Magnetic Plastic? The Elimination of Static Electricity

Ray Rogers · Jul 4, 2009

Well, I was, unfortunately, able to replicate an observation made earlier about a plastic material that attracts metal... resulting in reduced accuracy when weighing chemicals, etc...

No... it wasn't magnetic plastic... but rather Static Magic!

I was washing and drying things when I needed to weigh one of the containers... but when I brought the item near the scale, the scale went crazy... anyway, this time I was able to show that it was static electricty that was causing the problem.

My question is,
how can I get rid of the charge so I can weigh the damm thing?

I have tried several ideas but nothing so far has worked.

Any ideas?

Anon Ymous · Jul 4, 2009

How about touching the surface of the plastic while touching a nail at the wall?

Akki14 · Jul 4, 2009

Grounding cables/mat aka anti-static stuff for computer stuff. Touching cold water pipes... If you're in the US, touching the middle screw that holds the socket outlet plate on is usually a grounding point. If you're in the UK you can usually get away with just touching the nearest radiator to discharge.

Steve Smith · Jul 4, 2009

We have a lot of trouble with static at work work handling large sheets of polyester. Our print lines have anti-static ionizers to reduce this.

It is possible to get small bench mounted versions of these too.

Steve.

Ray Rogers · Jul 4, 2009

Thanks for the responses.
I tried the trick of touching the plastic to various metal items but nothing worked. Perhaps there is a trick within the trick?

The antistatic ionizers sound interesting... do they have a(nother) name?

Well, while touching the plastic to metal did not cure anything, Left alone...with time the problen did diminish....

I thought there might be a special cleaning fluid for this problem... ?　　

Steve Smith said:
We have a lot of trouble with static at work work handling large sheets of polyester. Our print lines have anti-static ionizers to reduce this.

It is possible to get small bench mounted versions of these too.

Steve.

BetterSense · Jul 4, 2009

Static-Guard

you can get it in the laundry section. I use in on my vinyl records and it completely kills static. In the winter it used to get so bad you could see lightning bolts dance across the record and when you tried to pick it up it brought the rubber platter mat with it, which had to be separated with a shower of crackles. Static guard makes it go away completely.

Photo Engineer · Jul 4, 2009

Ray;

This problem is well known and that is why chemists, for the most part, use metal weighing cups for chemicals. This is especially true of weighing small quantities. Air currents are just as bad.

Use of a chemical like Static-Guard introduces the possibility of a contaminant into your photomaterials. Do not use it on the inside of the weighing cup.

There are static eliminating brushes that contain a small quantity of polonium (IIRC) that will totally eliminate the charge. And the radioactivity is totally harmless unless you eat the brush or device. I have 3 of them made by Staticmaster. They supply a parcel to return the used strip to them for ultra safe disposal. The radiation is so weak it will not penetrate the paper packing material, but will discharge the surface of plastic.

PE

Aurum · Jul 4, 2009

Steve Smith said:
We have a lot of trouble with static at work work handling large sheets of polyester. Our print lines have anti-static ionizers to reduce this.

It is possible to get small bench mounted versions of these too.

Steve.

My boss relates the story of his time in a fibreglass works. They had Ionising antistatic bars on the lines that made fibreglass non-woven matting. These were large bars of radiactive material.

They were stripping down the machine for routine maintenance, when they found one missing. This was by all accounts a 90Kg bar.

Try explaining to the H&S how 90Kg of something quite radioactive has gone walkies

Ray Rogers · Jul 4, 2009

BetterSense, Ron,

Thanks for the information about Static Guard. Perhaps a careful manual application would work.

Ron, I have a staticmaster here somewher, but I haven't used it for a while.
True about the metal. Typically, I use only glass. The problem today was that I wanted to know the weight of a plastic processing tray.

Since plastic can become charged like this, what about other material...
Can the cheicals one wants to weigh also become affected?
Podwers? Liquids?

Photo Engineer said:
Ray;

This problem is well known and that is why chemists, for the most part, use metal weighing cups for chemicals. This is especially true of weighing small quantities. Air currents are just as bad.

Use of a chemical like Static-Guard introduces the possibility of a contaminant into your photomaterials. Do not use it on the inside of the weighing cup.

There are static eliminating brushes that contain a small quantity of polonium (IIRC) that will totally eliminate the charge. And the radioactivity is totally harmless unless you eat the brush or device. I have 3 of them made by Staticmaster. They supply a parcel to return the used strip to them for ultra safe disposal. The radiation is so weak it will not penetrate the paper packing material, but will discharge the surface of plastic.

PE

Photo Engineer · Jul 4, 2009

Many powders can become charged. Sodium Carbonate (anh) is notable as one. I have seen a jar literally explode with dust when opened in a dry lab and where the plastic bottle was slightly charged. The chemical went all over the lab and had to be cleaned up.

In any event, I would have mentioned glass, which I also use, but often it is too heavy. For the most part, I use plastic cups with no problem due to the local humidity, but I use metal as well. And, I use non-magnetic metal. No copper, lead, zinc and etc... Stainless Steel.

Aluminum can be used for most everything but alkalis.

PE

Wade D · Jul 5, 2009

For mixing chemicals from scratch I use small glass containers. I haven't heard anyone mention the static master brush in years. Didn't even know they were still made. I used one years ago for cleaning negatives before printing and I'm sure it would get rid of the static on your plastic containers as well.
A little off topic but don't use an aluminum scoop for sodium hydroxide. I worked for a company that made chemicals for use in automated X-ray processors when I was much younger. The owner was a good chemist and all of the products were proprietary but we just couldn't get it through his head that aluminum and corrosives don't mix.:rolleyes:

dancqu · Jul 5, 2009

Ray Rogers said:
I was washing and drying ... Any ideas?

Drying. Friction will induce a static charge on any surface
so inclined to generate a static charge. Plastics and glass
surfaces are two. Static means just that, the charge does
not flow. There is no grounding off a static charge.

Dispelling the charge entails whole surface treatment.
Ionization of the air is one way to drain away the
electricity. Polonium will do that. Dan

benjiboy · Jul 5, 2009

This should do the trick http://www.zerostat.com/

Nicholas Lindan · Jul 5, 2009

Wade D said:
...aluminum and corrosives don't mix.

Au contraire, they mix very well. They become almost inseparable.

Akki14 · Jul 5, 2009

benjiboy said:
This should do the trick http://www.zerostat.com/

Wow! I'm amazed at how much they can charge for a gas lighter! I got a handheld piezo electric one of those in a kitchen shop for a couple of quid a few years ago. But I used it to make a kirlian photography plate setup instead

Ray Rogers · Jul 5, 2009

dancqu said:
Ionization of the air is one way to drain away the
electricity. Polonium will do that. Dan

Ｗｈａｔ　ｏｔｈｅｒ　ｗａｙｓ　ａｒｅ　ｔｈｅｒｅ　ｔｏ　ｉｏｎｉｚｅ　ｔｈｅ　ａｉｒ？

amuderick · Jul 5, 2009

I love my Staticmaster brush. I use it for photo films and also for chemical jars. any kind of powder which gets messy (and thus unclean/unsafe) because of static can be tamed with one of these brushes. Also, i use it on my scales to cancel out static charges. Get one. They are worth the price.

Akki14 · Jul 5, 2009

Ray Rogers said:
Ｗｈａｔ　ｏｔｈｅｒ　ｗａｙｓ　ａｒｅ　ｔｈｅｒｅ　ｔｏ　ｉｏｎｉｚｅ　ｔｈｅ　ａｉｒ？

stupid answer - with an air ionizer. They used to be quite popular for "clearing the air". Just basically electrical sparks at the end of the day, like a gas lighter, piezoelectric sparker whatever you want to call it.

Aurum · Jul 5, 2009

Photo Engineer said:
Many powders can become charged. Sodium Carbonate (anh) is notable as one. I have seen a jar literally explode with dust when opened in a dry lab and where the plastic bottle was slightly charged. The chemical went all over the lab and had to be cleaned up.

FD&C Blue #1. Ultrafine powder, very strong colour, gets everywhere, only usually spotted when it comes into contact with moisture and shows up very strongly.
Although harmless, it also demonstrates why dust masks are a good idea. Bright blue bogies are not a reassuring look. :rolleyes:

Ray Rogers · Jul 5, 2009

Aurum said:
FD&C Blue #1. Ultrafine powder, very strong colour, gets everywhere, only usually spotted when it comes into contact with moisture and shows up very strongly.
Although harmless, it also demonstrates why dust masks are a good idea.

Yes, indeed!

This can happen with photographic sensitizing dyes as well,
which are perhaps not quite as harmless...

When a small amount of moisture comes in contact with even an infinitesimally small amout of the dye... the dye becomes visible;

the real fun begins when one "cleans" such an invisibly tainted surface,
since it cannot be seen until you wipe over it with a damp cloth...
dye suddenly "develops" out of nowhere and quite likely at the time, for no known reason!

Wade D · Jul 6, 2009

Nicholas Lindan said:
Au contraire, they mix very well. They become almost inseparable.

That was the problem. Sodium Hydroxide ate the scoop! I saw that air ionizers were mentioned. They will work but just raising the humidity of the room will do as well. I used to make blueprints from mylar engineering drawings and in low humidity it was a shocking experience. Literally. Most plastics have a nasty habit of retaining a static charge unless the humidity can be controlled at greater than 45%.

dancqu · Jul 6, 2009

Ray Rogers said:
Ｗｈａｔ　ｏｔｈｅｒ　ｗａｙｓ　ａｒｅ　ｔｈｅｒｅ
ｔｏｉｏｎｉｚｅ　ｔｈｅ　ａｉｒ？

An air ionizer is NOT the way. An air ionizer
will ionize air massively. The air will clear of
small particles but those particles will relocate
to surfaces within the space being cleared.

A humidity of 55%, although not an ionization
as such, will carry away surface charges.

The Static master brushes ionize air in a very
local way. Dan

PeteZ8 · Jul 6, 2009

Use those little paper Dixie cups for bathrooms. Small, cheap, static free.

Magnetic Plastic? The Elimination of Static Electricity

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