Electrostatic Effect Intelligent Monitoring for Automatic Stirring Process

The stirring with a rotary motion is a highly automatic process in the industrial automation, especially in the chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries. The intense friction and collision between the stirring blade and raw materials (solid granules or liquids) can produce an obviously electrostatic charging effect, especially in dry environment. The unexpected discharging can ignite dust clouds. In this paper, we presented the real-time monitor methods for both charging strength and discharging event. Experiment results showed that the maximum potential of 20.61 kV was obtained at 9 cm from the bottom wall by the designed potential transfer measurement. The discharge leakage current of microseconds was detected across the designed high-speed current circuit while it was connected to the grounded wall of stirring drum. Those proposed sensing methods is capable of early prevention of electrostatic hazards in the field of automatic stirring process.