Electrostatic effects have been known for over 2500 years

Electrostatic effects, conductivity and electrostatic separation

As early as 500 B.C., the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus described electrostatic effects based on the charging of an amber on a woolen cloth. The term electrostatics can also be derived from the Greek word for amber, "electron.

We have the Englishman Stephen Gray to thank for the realization that a distinction must be made between conductors and non-conductors. At the beginning of the 18th century, he investigated the conductivity of various materials in various experiments.

Another 150 years passed before electrostatics was used for sorting mixtures of materials. Around 1870, the first separation tests of salt mixtures were carried out in the electric field and since then the development of electrical sorting methods in the mineral sector has been pursued further.

Based on the growing demand for technologies for the recovery of valuable materials, hamos has been developing and producing electrostatic separators for the recycling sector for over 20 years. In doing so, hamos uses various electrostatic effects to separate a wide range of mixed materials:

Differences in conductivity enable the separation of very fine metal particles from plastics and other non-conductors. Tribo-electric effects play just as decisive a role in the separation of diverse plastic or non-conductive mixtures as they do in mineral separation.

We would be happy to tell you more about electrostatics and electrostatic separation.

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