Charged insulator touches a conductor

[sophiecentaur]

the mention about 'glue' being involved is a head-scratcher.

Poor script writing by someone who didn't know what it was all about, I expect.

Every process that involves lengths of stuff going over rollers requires static electric charge to be taken into account so there's no surprise it happens here. too. I think it's often dealt with by having metal 'combs' across the surface of the belt / film to neutralise the charges (shock and fire risk). Can you remember such a comb on the machines you saw?

 

[Asymptotic]

Can you remember such a comb on the machines you saw?

At one time it was common practice to stretch copper tinsel across the sheet line, but there isn't a good way to do it without getting in the way of an operator while stringing sheet through at start-up, and such installations didn't survive for long. On the other hand, operators were quick to point out a malfunctioning high voltage deionizer bar at a bagging machine's film roll, because that created a jamming nightmare for them every few minutes :)

 

[sophiecentaur]

a malfunctioning high voltage deionizer bar

That would, presumably be a posh version of a neutralising comb and pretty vital!

 

[darth boozer]

It might be worth reading the article about the electrophorus, which explains how a charged insulator can repeatedly charge a conductor. The induced charge is grounded by touching the conductor then the conductor becomes charged by the work done in removing it from the attraction of the charged insulator, which retains its original charge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrophorus

 

[sophiecentaur]

It might be worth reading the article about the electrophorus, which explains how a charged insulator can repeatedly charge a conductor. The induced charge is grounded by touching the conductor then the conductor becomes charged by the work done in removing it from the attraction of the charged insulator, which retains its original charge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrophorus

I already introduced the electrophorus near the top of the thread. Inductive charging is much more efficatious.