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It’s That Shocking Time of the Year

Posted on by Jim Patterson

Ethanol; Intoxicating or Explosive?

This week, especially because it’s December and so close to the Christmas holiday, I worked on an alarming application that involved a static hazard. 100% ethanol was poured from a plastic container, which held approximately 5 gallons of the liquid, into smaller or larger containers that were also made of plastic.  Ethanol is a colorless, volatile liquid.  Most people recognize it as the ingredient in liquor, which has an intoxicating effect on most people.  However, it is also used as a solvent which can ignite under certain conditions.  Static electricity is one of the three components necessary to create an event, which is a soft way of saying an arc-over, a fire or an explosion.  The other two ingredients are oxygen and a volatile vapor.

There are well established protocols for handling and working with ingredients that can go “boom in the night”.  The front line of defense in protecting oneself from mishaps is grounding everything that is capable of being grounded. If we take a simplistic approach and look at the world as being made of only two materials, insulators and conductors, you can get a better sense of safety procedures that will keep to us out of harm’s way.  Metal is a conductor and easily grounded by clamping onto a known building ground or electrical ground or even by driving a rod deep into the earth.  Hence, we call it an earth ground. A water pipe inside of a facility can also act as a good ground source.  By grounding the metal, electrons can flow through the metal to ground itself. Conversely plastic cannot be grounded. This is why my static application hit a bump in the road. Static is generated on plastic materials through friction which we call Tribocharging.  There are a myriad of types of plastic, but for the most part, assume that all plastics are huge static generators.  Plastics are insulators and not conductive so the energy generated by simply handling plastic stays on the surface and can be a source of ignition.

Static Hazard

In my static hazard application, an ungrounded person holding the ethanol picks up an ungrounded plastic container and pours it into another ungrounded container.  This is not a good situation.  During the pouring process, a potentially explosive, volatile vapor cloud forms around the pouring action in both the dumping container and the receiving container.  There are three possible opportunities that can cause ignition in this scenario: a discharge from the ungrounded tech who is pouring the flammable ethanol; a discharge from static on the container which is high enough in proximity to the vapor cloud which forms in the discharging plastic container; a discharge from static to the same cloud that can form in the receiving plastic container.  If a static charge is present, with enough energy behind it, there is a strong chance that any of these actions can create a safety hazard.   

A Grounding Solution

Finding a solution to this problem can be a bit tricky.  The basic approach is to ground everything that can be grounded or switch to materials that can be grounded.  Simply switching from plastic containers to metal is a huge step in the right direction.  There will be times when grounding is not possible and materials cannot be changed.   In that case, ionization is the only choice.  There are approved ionizing static bars and blowers that remove or greatly reduce static electricity on plastic materials.  Static Clean and Fraser AntiStatic Techniques of England have formed a strategic alliance / partnership to address these dangerous scenarios.  When you have concerns about your facility and the safety of workers who may be in harm’s way, please reach out to Static Clean for help.   At this special time of year as with any time of year, it is important to always think “safety first”.

How Static Affects the Summer Olympics

Posted on by Jim Patterson

Achieving Peak Performance

The Summer Olympics are in full swing and the elite athletes are always trying to find ways to achieve peak performance.  Sometimes the difference between winning a gold or silver medal is decided on a tiny margin and can depend on achieving the smallest advantage. The 2016 Summer Olympics were held in Brazil and temperatures were in the mid 80’s during the day with high humidity.   Manufacturers of sporting apparel spend huge sums of money on the research and development of clothing and other products that work with the human body.  Athletic shoes have been engineered to be lighter with better foot protection, and clothing has been made to feel so minimal it’s like wearing nothing at all. The integration of Lycra® fabric is one of the most common innovations in achieving comfort, fit and performance.

How Lycra® Moves Us

Lycra® is a registered brand name for a polyurethane-based synthetic fiber that’s also called spandex or elastane. The DuPont Company® first developed Lycra® in 1958 to replace latex rubber as a stretching agent in clothing.  Lycra® is prized for its strength and durability, and is almost always mixed with either cotton or polyester.  Although Lycra® accounts for only a small percentage of the final fabric, it is key in retaining the look and feel of the other fibers. An estimated 80% of clothing sold in the United States contained spandex in 2010.  Because of its ability to mold to the body, Lycra® is ideal for use in swimwear and sportswear.  It was once thought 100% cotton was best for sportswear because of its ability to breathe.  Science has actually shown us that 100% cotton can raise body temperature, making it difficult to move at a high levels of performance.

The Buzz About Lycra®

The buzz word today is to look for clothing that will wick sweat away from an athlete’s skin.  How does this help someone towards a competitive advantage, and how does it work?  For the sake of discussion, let’s focus on swimming.   High performance athletes care more about reducing suit drag, skin friction and water absorption.  Lycra® along with other fabrics containing Lycra® offer the best performance and value.  It is actually hard to find any cotton in good swimwear these days.  Reducing drag is probably the most important factor.   As the material or a body moves, the lower the frictional impact of a material against air, wind or water, the more a body can lower its resistance.   This is very similar to static electricity when the lowest coefficient of friction will lower the static on a body or material.

Lycra® is a highly static material, but when intimate to the human body, the level of static is lowered.  That is why you see swimmers use bathing suits like Speedo® that are tight fitting.  The same can be said for those who wear tight clothes when racing bicycles.

The Static Eliminator

At Static Clean International we work with some of the world’s largest manufacturers of Lycra®, Polyester and other well accepted athletic materials.  During the weaving process of these materials, the static levels are very high and many of the defects found in these materials are due to static during the processing.  A little static cling can cause high defect rates, especially when running high speed clothing manufacturing equipment.  Our products eliminate static during the manufacturing process. However, once the finished product is on the human body, the static is collapsed by being intimate to the body and static is no longer an issue.  We have a keen understanding of how frictional forces during a race or a swim meet are reduced because the material of choice has a lower coefficient of friction that allows the clothing to have less resistance in motion.  From our position, we can feel good about the fact that we have helped those who compete by improving the quality of what they wear.

 

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

Posted on by Jim Patterson

Meaning

“All That Glitters Is Not Gold” —  Not everything that is shiny and superficially attractive is valuable.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Cleaner Means Safer..

Sometimes the smallest parts are the trickiest to clean.  At Static Clean our customers often bring us size challenging parts and devices to work on. Until recently no one in our industry has been able to address these challenges. Static Clean has now developed a method using our Medical Cleaning Station and Medical Cleaning Station-AS cleaning benches to batch clean these small part products. We have a Stainless Steel sieve that is fed through the upper and lower hoods that are part of our MCS line.  We had a potential customer from New Jersey who was amazed at how well it worked. Before he arrived, he went to a Michael’s store with his daughter and bought all kinds of colorful glitter that you would use for arts and crafts.  He used the glitter to contaminate the white caps that you see in the video.  It was overkill but a very good test.  The white caps that you see here go on the top of things such as suspension bottles, eye drop bottles, contact lens cleaning bottles etc.  If they have particles, plastic bits, human hair or any foreign matter, it could be the cause of a health problem.   Our batch cleaning system worked so well that he has said he is interested in purchasing not one but two MCS Systems and commented that “it worked better than I ever anticipated”.

For more information on our MCS or MCS-AS Cleaning benches, contact our technical sales department today.

Blanket and Wine Shows Support for Veteran’s Time

Posted on by Jim Patterson

The Poppy Movement

 

  • Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War to honor the war dead on both sides of the war.  Originally established on May 5th, the date was moved to May 30th in 1868.
  • Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day and the first event was held at Arlington National Cemetery where 5,000 people laid flowers on 20,000 graves.
  • In 1915, inspired by the poem, “In Flanders Fields”, Moina Michael  was an American professor and humanitarian who conceived the idea of using poppies as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in World War I replied with her own poem, which goes as follows:

 

“We cherish too, the Poppy red

That grows on the fields where valor led

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies”.

Ms. Michael started wearing poppies as a personal tribute.

  • In 1922 the VFW  (Veteran’s of Foreign Wars) became the first veteran’s organization to sell poppies nationally.
  • In 1948, the US Post Office issued a red, 3 cent stamp with the likeness of Ms. Michael for establishing the National Poppy movement.
  • Since 1971, it is recognized as a National Holiday that is celebrated on the last Monday in May.
  • In 2000, the National Moment of Remembrance resolution was passed.  It was a voluntary, informal moment, where at 3:00 we observe a moment of silence or listen to TAPS.

Info gathered from works by Joshua Claybourn 2014 entitled, Memorial Day.

Land of the Free Because of the Brave…

Two weeks ago, I attended “Night of Blues” fundraiser for Vietnam Veterans and was the winning bidder on a beautiful patriotic, handmade blanket.  I am proud to own such a treasure as a reminder of the liberty our country offers and the sacrifice that our heroes have given to keep us free.  I was in a wine store last week and I came across a bottle of wine that was called “Purple Heart”.  Below you can see the images of both the wine and the blanket.  If you are sitting on a blanket, enjoying a good glass of wine anytime soon, please remember those who made it possible for us to enjoy such freedoms.

Moina Belle Michael (August 15, 1869-May 10, 1944) who was mentioned in the blog was an American professor and humanitarian who conceived the idea of using poppies as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in World War I.

Static Innovates for High Reliability

Posted on by Jim Patterson

Shocking Technology!

Static Clean International has developed a new breed of transformer-based high-voltage line-frequency AC power supplies (e.g. TSN75A and TNS75E 7500Vac PSs) relying upon patent-pending technology for application in ionizing equipment. This new technology has been so far applied within SCI static-neutralizing equipment systems and within SCI ionizing blowers.

The longstanding conventional technology within the industry relies upon the use of sound-muffling and corona-resistant materials to pot over the underlying iron-core transformer. The high-voltage secondary winding of the iron-core transformer generates partial discharge of encapsulated air bubbles at normal operating voltages. This limits MTBF of such equipment due to eventual chemical breakdown of the organic polymers subjected to the continuous slow and insidious damage from corona.

The user HV connections (if applicable, as in some static-neutralizing systems with HV-cable user-mounted components) in the conventional power supplies also require proprietary methods and tooling to fabricate the secondary section of the transformer that are only used within the ionizing equipment industry for the most part.

Warning! High Voltage..

SCI’s new technology is a form of resistive coupling between transformer secondary winding and ionizing electrodes circuitry. It enables the use of more common transformer fabrication methods and raises the partial-discharge inception voltage (aka PDIV) to levels above normal operating voltage for the equipment. It provides some regulation (i.e. high-voltage stability) for non-ferroresonant HV transformer topologies, and it enables the quick-connect/disconnect de facto standard (threaded spring-contact) for ionizing equipment systems that contain a user-mounted HV-wire component as well as similar equipment-internal spring-contact HV connections that are desirable for assembly and reliability.

We at SCI believe that a superior cost-performance-quality trade-off can be achieved with the new transformer/resistive-coupling methods for some products, and are continuing with ongoing new product development based upon this proprietary technology and provides a high reliability solution.  New products in the field have demonstrated excellent robustness with respect to the common failure mode of HV-secondary dielectric breakdown.

The Real Heart of the Month

Posted on by Jim Patterson

The Heart of the Matter

Is it February already? Where did January go? With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it got me to thinking about roses, chocolate, love, the color red, hearts, giving your heart to the one you love, American Heart Month, heart disease and organ donation, specifically hearts.

While the first few things I mentioned are rather cliché and Valentine’s day which is sometimes referred to as the “Hallmark Holiday”, people tend to forget the more important things about the month of February; The Real Heart of the Month.  Did you know that The American Heart Association has declared February 5th, 2016 as National Wear Red Day? A day that is now dedicated to help raise awareness for heart disease and stroke in women.  This year marks the 13th anniversary of National Wear Red Day and huge strides towards awareness on heart disease have been made, here are some successes:

  • Nearly 90% of women have made at least one healthy behavior change.
  • More than one-third of women have lost weight.
  • More than 50% of women have increased their exercise.
  • 6 out of 10 women have changed their diets.
  • More than 40% of women have checked their cholesterol levels.
  • One third of women has talked with their doctors about developing heart health plans.
  • Today, nearly 300 fewer women die from heart disease and stroke each day.
  • Death in women has decreased by more than 30 percent over the past 10 years.

Don’t Miss a Beat!

Despite the progress there is still more work to be done, one in three deaths among women each year is caused either by heart disease or stroke.  Approximately every minute one of these women dies in our country alone, more than 500,000 a year.  It is the #1 killer in women, yet only 1 in 5 women believe that this is a great health risk for them.  Perhaps our lack of awareness is due to the media and how many heart problems portrayed on television, commercials, and infomercials involve a man as opposed to a woman.  With proper education – many of these deaths,  for men and women, are preventable.  That is why the entire month of February is now dedicated to raising awareness of cardiovascular health, American Heart Month.  Uncontrolled high blood pressure is the leading cause of heart disease. There are pills that will help regulate your blood pressure, but it’s very important to live an active and healthy lifestyle as well.  Educate yourself, learn the warning signs, visit www.heart.org or www.goredforwomen.org to learn more about how you can educate yourself – you might save your life or the lives of your loved ones.  Be a sweetheart & explore the real heart of the month.

In the spirit of love – consider organ donation.  Did you know that “121,514 people are waiting for an organ? 22 people will die each day waiting for an organ.  One organ donor can save up to eight lives”.

Static Clean understands the importance of American Heart Month.  We have donated to the cause and will continue to provide static and contamination control products to hospitals and medical companies that need to use clean, contamination-free equipment on you and your loved ones. We also have a number of people within the company that are organ donors. From all of us here at Static Clean to you and your loved ones – have a blessed, loved & aware month!

Resources:

Goredforwomen.org

Wikipedia

Organdonor.gov

Is It Getting Better?

Posted on by Jim Patterson

The Waiting Game

One of the claims by Medical Device Manufacturers, especially start-ups, is that it takes way to long to bring a new medical device to market and that the regulator process is cumbersome. While the FDA is trying to streamline the process, the FDA takes a cautious approach to new product approval, in large part due to the litigious nature in America.   The development from devices to disposables, which are less intrusive forms of treatment, are scrutinized by the FDA’s claim that the devices have to work and they have to be safe.

According to Dr. Herbert Lerner, Deputy Director of the FDA’s Division of Reproductive, Gastro-Renal and Urological Devices, the relationship between the device manufacturers and FDA is getting better as seen in the video below.  A great term when talking about medicine and treatments, it is “getting better”.  Some of the inventions that are designed to treat us, cure us, prolong life and yes,  save lives include: transfusion disposables, infusion pumps and cardiology disposables like catheters/stents and IV sets.

Progress a Long Time Coming

For the sake of discussion, let’s focus our attention on Cardiac Catheterization, which was first performed in 1711, when a long metal tube was inserted into the right and left ventricles of a living horse. We’ve come a long way today with the use of Teflon tubes, self-expanding wall stents, balloon catheters, guide wires, the medical grade plastics and the mass assembly process. Devices are molded, extruded, machined and processed for eventual assembly in a Clean Room.   It could become a finished product at the medical device manufacturing facility or at a contract manufacturer site that follows the protocols set by the original device manufacturer.

As mentioned, the concern of the FDA is ensuring a product works and that it is safe.   Most medical devices on the disposable side are individually packaged. This means that once the product goes into the package, it is ready for shipment to a hospital, clinic or a supply shop.   A growing concern by medical device companies and the FDA is whether the product is clean, meaning that it is free of particles that could end up inside of the human body through veins or other body cavities depending on the actual device.   The precautions set forth by the nature of the product and its application is that “it has to be kept clean and free of foreign particles.

FM the Common Denominator

The common denominator for particle attraction is the static electricity that is created by simply handling the components that go into a medical device.   The plastic materials used can easily generate the electrostatic forces that pull particles out of the air, even when the work is being performed in a clean room. Room Ionization is gaining in popularity to keep the amount of static electricity at lower levels, but room systems with slow decay rates can’t solve the problem at the assembly workstation. The medical community has to assume that the devices have debris on them and to recognize the need to treat the problem at key points in the assembly process. This is especially true before the parts go into the pouches, blister packs and rigid trays that ship to end users.

Static Clean the Equalizer

In the past year, Static Clean has launched a number of important products to address foreign matter, especially the Particle Trap® line that includes the Particle Trap® Cube, which removes particles from the balloon portion of the catheter and also from any plastic parts that are assembled in the Clean Room. Static Clean welcomes the opportunity to have a partnership approach with our clients old and new, to find the right solution for your process.

As the U2 song ONE say, “Is it getting better, or do you feel the same, will it make it easier on you, now you got someone to blame.

Don’t be the blame for failures, poor yields, rejects, rework and recalls from the field. Let us help.

Image By Matt Skoufalos: http://medicaldealer.com/the-key-to-compliance-cmstjc-guidelines-combine-to-promote-patient-safety/

 

“A Protest Song Becomes a Christmas Standard”

Posted on by Jim Patterson

Happy Christmas (War is Over)

And so this is Christmas and what have you done. Another year over and a new one just begun. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.

John Lennon wrote the above lyrics to the song Happy Christmas (War is Over) as a means of elaborating the themes of social unity and peaceful change, enacted through personal accountability. Lennon spent two years protesting in peaceful activism against the Vietnam War.   The timing of its release put it in a bad spot for climbing the record charts.   DJ’s saw it as a Christmas song and after Christmas, it didn’t deserve air play, so it only reached 36 on the US charts.   However, the song did catch on and some of the earliest cover versions were performed by Andy Williams, Neil Diamond, Carly Simon, Diana Ross, Celine Dion, REO Speedwagon and Vanessa Carlton.  Now it is truly a Christmas standard.

Give Peace a Chance

Today, the song is as pertinent as it was when John Lennon penned the lyrics, especially when he said, let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear.

The world is definitely less safe today than it was towards the end of the Vietnam War.   The threat of global terrorism was not even on the radar screen back then. Since September 11th, 2001, America and the world were finally feeling good about travel and the fears seem to have subsided. With the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, France and San Bernardino, California, the world is again steeped in fear, which has affected peoples travel plans and commerce, which is the fuel for many economies.   If 200 countries can come together to develop a strategy to address global warming, then it only seems logical that these same countries can work together to solve the global threat from Isis, Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations that want to destroy our way of life.

At this special time of year that is all about peace, prosperity, love and hope, the team at Static Clean International wishes and prays for the joy and happiness of what it means to be family, friends, and good citizens of the world.

4125 Ionized Airgun - Static Clean International

Is Your Thanksgiving Stuffing Clean?

Posted on by Jim Patterson

How do you know if your Thanksgiving stuffing is actually clean?

As we approach the Thanksgiving Holiday in the United States of America – it got me to thinking of how static electricity and contamination might affect my holiday food & meal preparations.  I know you probably say, “Who thinks of that and why?” but it’s the nature of my job and our company, so it’s always in the back of my mind.

When you unwrap packaged food (turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, pie crust, etc.) – how do you know that the package your food comes in is clean?  The simple answer is that the normal person doesn’t know. That question of cleanliness is just assumed by the consumer, but the normal person doesn’t really think about whether or not the package their food is in is uncontaminated.  The FDA tries to setup requirements and mandates but they are so small in comparison to regulate it that companies fall between the cracks and it’s not until you read or hear about it on the news.  By that time it’s too late.  There is an interest read on the FDA website about the requirements and steps required to package food.

Contamination in the food packaging industry

In the food packaging industry – static & contamination can be a huge problem. In particular – plastic packaging. All the rage these days is for packaging to say, “BPA Free”, right? Bisphenol A (BPA) is an omnipresent compound found in plastics. It is a fundamental ingredient of plastics from polycarbonate to polyester. An article in Scientific American (*www.scientificamerican.com) says, “BPA is routinely used to line cans to prevent corrosion and food contamination; it also makes plastic cups and baby and other bottles transparent and shatterproof.” Insert your shocked face here!  No wonder why plastic and packaging companies are working so hard to provide us with “BPA Free” packaging and products.  Makes you wonder what your canned yams and cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving are packaged in, doesn’t it?  The second point regarding plastic packaging is that particulates tend to stick on plastic materials if the plastic has not been static neutralized.  If the plastic packaging has not been static neutralized – particulates – usually loose, dry contaminates (and food; i.e. your stuffing) will attract to the plastic.  Prior to packaging – you may have contaminates that stick to the plastic or bag – so that is an issue.  Also, if the plastic is sticking to itself and not opening up enough during the filling process, then the product being packaged (i.e. stuffing) will stick to the sides as well as the outside or top of the plastic PRIOR to it being heat sealed shut.  That is why static & contamination control is an integral part of the packaging industry.

This year – I am THANKFUL for static control and contamination control products manufactured and sold by Static Clean to packaging companies. Without such technology that allows us to neutralize and control static and particulates in the packaging process – I may be eating stuffing a la mystery meat.  It gives entirely new meaning to “Stuffing” doesn’t it?

Cancer Treatment in the Form of Static Electricity

Posted on by Jim Patterson

Fighting to Win!

Last week I went to Toronto to attend a “Bell Ringing Ceremony”.  Before I received the phone call invite from my niece who has been battling a cancerous brain tumor, I hadn’t heard of this particular event.   Here is the back story.   Cancer patients are subjected to 30 straight days of Radiation and Chemotherapy on an outpatient basis.    In the hallway, outside of the treatment rooms mounted on the wall is a brass “Celebration Bell”.  At the end of the treatment period, the family and friends of the patient meet at the hospital and help their loved ones “Ring the Bell”.

Next to the bell was a plaque that had the following saying.

“Ring this bell three times well – Its sound to clearly say – My treatment is done – This course is run – And I am on my way”.

Static Treatment

Before I went into the Juravinski Cancer Center in Hamilton Ontario, I sat on a park bench near the entrance to the lobby and watched patients come and go.  Many struggled on their way into the center, but more seemed to struggle after their rigorous treatments.   It was a very sad, moving and thought provoking experience.  However, it got me to thinking about cancer treatments and whether the day will come when there are less invasive methods to treat cancer, the number one killer in the world.   Back in Boston, I did a little research and found out that static electricity, which is considered as part of Natural Medicine is in consideration and going through clinical trials, especially in Japan.  Of course!!!

The thought behind using static electricity is nothing new to the medical community.  In the Reading Eagle newspaper, dated September 2, 1951, a retired military surgeon by the name of Colonel Francis Usher suggested the use of static electricity as a possible new cancer treatment.  His premise was that it would enhance existing treatments and possibly slow the growth or kill the cancer cells.

Back to the Future

Fast forward 60 years and many articles can now be found on using static electricity in the treatment of cancer and clinical trials are underway by a number or researchers.  In a paper presented by Philip H. Gutin, MD, and Eric T. Wong, MD, they wrote about Tumor Treatment Fields (TTF) claiming that TTF treatment or an electric field has a superior safety profile, and its minor side effects do not seem to overlap with those of cytotoxic chemotherapies, targeted agents, or anti-angiogenesis drugs. Therefore, the rational combination of TTF therapy with specific pharmacological agents may enhance tumor cell death.

The definition of an electric field is attributed to Michael Faraday in the 1820s and was later formulated by James Clerk Maxwell in his electromagnetic theory in 1865.   It is a field of electric forces that surround a source charge. When a test charge is placed within an electric field, a force acts on it because it is energy. By using a battery with a couple of wires on an AC or alternating current, tests are easy to conduct.   Negative charges attract positive charges, while similar signed charges repel each other.  Basically, two electrodes are placed at a given distance from each other on the human body in proximity to a tumor or cancerous cells.  Voltage is applied and the energy travels from one electrode to the other and has an effect on the bad cells in its path.   TTF therapy is now a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved treatment for patients who have exhausted surgical and radiation treatments.

Obviously, much more needs to be done, but it certainly feels good to serve an industry that not only has a long history in solving static problems, but one that has a future in the Medical Treatment of Cancer.  In the meantime, our Particle Trap® Cube is used to solve particle contamination problems in the packaging of Medical Devices that are utilized in hospitals and clinics.