Tag: static elimination bars

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

Varistat Benchtop Ionizer Solves Static Cling Problem With Tape Backing Strips

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Technicians at an automotive manufacturing plant apply pieces of adhesive tape to parts. They cut the tape to length, remove the plastic backing strip, and stick the tape in place. Due to the static charge on the backing strip, it would stick to their hands when they tried to drop it in the trash can at their work station.

They purchased & installed an EXAIR Model 8600 Varistat Benchtop Ionizer above the trash can. As they peeled the backing strip off the tape, the constant stream of ionized air dissipated the static charge, allowing the strips to simply fall into the receptacle.

Lightweight and compact, the Varistat Benchtop Ionizer isn’t limited to benchtop installations.

Before installing the Varistat Benchtop Ionizer, the strips would also cling to the plastic liner in the trash can. Because the static charge has been removed, the strips don’t cling to the sides anymore, so when the liner bag is full, it’s easy to pull it out, tie it up, and not drop any strips that used to cling to the top of the bag.

The Varistat incorporates EXAIR ionization technology to supply a stream of ion-balancing airflow to remove static charge and blow away the particulate that the static charge was holding on the surface, with hands-free operation and without the need for compressed air. The Varistat is manually adjustable and provides full coverage static elimination for workbenches, parts assembly stations, web cleaning…anywhere that point of use static elimination is needed. It can reduce a 1,000V static charge to just 100V in 0.8 seconds, and is engineered to fit various industrial applications & unique processes with user-friendly features like an adjustable stand, selectable input voltage (120-240VAC), a variable speed fan, replaceable foam intake filters, and adjustable polarity for ionization balance (+/-100V, manually adjustable to <10V).

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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Generation of Static Electricity

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

EXAIR published a white paper, Basics of Static Electricity, explaining what causes static electricity; how it is generated; and steps to eliminate it. You can get this paper HERE and start removing static issues in your plant or process.

In this blog, I would like to expand on the subject of how static can be generated.  On a molecular scale, the outer electrons that are orbiting the nucleus can be “stripped” and redistributed from one atom to another.  This will cause an electrical charge imbalance called static.  An additional electron will create negatively charged static, while atoms losing an electron will create positively charged static.  With non-conductive materials like plastic, paper, rubber, glass, etc., once dislodged the electrons cannot move back to the original atom without subsequent intervention. There are three common methods of static generation that will cause this phenomenon to occur.  I will explain each one in brief detail below:

1 Contact:  Whenever objects hit each other, electrons can be passed to or received from the surface of another object. The number of electrons being transferred is based on the type of triboelectric material.  But, with plastic bottles or trays bumping into each other on conveyor belts, static can be generated relatively easily.

2 Friction: This is one of the most common reasons for generating large static forces. It is caused by two non-conductive surfaces being rubbed together.  The amount of force being applied to the material as it slides back and forth will create higher static charges.   For example, it is noticed when you rub a balloon on your hair.  The more times that you rub the balloon against your hair, the stronger the static forces become, allowing the balloon to “stick” to another non-conductive surface.  For example, within an industrial application, friction type static generation is also observed when sheets of material are stacked, sliding across one another as they move into place.

3 Detachment:  When one material is separated from another by peeling, electrons generally do not return to the original molecule.  Because of their larger surface areas, adhesive tape and protective films are common for generating static charges through the detachment method.  For example; when the backing material is being removed from labels, the static will cause the labels to be misaligned or cause jams within the rollers and guides in a machine.

Static tends to propagate.  The more contact, detachment, and friction that occurs, the higher the static charge.  Even after the static charge is removed from the surface, it can regenerate using the same mechanisms described above.  So, controlling the static can be determined by the type of treatment as well as the location for removal.

Another variable that exacerbates static generation is humidity.  Most process problems are noticed during the winter months as the ambient air is drier.  With a lower relative humidity, static electricity can develop easier and with greater strength.  We always refer to winter as “static season.”  You may even notice this when you walk across the carpet and get zapped by touching a door handle. 

Gen4 Static Eliminators

EXAIR manufactures Gen4 Static Eliminators to remove all static nuisance that may likely be plaguing your processes.  Beginning January 1st, 2024, EXAIR will be giving away a free AC Sensor, a $76.00 value, as a promotional item with a qualified purchase of the Gen4 Static Eliminators.  If you would like to discuss your application and potential static issues, you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR.  We will be happy to help.

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