Anti-static products

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Amy McCray

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Dec 3, 2002
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2,780
Loc
North Prairie, WI
Have always been curious just what makes an Anti-static cloth or brush anti-static.

Also, is there a point when it no longer has anti-static properties? Or will it stay anti-static forever (I doubt it)?

Have at it my chemistry-minded friends.
 
I'm no chemist, but as I understand it, the static is dissipated by conductive fibers in the cloth or brush. They do not usually eliminate all static charge, but reduce it.

The best tool I've seen for getting rid of static is the Kinetronics ionizing gun, which eliminates the static charge altogether, rather than reducing it by dissipation. It's still temporary, though.

As far as I know, there's no way to eliminate static permanently. The charge always comes back when the ambient conditions are right.
 
Jim's correct. Static charge is dissipated when it is given a path to a lower potential.

There is a way to permanently eliminate static, and that is to provide an electrical path to ground. It's not always a practical solution, but in cases where a lack of static charge is important, it can be done. I tend to doubt that such is a typical case in framing, however.
 
The indium/tin coating on Optium acrylic sheet does exactly that. One can find this static-
dispersive coating on other forms of acrylic sheet, without the anti-reflective coatings found
on the Optium, but the difference in cost hardly
justifies loosing the AR properties of the Optium.


Hugh
 
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