While most static issues in the converting industry involve solving static problems, in other industrial applications, static charge plays an important and beneficial role.

For example, in 1907, Dr. Frederick G. Cottrell, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, applied for a patent on a device for charging particles and then collecting them through electrostatic attraction — the first electrostatic precipitator. Cottrell first applied the device to the collection of sulfuric acid mist and lead oxide fume emitted from various acid-making and smelting activities. Vineyards in northern California were being adversely affected by the lead emissions [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_precipitator].

 

So, next time your cut sheets jam because the static level is too high, remember that the same static attraction is helping clean the air!