Tag: static measurement

Crank Up The Heat (and Static)

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

The outside temperature is beginning to drop which means the thermostat in my house is getting a workout. I don’t mind the colder temps but my wife on the other hand likes it pretty toasty during the winter months. I am usually downstairs in the living room, so I don’t feel the full effect of the increased heat but our house isn’t as fortunate. The majority of our house has hardwood floors so as the inside temperatures rise and the furnace brings in more of that dry outside air to heat up, it also dries out the hardwood which begins to separate and make a nice creaking sound. We started using humidifiers upstairs and on the main floor to replace some of the moisture lost due to the increased makeup air from the outside.

Another concern with dry air is it creates static electricity.  There are a ton of natural insulators in your house, like carpet or shoes with rubber soles just to name a few, that make it all too easy to build up a static charge and deliver a nice shock. Case in point, over the weekend I was downstairs working and asked our oldest son if he could help me out and get his baby brother out of the pack-n-play. Of course, without hesitation, (heavy sarcasm) he shuffled across the carpet and reached down for his brother, then ZAP! I actually heard the shock before the screams started! I quickly made the realization that I will soon be adding a third humidifier for downstairs as well!

Static electricity is a common nuisance in industrial settings also. It can lead to damaged product, shorting of electrical components, printing or labeling errors, spark generation or cause harmful shock to an operator. EXAIR offers a wide variety of Static Eliminators that are capable of neutralizing the surface static of a material or object to ensure proper operation in many manufacturing processes. For example, our Super Ion Air Knife is a great choice for printing/labeling applications or cleaning a web. With applications requiring more of a focused airflow, we offer our Ion Air Cannon or Ion Air Jet. The Ion Air Gun is the perfect choice for a manual, surface treatment. We also offer our Ionizing Bars and Ionizing Point for close proximity static elimination, where compressed air isn’t available.

An easy way to pinpoint the location and level of static is by using our Model # 7905 Digital Static Meter. The Digital Static Meter is a handheld, portable device that is capable of reading static within 1″ of the surface, up to  +/- 20 kV with 5% accuracy. Once the static has been located, we can then make the best recommendation for a Static Eliminator that will meet the application requirements.

Static Meter
Easy to use, Digital Static Meter to pinpoint static charge. Calibrated to NIST standards.

If static is a concern in any of your processes, or if you need help in making the best selection, please contact an application engineer for assistance.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN

Applications for Static Eliminating Ion Bars

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment
Ion bar
EXAIR Ion Bar

Many times when we discuss static elimination applications with customers, we will arrive at a solution such as the Ion Bar that does not require the use of compressed air. If we feel that the Ion Bar has ability to be in sufficient contact with the target for a long enough duration of time, then that is one of the most elegant solutions of all. The bonus is that we do not have to add additional compressed air requirement to the customer’s compressed air system by recommending use of the Super Air Knife along with the Ion Bar. While the Super Ion Air Knife is a great way to project the static eliminating ions over a much longer distance, there is the issue that compressed air does have to be factored into the solution.

So, what kinds of applications can benefit from the use of Ion Bars by themselves? There are actually a variety of reasons why an application might not benefit from the addition of compressed air to the static eliminating solution. Allow me to list a few below:

  1. The static elimination target material is very light weight and would be disturbed unnecessarily by the addition of a compressed air flow to deliver ionization from the Ion Bar.
  2. The static elimination application is within a clean room environment where any addition of air movement has to be equally compensated for by the dust collection system, which can complicate matters very quickly.
  3. There may already be an airflow that is moving through the area over the target surface and only ionization is needed.
  4. The addition of an airflow to a static elimination application causes problems with other parts of a process such as un-wanted decrease in drying time, un-wanted cooling, or interference with a measurement process.

In any event, whenever we evaluate a static elimination application, we always want to try and make solution suggestions that would minimize the impact on the customer’s compressed air supply. Many times, we simply can’t do that due to issues with process speed or lack of time in contact with the target part. But in those cases, where it is plausible, we certainly want to apply this strategy for our solutions.

Some recent applications where we were able to recommend an Ion Bar by itself include:

  1. A ceramic tile manufacturer was printing their designs with an ink jet printer onto the tile surface. Static caused the ink to run into areas where it wasn’t supposed to go. Treating the surface of the tiles prior to printing solved the issue.
  2. A solar panel manufacture etches glass for the solar panels and then coats that panel with a metallic coating. Residual lines of force from the remaining static charge on the surface made the metallic coating irregular and so a set of ion bars were mounted so that the glass passed between them just prior to coating, eliminating the irregularities in the coating.
  3. A shipping company was applying bar-coded labels to their shipping boxes. The labels were becoming wrinkled when applied which interfered with the ability to read the bar code. The customer thought it was a label issue, but after a quick check with a model 7905 Static Meter, the problem was found to be a charge on the box surface. Mounting an ion bar to come into close proximity of the box surface prior to labelling took care of the problem.

Overall, Ion Bars are a very effective tool for removing static over a wide area. And when considering the possible solutions for a static removal application, it is always best practice to consider whether the Ion Bar solution can take care of the problem by itself. And if it deemed not possible to get the desired effect with only the Ion Bar, then using a Super Ion Air Knife is the next best and most efficient way to get that ionized air to your charged target.

Neal Raker, International Sales Manager
nealraker@exair.com
@EXAIR_NR

Safety, Compliance, And Certifications

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

News broke the other day about an accident at a manufacturing facility not far from us. Two workers’ arms were crushed when a machine malfunctioned. That’s the short story – there is, no doubt, going to be an intensive investigation where the details will be brought to light. For now, the lives of two people who showed up at work to do their jobs have been drastically and permanently changed, and that’s got me thinking (and writing) about safety, compliance, and certifications today.

EXAIR Corporation takes safety very seriously in every sense and every way:

*Design. All of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products are engineered to meet OSHA standards regarding dead end pressures and sound levels.

*Production, part I. We have exacting standards and procedures that govern the machining, manufacturing, assembly, and testing of every product that we make. Training, cross-training, and continuing training ensure that our products are the highest quality achievable.

*Production, part II. Speaking of training, our Production Manager conducts regular, all-hands safety training on a variety of topics. In every single training session, regardless of topic, he makes it clear that safety requires us all: from management’s responsibility for training, documentation and equipment, to operators’ attention to detail and compliance with procedures, to everyone’s diligence in watching out for, and reporting, anything that may not look right.

*Specification. Some of our products shouldn’t be used in certain applications:
-Our Static Eliminators use high voltage at a low amperage to ionize air. They can’t be used near flammable materials or gases.
–Line Vacs create a high velocity, turbulent vacuum flow. Don’t use them with any material that can become an explosive mixture. Same goes for our Chip Vac, Heavy Duty Dry Vac, and Heavy Duty HEPA Vac.
-Speaking of Industrial Vacuums, our Reversible Drum Vacs and Chip Trappers operate by pulling a vacuum on the drum. They cannot be used with any material with a low flash point or with flammable liquids such as mineral spirits, gasoline or kerosene.

*Compliance. There are sanctioned regulatory bodies that define what makes…and keeps…products safe for use. EXAIR goes to all lengths necessary to ensure compliance and reporting with the ones pertinent to particular product lines, whether they’re CE marked, RoHS compliant, UL Listed/Recognized, etc. In fact, our products are also certified as Conflict Mineral-Free and REACH Compliant…for the safety of people involved in providing the materials that our products are made of.

CE cULlisted cULrecognized   ROHS_Vector    conflictfree

We go to every length possible to ensure that our products meet the standards that even the most demanding situations call for.

If you want to talk about safety and compliance, talk to us.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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Good Barbecue, Sticky Sauce Packets, And Ionizing Bars

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

During my time in the Navy, I grew quite fond of a particular barbecue restaurant that operates a chain of locations throughout the southeast United States. There was one right around the corner from my house in Fernandina Beach, Florida, and ever since moving to Ohio, I have the occasional tinge of regret that I didn’t eat there more often. On a subsequent trip down south, I took my Yankee girlfriend (now my lovely bride of 19 years) to eat there, and she got hooked as well.  We’ve actually planned vacation travel routes, and have chosen lodging, based on proximity to one of their restaurants.

This weekend, I found myself driving back from a quick trip to see good friends in South Carolina, and thought it would be nice to surprise my wife with some of her favorite pit barbecue slow cooked ribs. So I called in a carry-out order to their northernmost location, just off the highway in southern Kentucky…less than 2 hours from home! If the tail winds and the traffic patterns were in my favor, I’d be home in time for dinner. They weren’t, and I wasn’t, but that’s another story; not one I care to recount here.

As they were assembling my order, I told the manager what big fans we were of their fare. He truly appreciated the compliment and our loyalty…as I had really poured it on about their sauce (pun intended,) he heaped a couple of generous handfuls of individual barbecue sauce packets into a separate bag and handed it to me with the BIG bag containing the precious cargo of ribs, pulled pork, baked beans, cole slaw, and cornbread. The cornbread did not finish the trip; I succumbed to temptation somewhere south of Lexington. It wouldn’t have reheated well anyway. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I brought some of that pulled pork for lunch today, and as I squeezed the last bit of delicious sauce out of the packet, I noticed the corner that I’d torn off was sticking to my hand…not because it was sticky with sauce, but because of a little static electricity.

It’s mid-November here in Ohio, and this stuff is going to start happening…bits of plastic or paper sticking to our hands, our hair going wild when we take off our hats, shocks from doorknobs, etc.  The torn corner of the condiment pack, though, reminded me of a VERY successful Static Eliminator application.

A customer who makes & fills individual condiment packets for the restaurant industry was experiencing shorter-than-advertised life from the print heads that labeled the packets.  The supplier suggested that it could be related to static charge, so they contacted us.

After purchasing a Model 7905 Digital Static Meter, they found that their film, once unwound from the roll, developed a high static charge.  They installed a Model 7018 18″ Ionizing Bar upstream of the print head, which reduced the static charge considerably.

Initial static charge of almost 17kV (left) is almost completely dissipated by the Ionizing Bar (center) to just 0.04kV (right)
Initial static charge of almost 17kV (left) is almost completely dissipated by the Ionizing Bar (center) to just 0.4kV (right)

They went from replacing (5) print heads per month to only replacing (2) per month…exactly what the manufacturer told them the life span would be, based on their usage.  Another win-win for EXAIR and a satisfied customer!

If you have a problem with static charge, we can help.  Give us a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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