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Getting to grips with static

A Meech International product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Aug 21, 2002

Steve Pheasant, Marketing Director of Meech Static Eliminators examines some of the issues surrounding static electricity in the workplace.

Static electricity is a phenomenon that has been recognised for a thousand years, is experienced by everyone, but understood by very few.

Because of its very ordinariness, all too often the dangers of static discharge in the workplace, on the factory floor or in the assembly shop are ignored, sometimes with very serious consequences.

There have been instances of employees being absent on sick leave for many weeks as a direct consequence of receiving static shocks.

Although these are exceptional cases, many employees in factories and workplaces across the UK receive shocks that are severe enough to literally make them jump.

That unintended, reflex action can have serious consequences for example, dropping a breakable or heavy object, coming into contact with working machinery, falling, slipping or in some other way injuring the person who has received the shock or his/her colleagues.

These direct, personal injuries are in addition to the general dissatisfaction, lowering of morale and loss of productivity that working in an environment that is prone to static shock produces.

Static charges build up principally through the processes of friction and separation.

As the pressure or speed of contact and separation increases, so the static charge increases.

Items that are being moved at high speed on conveyor belts for example can quickly develop a charge in excess of 25kV, enough to throw an adult off their feet.

Shocks to employees can occur in two ways.

First, personnel can receive shocks from extremely highly charged material as it discharges through them to earth.

Secondly, operators can themselves become charged by handling or being in close proximity to highly charged materials.

When the operator is presented with a path to earth (usually by touching a metal object or a machine frame), they discharge violently, often believing that they have received a mains shock.

At Meech, the safety of our clients' workforce is of paramount importance.

Whenever we are asked to advise companies on the various available methods of eliminating static in their workplace, we first ensure that a safe working environment is created and then, within that environment, we look at ways to increase the efficiency of the production process by the correct control of static.

Examples of companies that have been successfully using static elimination systems to increase both staff safety and productivity for many years are Marden Edwards and Robinsons Plastic Packaging.

Marden Edwards manufactures overwrapping and banding systems.

"Static charge could give rise to production problems for our customers", explains Gordon Clamp, Design Manager.

Naturally, any process disturbance must be avoided, because the wrapping machines are operated at high speed as part of production lines where as many as 400 packs/minute may be wrapped.

Interruptions to production have serious consequences on the integrity of the entire process.

"Meech ionising bars have been incorporated into our machines for more than 25 years", continues Clamp, "and we have found them to be entirely satisfactory.

Our clients rely on us to provide a solution designed to perfectly suit their needs.

That includes eliminating any potential problems of static before they occur".

Robinson Plastic Packaging supplies moulded plastic products to customers such as Procter and Gamble, Northern Foods and Kraft Foods.

The company is constantly looking at ways to increase productivity and reduce wastage.

The elimination of static from its moulded products has been successful in both respects.

Where the per annum production for a single product can be counted in the hundreds of millions, reliable, automated and uninterrupted processes are vital.

Comments Robinson's Technical Director, David Fletcher, "The elimination of static using a variety of technologies, including ionising air curtains and static elimination bars, helps us keep our production lines running smoothly producing products in the time-scales and to the quality that our clients have come to expect".

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