Magnetic Plastic? The Elimination of Static Electricity

[Ray Rogers]

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]

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

[Akki14]

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]

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]

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... ?　　

Originally Posted by Steve Smith

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]

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Steve Smith

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]

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?

Originally Posted by Photo Engineer

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]

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