Static Electricity

Static electricity is a form of electricity at rest caused by an imbalance at a molecular level within a material.

The characteristics of static electricity create a series of issues which cost industry significant sums of money and time every year. In order to better understand how to remove static electricity or at least better control static on a process it is important to understand what it is that causes static electricity to occur.

Static electricity is generated when a weakly bound (negatively charged) electron is displaced causing an overall imbalance in the charge of a molecule. This commonly occurs on relatively non conductive insulators such as paper, plastics, ceramics and glass. 

The five main causes of static electricity in manufacturing are:

• Contact and separation between two materials
• Rapid heat change
• Cutting processes
• Exposure to UV
• Electrostatic Induction

Source: Fraser Anti Static