Electrostatic Properties and Ions Elimination Effect of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Adhesive Tape Manufacturing

Abstract

Electrostatic discharges (ESD) can release large amounts of energy to products and humans, causing product failure and pain, respectively. In this research, we elucidate the electrostatic charge generation, and discharge phenomena in real polyvinyl chloride (PVC) based electrical tape factory, which is primarily operated by the roll to roll manufacturing process. We perform the electrostatic potential measurement to identify the critical process of charge generation and to eliminate static charge at the source in order to prevent incidents caused by electrostatic discharge to operators or staff in the winding process. We also perform a numerical simulation-based finite element method (FEM) that provides modeling of an induced electric field, allowing the electrostatic discharge. The maximum potential is ~20 kV measured at 25 mm, indicating that the meter was induced by the electric field approximately ~0.8 MV/m, corresponding to surface charges density is ~ 10 µC/m2. Therefore, we introduced the ionization emitter bar in this case because it is feasible to install to the current infrastructure of the tested factory. The ionization emitter appears to reduce the electrostatic charge deposited on the PVC surface ~ 30% of the original charges. Therefore, installing a charge-dissipation technology at a proper location or combining with other methods, the electrostatic charge generation can be minimized even in roll to roll process.