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Anti-static Treatments

What is static Electricity? Static electricity is an electrical charge that is at rest, as opposed to electricity in motion or current electricity. Static charges can be generated by either friction or induction.. How is it generated? The most common generation of static charge is the tribo electric charge or the friction electricity developed when rubbing together and then separating two masses.

Static electricity in the workplace can be either a nuisance in the form of garment cling, or a hazard from sparking in a flammable atmosphere. The primary hazard from static charges is the stored energy on the body of an ungrounded person.
Most flammable vapor/air mixtures can be ignited with spark energies in the range of 0.15to 2 milli joules (.001 joule, a unit of electrical energy). The ungrounded human body can store energies as high as 40 milli joules while clothing can hold less than 5% of that amount. The contribution of clothing to static charge buildup is very small as long as wearers do not don or remove items of clothing in a hazardous area. Donning or removing any garments can generate static charge on the fabric through tribo electric generation by friction and cause charge separation between the layers of clothing. Increased charge on the fabric and charge separation increases the likelihood of spark generation from the fabric surface.

When a person walks across a carpeted or tile floor, a triboelectric charge builds up in the body due to the friction between the shoes and floor material. The more you generate this friction static the greater the voltage potential develops in the body, you are acting as a capacitor. Everyone's capacitance to hold charges is different. However a sure sign of static presence is hair standing on end or static discharge sparks. Static discharges can be noticed when you touch an object of lower electrical potential such as a door knob, and a bolt of electricity flows from your charged body to the door knob. This flow of electricity is actually a result of the stored static charge that is being rapidly discharged to the lower potential object. This discharge that can be felt as well as seen, is commonly referred to as an electrostatic discharge, or "ESD".

It is not necessarily the static charge generated in the body that does the damage as much as it is the difference in potential that creates an electrostatic discharge. The ESD event can be felt at the human sensation threshold of 3000 volts. If one feels or sees the static shock, it is a minimum of 3000 volts. The potential static charge that can develop from walking on tile floors is greater than 15,000 volts, while carpeted floors can generate in excess of 30,000 volts.

During spinning, weaving and finshing of yarns and fabric, friction will be created by rubbing . Hydrophobic fibres tend to develop static charge. As the cellulosic fibres are good conductors, they do not produce static charge whereas the synthetic fibres which are not good conductors, develop static charge.

Mechanism
Anti static property can be brought out;
By reducing the charge. By increasing the surface conduction power, By making the fibre hydrophilic. Most of the antistatic finishes are based on the first mechanism ie., by reducing the charge and increasing the surface conduction

Silicone emulsions, PE emulsions, PE Glycols, Poly Ammonium Quaternary Salts, Acrylic. Polymers can be used for this purpose. In fact the Silicone emulsion when used, produces antistatic property by reducing the friction between the fibres with added advantages of soil release property, softness and suppleness etc.,

Method-Pad - Dry - Cure method.


Normally it is added in the finishing bath itself along with other additives. The moisture regain of the fibre plays an important role in static dissipation. The higher the moisture regain lower will be the static accumulation.

There are two methods of application of antistatic agents. 1) By incorporating non-durable antistatic agent into polymer during manufacture of synthetic fibres. 2) By applying either non-durable or durabl, antistatic agents, on the filament or yarn or fabrics.

Some of the commercial antistatic agents for synthetic fibres are Girrasol PT (ICI), Ceramine R,ANS (Sand Antista Oil, Antista D,M (Ahura chemical produc Antistatic Oil, Antista D (Hico products Ltd.,), Antistlif T) and M(BASF).

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