The workplace is filled with potential harmful agents that can lead to employee or customer injury, damaged product, damaged inventory, damaged equipment, or slow down the standard operating procedures. One of the most overlooked threats to the security of the workplace is surprisingly, static electricity.
We all know the “shocking” effect that we get occasionally when we touch something or someone. “Being shocked” may just be a silly thing to laugh at when it happens to us, but static electricity can have much more harmful effects.
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is believed to have been caused by static electricity. As its name suggests, it is electricity, though in a small amount, but in the right circumstances the electricity can compound into a larger problem.
It is created by contact and then separation. When not in contact, most materials are neutrally charged. When pressed together against other materials, the surface electrons become unbalanced and if then separated quickly and in a sliding or pulling motion, displaced electrons may not easily fall back into place and return to balance. This leaves one material now without one of its electrons, giving it a positive charge, and the other material with an extra electron, giving it a negative charge. Thus giving the charged shock.
Having materials with a charge leads to the oppositely charged materials attracting one another. In the packaging, manufacturing, converting, painting, plastic… industry, this can lead to problems. Materials that are normally supposed to be apart can now have a charge and lead to the attraction of dust or other contaminants. At the basic level, this can lead to an uneven distribution of paint, damaging the product before it ever hits the shelves. In more severe cases it can lead to things jamming up equipment or causing a malfunction.
To rid you of this problem in the best way possible, an active static elimination device is recommended. Ionizers and neutralizers emit ions to neutralize the static electricity present on the equipment or the product. Many devices are even passive anti-static devices, meaning they are self-energizing, energized by the static field that is on the material’s surface.
Protecting everyone and everything at work is essential. Static elimination must be a focus for those that wish to do so.