Tribo and corona charging and charge decay on polymers plates

Abstract

Polymers are increasingly used in industrial applications due to their low cost of manufacturing, good mechanical properties and thermal stability, many problems related to static electricity can be caused by charges generated on the polymer surfaces. The electrostatic charge generation and charge decay on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) plates was examined using two modes of charging, the tribocharging of PTFE (180 mm × 50 mm × 10 mm) against acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) (100 mm × 15 mm × 5 mm) and corona charging. The tribocharging conditions are as follows: normal load, 2–10 N; sliding velocity, 25–100 mm/s; stroke length, 55 mm. For corona charging experiments we used a triode configuration. The surface potential cartography was performed with a capacitive probe connected to a non-contact electrostatic voltmeter. The results point out that the electric potential in the case of corona charging is more uniform compare to tribocharging.