Flexaust Industrial Hoses

Examples:

Applications requiring condutive, resistive, dissipative or grounding capability:

• FDA Approval
• UL94V
• UV Protected
• Crush Proof

How many of you count yourselves “totally confused” when it comes to explaining any of the following:

• Static Conductive
• Static Dissipative
• Static Grounded
• Levels of Static Electricity “Resistivity”
• Ohms/Square Surface Resistivity

Well, if you said yes to any or all of the above, count yourself in the majority of the people in our industry.

What we are going to attempt to do with this paper is to filter this “confusion” down to a level of understanding for all. The better we all understand, the more of the “valuable, higher priced products” we will all be able to sell.

1                   10^? Ohms/Square Surface Resistivity: Anything with a 10 with another little number in superscript followed by something like Ohms/Square makes my eyes glaze over. So, let’s ignore the Ohms/Sq. for now, and just say that this is nothing more than a “Frame of Reference for Measurement” like a ruler. Just remember, “the Higher the little number, the Higher the Resistance meaning that the Material is Less Conductive.”

2                   Levels of Static Electricity Resistivity: Here we are talking about “Terminology” that differentiates how quickly, or effectively an electrical charge passes through a material to ground. The only words we will need to know right now are “Insulative”, “Antistatic”, “Static Dissipative”, and “Conductive”.

TERMINOLOGY :

1                   Insulative: Means that the material is pretty much totally “Non­Conductive” which means that it does not allow the flow of electrons through its bulk. A good example of this is electrical wire. There’s definitely a charge that goes through the wire, but it won’t shock us because it can’t pass through the covering

2                   Antistatic: This is at the lower end of materials that allow a static charge to dissipate. Antistatic additives are commonly used to reduce static build up in certain thermoplastics upon which the static would cause the attraction of dust to the surface area. Examples are: The clear lens on your automobile’s speedometer, and the tinted lens that covers your IR detector on your VCR/DVD remote.

3                   Static Dissipative: This is material that allows generated static electricity to transfer through its bulk to ground, or other conductive objects. This is the range that Flexaust’s “Flx­Thane SD” falls under.

4                   Conductive: This range of material includes the conductive carbon black blend of PTFE found in Teflon® Hose, to extremely conductive Metals. Electrical charges flow across or through its volume easily. Flexaust’s Genesis “DPZ­C” and “Conduct­O­Flex” are “Conductive” to 10³ ­10⁵ ohms/sq.

THE KEY POINT THAT IS MOST MISUNDERSTOOD – HOW IT WORKS:

I have had more than one distributor tell me that they saw no reason to pay the premium for the Flexaust Flx­Thane SD, when they could just sell their customer the Flx­Thane MD and ground the wire at both ends. The confusion lies in the lack of understanding that the Static Charge has to get to the wire somehow. The “MD” Urethane Compound is “Insulative” and the Charge cannot pass through the material to the wire to Ground. Whereas the “SD” Urethane Compound is “Static Dissipative” which allows the Charge to bleed through the wall of the hose to the wire, which goes to Ground. Simple when you think of it, and easy to explain. Now make the sale!

For the more information – see the following : LEVELS OF ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY & OHMS/SQUARE

1. – Insulative: 10¹² ohms/sq or higher

2. – Anti­Static: >10¹⁰ and <10¹² ohms/sq.

3. – Static Dissipative: >10¹⁰ and <10¹² ohms/sq. (Flx­Thane SD 10⁸­ - 10¹⁰)

4. – Conductive: <10⁶ ohms/sq. (Flexaust’s Genesis “DPZ­C” and “Conduct­O­Flex” both are rated “Conductive” at 10³ – 10⁵ Ohms/Sq)


This Table more clearly shows the different degrees of Resistivity:

When it comes to UL 94V hoses

The first "2"  YouTubes below show UL94V rated (flame ratardant)  and how they react to an open flame from a propane tourch.

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{"video":"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5T5SXK8uhw","width":"400","height":"225"}

Some of the hoses featured are Flexaust's PVR-3 and CWGP and the 2nd YouTube is the FSP5

The third YouTube is an example of a conductive application with the flour dust catching fire is just an example of what can happen when a dust explosion occurs.  It is meant to show the plant maintenance people (actually to help sales people explain to plant maintenance personnel) the hazards and potentials of dust causing an explosion that can kill people.  It then would follow that whatever hose or ducting the maintenance people use to control the dust in their factory, they should be using something that will minimize and control static electricity, which could spark and cause the dust to ignite.  The hoses of choice for this application are Conductoflex, DPZ-C, and FlexThane-SD.

{"video":"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS8q_IfbFWQ","width":"400","height":"225"}

“Real life example - I once called on a factory in PA that manufactured that white stuff you find in little packets with electronic equipment to cut down on humidity.  I think it's called vermiculite, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, the maintenance guy would walk around with a PVC hose and vacuum up the dust.  He was shocking the  *** out of himself just through the static electricity that would build up in his hose.  I switched him to FlexThane-SD and the problem was solved.”

Here is an example of our Flexaust PV crushproof hose:

{"video":"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juyY9RO8WWw","width":"400","height":"225"}


Dalatec is very adept at working with application specific requirements. We are very competitive and value any inquiries you may have. We could have easilly highlighted other types of hoses in this blog but we wanted to feature just a few to give you an idea of our product offerings.

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YouTubes courtesy of WC Green Associates.