Ionic Cleaning System for Optical Surfaces
● Roberto S. Medina ● Manuel D. Ochoa Ochoa ● Erik D. Mauricio Jimenez ● Luis E. Cruz Acosta
Disclaimer
Due to confidentiality agreements between the sponsor and the project team, some details regarding applications and experimentation during the project have been omitted from the present website.
Background
Ionizers are used in indoor settings such as production lines and cleanrooms to reduce ambient dust. Typical ionizing units are big, bulky, and expensive. The optical surfaces targeted are usually lenses, mirrors or prisms made from acrylic or glass.
Objective of the Project
Create a small ionizing unit at reduced cost that can be used in outdoor applications. The unit needs to accomplish a significant reduction of dust and be modular.
Challenges!
Since ionizing effects and dust reduction are not commonly measured parameters the project team needed to create a complete experimental setup, procedure, and analysis tools in addition to the ionizing product unit!
Final Design
Project Experimental Setup
The setup of this project experiment consists of a simulated environment, a dust dispersion mechanism, a testing enclosure, the ionizing product unit, and power control units. The experiment allows to contaminate a glass sample in a controlled and repeatable way to measure the efficiency of an ionizing unit in preventing the dust adhesion.
Key Element: Dust Dispersion System
The dust dispersion mechanism is made up of an aluminum bucket with ERM motors attached and a fine mesh at the bottom. The fine size of the mesh only allows very small particles to flow through while creating enough surface tension to not allow the particles to fall continuously. The ERM motors disturbs the bottom layer, effectively allowing the dust to disperse only at the specified intervals.
Key Element: Ionizing Product Unit
Through the implementation of an ionizer and fans, it's possible to introduce an ionized wind current which can neutralize dust particles impacted by the current. The ionizer produces anions and the fans disperse them, ultimately decreasing the amount of dust that will reach and adhere to an optical surface.
Even More Components!
Test Results: DIC Analysis
Using MATLAB software and DIC (Digital Image Correlation) analysis, the project team is able to quantify the dust adhesion on a surface and map the areal distribution of dust!
By introducing the final ionizing product unit the dust adhesion was reduced 65% !!!
Want to learn more about these results and the process?
Check out our : Final Design Showcase
No time for a long visit?
Read our: Executive Summary