons on each surface. The energy produced from the friction, separation or contact cause those valance electrons to enter an excited state; when in this excited state they begin to jump back and forth from atom to atom. When this happens, the atoms begin to accumulate either a positive charge if the atom lost electrons or a negative charge if the atom gained electrons. As the charge accumulates on the surface were the friction occurs if a ground source (i.e. piece of metal or a person) comes in close proximity to the charged surface an arc is generated between the two surfaces returning the originally charged surface to a neutral state.

Static can be harmful to both employees and product in an industrial environment. If a static arc is generated in the presence of either flammable, combustible, or explosive liquids or gasses the arc can cause an ignition of the material. Static can also cause the charged object to stick or cling to various surfaces causing clogs in pipes and issues when trying to separate the material one at a time. This phenomenon is called static cling.

Even though static is very easy to generate it can just as easily be dissipated; EXAIR’s line of static eliminating devices use a high voltage emitter point to generate a small zone of ions which consists of both positive and negative charges to dissipate the static build up on the surface. Also, when the various emitter points and ion bars are coupled with our compressed air products, the air carries the ions much farther and can dissipate static up to 20’ away. The best part is that about the line of our line of static eliminators is that they are shockless; this means that if somebody bumps into it, they won’t get shocked.

Gen 4 Super Ion Air Knife Eliminating Static with Ions

For more information on EXAIR’s Static Eliminators and any of EXAIR‘s 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.

Cody Biehle
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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Super Ion Air Wipes – Eliminate Static on Wire, Cable, Extrusions

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

Gen4 Super Ion Air Wipe

As the colder dryer months are upon us, static electricity will be more frequent and will become a real nuisance.  Machines will start jamming, alignments will be difficult, dirt will collect to surfaces, and hazardous sparks can shock personnel.  EXAIR manufactures a line of Gen4 Static Eliminators to remove this nuisance.

EXAIR manufactures eight different product lines in two different styles within our Gen4 Static Eliminators.  In this blog, I will be covering the Super Ion Air Wipe.  This product blows ionized air in a 360-degree pattern.  They are engineered to remove static and debris from the outside of hoses, plastic pipe, extrusions, and coated wires.  With a split design, the Gen4 Super Ion Air Wipe can easily mount around the product without having to re-thread.  EXAIR stocks two different sizes with a 2” (51mm) and 4” (102mm) inside diameter. The Super Ion Air Wipes give a fast static-decay, a shockless and non-radioactive design, variable flow and force, low air consumption and no moving parts.

8462 Super Ion Air Wipe Kit

The Gen4 Super Ion Air Wipe can be purchased as a kit which will include the power supply (required for ionization), a filter separator (to clean contamination from the compressed air), and a pressure regulator (to control the blowing force).  The filter and regulator are properly sized to avoid any air flow restrictions or loss of performance which can occur when using components which are not suited for the application.

Static

Generally speaking, static is generated from non-conductive surfaces being “rubbed”.  This could be from going over rollers on a conveyor, stacking product onto each other, sheet feeding, and even peeling away a backing material.  When non-conductive surfaces, or insulators, are moved or separated, electrons are “stripped” and redistribute on to different areas of the surface.  Static charges are typically measured in kilovolts (kV), or 1,000 volts, and they can be either positive or negative.  The higher the charge, the stronger the static force.  In reference, at 10 kilovolts, a spark can jump one inch (25 mm) from the surface.   EXAIR offers a Digital Static Meter, model 7905, to measure the amount of static voltage on a surface.  It is a great tool for finding problem areas in your process as well as determining the effectiveness of the treatment.

All EXAIR Gen4 Static Eliminators use one of two Power Supplies – your choice of the 2-port Model 7960, or the 4-port Model 7961.

These ionizers are powered by a 5,000V AC power supply.  The alternating current, AC, will create both negative ions and positive ions.  So, no matter the polarity of charge on the surface, the Gen4 Static Eliminators will be able to remove it.  The power supplies come in either a 2 port or 4 port design so you can power multiple Gen4 Static Eliminators with one power supply.  The input power is selectable from either 115VAC or 230VAC in both 50/60 Hz.   Two armored and electromagnetic shielded cables connect the Super Ion Air Wipe to the power supply. This will help to protect the cable from abrasions, cuts and splits which can be common in rugged industrial areas.

Static can be a real nuisance with shocking operators, “sticking” debris, and jamming processes.  If you run into these issues in your application, no matter the shape, EXAIR has a Gen4 Static Eliminator for you.  Even if you have cylindrical objects like tubes, pipes, hoses and extrusions; EXAIR can provide the Gen4 Super Ion Air Wipes in stock.  For more information, you can contact one of our Application Engineers at EXAIR.

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