The plasma jet: industrial hygiene aspects and a survey of current United States practices for employee protection.
Abstract The plasma torch, because it concentrates large amounts of thermal energy in a small volume, has become increasingly popular in industry. During the past fifteen years, the plasma torch has developed into an important industrial tool, and it has been used for metal cutting and welding fabricating operations that would not be possible otherwise. However, along with technological advances, the plasma torch has presented new problems to the industrial hygiene field. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss these problems and the extent of industrial hygienist's awareness of them. A brief outline of the theory of the plasma torch and the history and scope of its industrial usage is also presented.
A Preliminary Study of Some Health Hazards in the Plasma Jet Process
A brief technical description is given of the plasma jet process, and reference is made to its likely practical applications in industry. An opportunity has been taken during experiments with a prototype plasma jet to assess some of the health hazards which might arise from these industrial applications and to indicate the type of precautions which should be observed in practice. Measurements and analysis of the noise emitted during the operation of a jet showed that the sound intensities ranged from 79·5 to 90·5 dB (re 0·0002 dynes/cm.2) per octave band between 300 and 10,000 cycles/second. Three male volunteers exposed to the noise for a period of one hour were subsequently found to have a mean temporary threshold shift of 19 dB at 4,000 cycles/second. Air sampling and analysis for ozone and nitrogen dioxide in the near vicinity of the jet gave a negative result for the former substance but demonstrated that the latter contaminant was present in concentrations ranging from 0·1 to 9·6 p.p.m.
Measuring Sheet Resistances of Dielectrics Using Co‐Planar Hydrogel Electrochemical Cells with Practical Applications to Characterize the Protective Quality of Paints on Sculptures
Electrical properties of thin dielectric films at the solid-liquid phase boundary are an important performance characteristic of many devices, coatings and sensors. In this paper, co-polymeric hydrogels of polyacrylic acid co-sulfonic acid, swollen with a salt solution to act as the solid electrolyte, were used to assess interfaces using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in a co-planar geometry. Silane-modified glasses were characterized by the co-planar hydrogel EIS cell and found to be distinguishable based on their surface monolayer chemistry. EIS measurements were also made on primed and painted metal substrates, using both test panels and an outdoor sculpture, Tony Smith's Stinger. The panels were then exposed to accelerated and outdoor weathering and showed degradation on the surface paint layers, which was observable electrochemically using EIS and confirmed visually by SEM. Electrochemical spectral features were compared between data from a standard paint-test cell versus this co-planar hydrogel cell; both cell types were able to measure coating capacitance, providing useful information about the condition of the bulk coating. Yet, sheet resistance (Rs) was a spectral feature seen only by the co-planar hydrogel cell. Thus, it can be concluded that the use of such co-planar hydrogel cells can provide an earlier warning sign to coating degradation and such cells provide a new type of spectral information that is not assessable by the standard geometry.