As an Air Quality/Duct Cleaning specialist I am often consulted upon for my educational experience regarding indoor air quality issues. With the advancements being made in air filtration I am often asked for my opinion on various filtration options one of which are electrostatic furnace filters. As a duct cleaning technician myself, I am a strong advocate of electrostatic air filters.

I have written a brief summary of the benefits of owning such a filter

-Savings: Electrostatic air filters will help keep heating components and A/C coils from being coated with dust particles. Dirt is the #1 cause of heating & cooling system failures, and a cleaner system also operates more efficiently which saves you money on both energy consumption and equipment repairs. Additionally, Electrostatic filters are permanent which save you money on disposable filters.

-Allergy Relief: Asthma, allergy and respiratory symptoms can be significantly reduced when exposure to dust, pollen, mold spores and animal dander is controlled by the electrostatic properties of these filters.

-Housekeeping: Household dust will be collected on the electrostatic media of the filter when the furnace or A/C system is operating. Less frequent dusting will be a welcome benefit to housekeeping.

-Environmentally friendly: Electrostatic filters are a permanent lifetime filter, you will no longer have to toss out disposable filters every month into the landfill (The environment will love you for it)

-Easy to maintain: Instead of replacing your standard throw away filter, an electrostatic filter simply needs to be cleaned periodically to achieve best filtration results and optimum furnace efficiency.

Keeping your Air and Your HVAC system clean:

Having your duct system professionally cleaned is a vital part of dramatically improving the indoor air in your home. The addition of a high performance air filter will provide many benefits and intervals for duct cleaning. Electrostatic high performance efficiency furnace filters removes dust, pollen, mold spores and animal dander as the air circulates through your central system. Clean, filtered air benefits the entire family. Children and the elderly are most effected by indoor air pollution and will benefit greatly from the clean air that exits from this filter.

How does it work?

Electrostatic filters work on the principal of “static electricity” not “electricity”. The filter media has a Negative charge throughout the entire surface which is enhanced by air passing through, Tiny particles such as dust, pollen and mold have a Positive charge and are therefore attracted to the filter like a magnet . These particulates are the culprits of our indoor environmental air pollution. Electrostatic furnace filter is designed to trap these particles and remove them from the air that you breathe

The air that we breathe in our homes can be often saturated with undesirable elements. Some of these pollutants can include viruses, bacteria, dust mites, pet dander, etc. Inhaling these harmful substances and organisms can be detrimental to our health. Some of those ailments include respiratory problems such as pneumonia as well as the development or exacerbation of allergies.

To counter these pollutants in the home or at work there are various air purifying machines that are available to filter the air. One such machine is an electrostatic air purifier. There are many advantages to using an electrostatic air purifier in the home. Some of those advantages include their silent operation, no filters to clean and thorough cleansing of the air.

All of these advantages lead to a healthy environment that enhances the respiratory systems of the family unit residing in that home where the electrostatic air purifier is utilized.

Silent Operation

One of the important features of utilizing an electrostatic air purifier is the ability of the machine to run silently behind the scenes. This quietness is obtained due to the installation of a quiet, but effective fan. Other features of an electrostatic air purifier may include two sensors. One sensor may be adjusted for use in a bedroom. The other sensor adjusts automatically to the noise level in the room in which the electrostatic air purifier is running.

This technology allows for the electrostatic air purifier to operate during the entire length of the day including sleeping hours. This consistent operation allows for the continual filtration of the air within the home.

No Filters

Unlike other air purifying systems, the electrostatic air purifier does not rely on a standard filtration system. Rather than using filters, an electrostatic air purifier utilizes steel rods which act as collection points for the pollutants. These steel rods are very effective in capturing minute pollutants such as pet dander, pollen from flora and other common irritants. These rods can be removed and cleaned when maintenance is required.

Natural Cleansing of Air

Another benefit of utilizing an electrostatic air purifier is the advantage of having fresh smelling air which is an indicator of clean air within the home. The entire purification process leaves the air free from common contaminants in addition to serving as an air freshener.

This freshening of the air is accomplished by removing pollutants and odors and allowing the filtered air to be released back into the home. This revitalization of the air is accomplished naturally without the use of any chemicals or masking deodorizers.

A single speck of dust could spoil a whole experiment at Purdue University’s new Birck Nanotechnology Center. To prevent such a scenario, the building’s HVAC system has to be fast, forceful, and flawless. Such high performance is attained by carefully selected air-handling equipment that includes the AEGIS SGR[TM] , a new grounding device that extends motor life.

Adjacent to the Purdue campus in West Lafayette, IN, the three-story, 71,000-sq-ft Birck Center has many state-of-the-art laboratories for advanced nanotechnology research. Some predict this emerging science could have a big impact on society, possibly yielding new high-strength materials, microscopic devices, or miniature computers constructed atom by atom. “Tiny” is an understatement. Since “nano” means one-billionth, a nanometer is a billionth of a meter, only about 10 atoms wide. A dust particle could be 10 times larger than the group of atoms with which scientists in the new lab might be working.
HALTING MICROSCOPIC EXPANSION

The Birck Center’s HVAC system maintains the labs at 30% to 50% rh at all times and replaces the air at least 15 times per hour. Temperature is allowed to vary by no more than 1[degrees]C; a rise of just one degree causes microscopes and other equipment to expand by an amount equivalent to thousands of atoms.
Many of the labs (more than 20,000 sq ft) are cleanrooms. To call them “controlled environments” would be another understatement. Equipped with vibration-isolation equipment and special filtration systems to keep the air nearly free of dust particles, they are so tightly controlled that some have as many as 120 ach, yet are not allowed temperature changes of more than 0.1[degrees]C.

Key to maintaining such conditions are high-volume fans equipped with VFDs that automatically change fan speed to adjust to the weather outdoors, laboratory occupancy levels, and other factors. The contract to supply eight of these fans went to Colby Equipment Co., which represents 20 manufacturers of industrial and commercial air-handling equipment throughout the Midwest. Colby selected fans manufactured by Greenheck Fan Corp.: four 25-hp fans, each capable of moving more than 20,000 cfm of air; and four 5-hp fans, capable of moving more than 5,000 cfm each.

Colby’s Tom Hall, a Purdue alumnus, knew that without grounding devices, VFD-induced currents would discharge through the fans’ AC motor bearings, causing fusion craters on the bearing race walls. This phenomenon would continue until the race became severely pitted and the bearings (and motor) failed. Prior to failure, the pitting may cause noise and vibration that is magnified and transmitted by HVAC ducts. Because many of today’s AC motors have sealed bearings, electrical damage from VFD-induced shaft currents has become the most common cause of bearing failures. The resulting repairs, downtime, and lost production can be costly.

SQUARELY ON THE GROUND

In his search for reliable grounding devices that would optimize the performance and durability of the variable-speed fans, Hall concluded that conventional metal grounding brushes would be difficult to attach since the fans had already been installed. An Internet search turned up Electro Static Technology, a division of Illinois Tool Works and a Maine-based manufacturer of the AEGIS SGR Conductive MicroFiber[TM] Brush. After speaking with the company’s sales manager, Hall purchased eight SGRs.

A ring of conductive microfiber brushes that encircles a motor shaft, the SGR prevents electrical damage to AC motor bearings and extends motor life by providing a safe path to ground for harmful shaft currents. Maintenance-free, the SGR is unaffected by dirt, grease, or other contaminants and provides long-lasting protection. Its conductive microfibers work with virtually no friction or wear, have no rpm limitations, and last for the life of the motor.

Discussing internal battery design would be incomplete if we did not write on the subject of integrated circuits. Batteries for PDAs, MP3s, Digital Cameras, and Laptops have designed within them integrated power management circuits that insure that the deliverance of reliable power is properly managed. Without these power management integrated circuits even fine tuned handhelds will exhibit problems such as over-voltage, and under-voltage conditions.

Taking a step back a moment let’s build a platform with which to discuss power management integrated circuits. At its most basic level an integrated circuit in general is a miniaturized electronic circuit. An electrical circuit is a network that has a closed loop, giving a return path for current. The goals of integrated circuits are multifaceted, for example when designing for signal processing integrated circuits apply a predefined operation on potential differences (measured in volts) or currents (measured in amperes). Typical functions for such electrical networks are amplification, oscillation and analog linear algorithmic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, differentiation and integration.

For batteries the use of integrated circuits with the goal of power management is integrated battery management which include voltage regulation and charging functions. Power management integrated circuits offer other key benefits as well including maximizing battery life between charges, minimize charging times, and improve battery life.

The other critical aspect of power management integrated circuits is their functioning design to detect and monitor voltage levels in batteries. When certain parameter thresholds are exceeded or dangerous conditions exist, these “supervisory circuits” react through a programmable logic design to protect the monitored system and correct problems as programmed. Supervisory circuits are known by a variety of names, including battery monitors, power supply monitors, supply supervisory circuits and reset circuits. They perform critical functions including power-on-reset (POR) protection to ensure that processors always start at the same address during power-up. Without POR, even well-functioning systems can exhibit problems during power-up, power-down, overvoltage, and undervoltage conditions.

A real example of a battery pack protector circuit is a Texas Instrument two-cell lithium-ion (Li-Ion) and lithium-polymer (Li-Pol) battery pack protector device. The device’s primary function is to protect both Li-Ion and Li-Pol cells in a two-cell battery pack from being either over-charged (over-voltage) or over-discharged (under-voltage). It employs a precision band-gap voltage reference that is used to detect when either cell is approaching an over-voltage or under-voltage state. When on-board logic detects either condition, the series FET (field effect transistor) switch opens to protect the cells.

I won’t be getting anymore technical as this topic is better left to engineers. But suffice to say power management integrated circuits are a critical design aspect of your handheld battery. Without these integrated circuits your handheld device would have died along while back.

Semiconductor device fabrication is the process by which chips are made. These chip are integrated circuits that are present in electrical and electronic devices and appliances. The process of semiconductor device fabrication is of multiple steps during which a wafer is created using pure semi conducting material. Usually Silicon is used to make integrated circuits. However, Gallium arsenide and Germanium are also used.

The entire fabrication process takes six to eight weeks. This includes the packaging of the chips.

A wafer is made from pure silicon ingot. These ingot are sliced into 0.75 mm thick wafers. Then they are polished to get a flat and even surface. After this many steps are required to make this wafer into an integrated circuit.

With time the integrated circuits have gone smaller and smaller, leading to them being produced in clean rooms. These clean rooms are called fabs. Fabs are pressurized with filtered air to remove even the smallest particle as it might rest on the wafer and make it defective. People working in the manufacturing facilities are required to constantly wear clean room suits to protect the chips from contamination.

With the demand increasing, semiconductors are now being manufactured in a number of countries like Ireland, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, China and the US. Intel is the world’s leading manufacturer and has manufacturing facilities in Europe, Asia and the US. Other top manufacturers of semiconductors are Samsung, Texas Instruments, Advanced Micro Devices, Toshiba, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Sony and NXP Semiconductors.

According to US Industry & Market Outlook, there are approximately 5,000 semiconductor and electronic component manufacturers in the United States alone and they contribute $165 billion in terms of sales.

There is little debate that we need to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels, but the costs of renewable energy platforms such as solar make it difficult. Nanotechnology definitely offers the answer.

Solar power is considered one of the better renewable energy platforms. Enough sunlight hits our planet each day to meet our world wide energy needs for an entire year. On top of this, solar energy is a free power source, since nobody can corner the market on the sun. Solar power is also good for the environment since it produces none of the emissions that are of such concern today, specifically carbon dioxide greenhouse gases.

If solar is so great, why don’t we see more practical applications? The problem lies in the applications. Specifically, we have no way to harness the power. Commercial solar cells are very inefficient. Current models on the market only convert about 8 to 13 percent of the sunlight hitting them. This inefficiency makes the cost of producing energy via solar platforms too costly. So, what can we do?

Nanotechnology is a new scientific field with many applications. Although the media has hyped the technology as the answer to a wide variety of miracle cures, most scientists and companies are looking to more practical applications. One such application is improving the efficiency in solar cells.

Nanotechnology has already shown huge breakthroughs in the solar field. In certain studies, the use of nano applications has improved the conversion rate of solar cells to an incredible 65 percent, a slight increase over the current 8 to 13 percent rate. Although none of the applications are currently refined enough to be turned into commercial products, they are getting close. Let’s take a look at a one of the approaches.

Quantum dots have the potential to change the world. They are a form of solar cell that is completely beyond anything you might imagine. Traditional solar cells produce electricity in a unique way. When the sunlight hits material in the cell, the material kicks of an electron and the charge is the electricity. Quantum dots work the same way, but they produce three electrons for every photon of sunlight that hits the dots. The dots also catch more spectrums of the sunlight waves, thus increasing conversion efficiency to as high as 65 percent, a stunning figure.

The really interesting thing about quantum dots is they do not require big, bulk solar panels to work. Researchers are combing the dots with liquid polymers. In practical terms, this means they can be sprayed onto any surface. This literally means that anything painted can act as a solar cell. Think about that. In the near future, you will be able to go solar by just repainting your house. Hybrid cars will be revolutionized, so will your mobile phone. On a cold day, you can put on a coat and gloves that are heated by the solar cells imbedded in their surfaces. The scope of this breakthrough is as breathless as it is unlimited.

Nanotechnology is extremely inter-disciplinary, comprises of physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, and the full variety of the engineering disciplines. The word nanotechnology is been used widely as shorthand to refer to both the technology of emerging field and science. Basically defined, nano-science comprises the basic understanding of physical, biological and chemical properties on atomic and near-atomic scales. Nanotechnology, barely defined, employs controlled manipulation of these atomic properties to make materials and as well other functional system with exclusive capabilities.

Contrary to recent engineering hard work, nature developed nanotechnologies over billions of years, employing enzymes and catalysts to manage with beautiful accuracy various types of atoms and molecules into compound microscopic structures, which make life probable. These natural products are built with huge competence and have inspiring capabilities, like the power to yield solar energy, to change minerals and water into livelihood cells, to store and procedure huge amounts of data using great arrays of nerve cells, and to copy completely billions of bits of information stored in molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

Even more ground-breaking will be the manufacture of nanoscale machines and nanoscale devices for integration into micro- and macro scale systems. Once again, nature has led the way with the manufacture of both linear and rotary molecular motors. These biological machines perform such tasks as muscle contraction (in organisms array from clams to humans) and carrying little packets of material around within cells as being powered by the eco-friendly, energy-efficient fuel adenosine triphosphate. Scientists are only starting to grow the tools to make functioning systems at such small scales, with most proceeds based on electronic or magnetic date processing and other storage systems. The energy-efficient, reconfigurable, and as well self-repairing aspects of biological systems are now becoming understood.

The likely impact of nanotechnology processes, machines, and products is predictable to be extensive, affecting almost every imaginable information technology, energy source, farming product, medical device, pharmaceutical, and other material used in developed. In the meantime, the dimensions of electronic circuits on semiconductors carry on shrinking, with minimum characteristic sizes now reaching the nanorealm, under 100 nanometers. They are huge markets driven by the fast advance of information technology.

What is Nanotechnology and why should I care about it?

Nanotechnology, referred to commonly as molecular manufacturing, is making huge strides within scientific and government communities. Despite its growth and the potential impact it will have on society at large, too little emphasis has been placed on the ethical considerations of nanotechnology and the ever-rippling effects of its applications.

The control of molecular matter has led to amazing breakthroughs in medical treatments, which of course is a benefit to mankind. However, the military is hard at work creating powerful weapons that are no larger than any known bacteria. In addition, molecular level surveillance techniques for surreptitiously keeping track of other organizations and individuals are changing the face of military, law enforcement and humankind in general.

Just like with human genome capability and stem cell research breakthroughs, scientists, governments and individuals need to weigh the obvious advantages of nanotechnology against the residual disadvantages. Although the power of nanotechnology is indisputable, the possibilities of irreversible harm from its indiscriminate use must also be taken into consideration.

What are the Social and Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology?

This is where social and ethical dilemmas present themselves. As life saving tools, nanotechnology is unsurpassed in its promise of an absolute revolution for medical treatment of previously incurable or untreatable conditions.

Conversely, when this technology is used to manufacture miniature weapons or explosives the infinite possibilities of far-reaching repercussions is a very real prospect. Given that researchers fear that nano-machines can become self replicating, theories abound that their by-product, known in scientific circles as “the gray-goo scenario”, could result in unheard of havoc. In addition nanotechnology has the potential to erode our privacy and freedom by providing human rights violations via monitoring and tracking devices that can invade our everyday lives without our knowledge.

For this reason the social and ethical issues relevant to nanotechnology must be addressed before its many technological innovations are unleashed upon society.

Every action has a reaction and nanotechnology is no different. Whether the anticipated power of nanotechnology ever reaches fruition, as a society we must be prepared to deal with any fallout that may arise from its inception and universal acceptance.

There is no doubt that development of nanotechnology and its many proven advantages, is going to continue, yet as a responsible society we must prepare a social policy that will address the benefits in correlation with the ethical consequences of it effect on life as we know it. Why should society be concerned with the Fallout?

When trying to incorporate nano-technological advances into society, there are a myriad of items that require intensive study, such as: issues regarding equity of disbursement, privacy rights of individuals and/or corporations, security considerations, the effect on the environment and the social and ethical impact on the human race.

As responsible humans who are concerned with passing a legacy of improvement down to upcoming generations, it is essential that we develop and create guidelines and working hypotheses that address the far reaching impact that nanotechnology can have on human lives and on the universe itself.

As the horizons of technology expand, the real world is shrinking into a Global Village; Nanotechnology is the new area of interest in technology. Nanotechnology is an umbrella term that covers many areas of research dealing with objects that are measured in nanometers or billionth of meter. It is a hybrid science combining engineering and chemistry. The goal of nanotechnology is to manipulate atoms individually and place them in a pattern to produce a desired structure. Nano-sized machines called assemblers, that can be programmed to manipulate atoms and molecules at will, would be used to build consumer goods. Some nanomachines called replicators, would be programmed to build assemblers.

Nanotechnology would enable creation of new generation of computer components with enormous storage capacity. But the greatest impact of nanotechnology could be the medical industry. Patients would drink fluids containing nanorobots programmed to attack and reconstruct the molecular structure of cancer cells and viruses to makes them harmless. Nanorobots could also be programmed to perform delicate surgeries.

For environmental clean-up, airborne nanorobots could be user programmed to rebuild the thinning ozone layer. Contaminants could be automatically removed from water sources, and spill could be cleaned up instantly. Nanotechnology was first introduced in 1959, in a talk by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, entitled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”, Feynman proposed using a set of conventional-sized robot arms to construct a replica of themselves, but one-tenth of the original size, then using that new set of arms to manufacture an even smaller set, and so on, until the molecular-scale is reached. if we had many million or billions of such molecular-scale products built from individual molecules - a “bottom-up manufacturing” technique, as opposed to the usual technique of cutting away material until you have a completed component or product -”top-down manufacturing”.

Some companies deal in designing bar code labels and selling them to other establishments. These bar code label manufacturers print both preprinted and custom designed labels according to the specifications provided by the ordering company.

Preprinted labels are ready to use labels that are sold in the market. They are available in bundles of 100, 250, 500, etc. Bar code label manufacturers create preprinted labels with technologies such as reflective printing or photocomposition. Photocomposition is an expensive process, but it produces almost authentic and high quality bar codes. Bar code labels made by photocomposition are sold at higher prices than reflective labels. Companies that do not have their own bar coding equipment buy bundles of them from the market for their use.

Manufacturers also customize bar code labels according to the requirements from the ordering company. They can change the size, color, numerical and alphabetical information, nature of the bar coding, etc. as the ordering company suggests. Information such as name of the company, date of shipment or loading, location, etc. is mentioned on customized bar code labels if needed. Manufacturers use specialized software to design the labels.

Naturally, bar code label manufacturers use high-end equipment to manufacture their labels in bulk. Several companies rely upon bar code manufacturers to buy their labels as it not only saves them money, but also time and manpower.

Computers, scanners and printers are all used in conjunction to design, test and print labels. Sequential numbers are provided on the labels so that they can be used to manage inventory. If desired, manufacturers will also place information in the form of alphabetical and numerical codes on the labels.

Bar code label manufacturers also sell other things such as nameplates, location tags, sealing tags and bar code scanners and printers.