
Look Ma, No Glue: Electrostatic Adhesion as If by Magic - NicoJuicy
https://hackaday.com/2019/03/09/look-ma-no-glue-electrostatic-adhesion-as-if-by-magic/
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mLuby
I'm curious about what one of the comments asks. Anyone know the answer?

>How dangerous is this? If the insulation fails and you touch the plate, will
you be killed directly or just receive a harmless shock like from static
electricity?

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jedimastert
I saw elsewhere that the power supply is from a bug zapper, so I'm guessing
about like touching a bug zapper. A little more googling has told me that the
answer is "it's bad, but not lethal or burning if you move your hand quickly"

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kylek
Semi-relevant!

[http://amasci.com/weird/unusual/e-wall.html](http://amasci.com/weird/unusual/e-wall.html)

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opwieurposiu
The electrostatic chuck is a common way to hold silicon wafers in chip fab
machines.

[https://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/LN03-27-98/chuck_story.html](https://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/LN03-27-98/chuck_story.html)

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mzs
video
[https://twitter.com/JanHenrikH/status/1094664006059593729](https://twitter.com/JanHenrikH/status/1094664006059593729)

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tantalor
This demo is missing a key point: what happens if you open the circuit while
the paper is adhered? Does it just fall down?

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gene-h
It will probably stick for a decent amount of time. An electroadhesive pad is
a capacitor and leakage will probably be quite low.

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lholden
There are professional whiteboard style products that make use of
electrostatic adhesion. Usually designed such that you stick a piece of paper
behind a plastic overlay that you draw on. They are pretty nifty if you have a
need for temporarily marking up printouts.

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darkpuma
EEVBlog did a teardown of one:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsNbK7kCcKA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsNbK7kCcKA)

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alanning
The Ping Pong Ball Accelerator referenced at the bottom of the article is a
really neat project. Wonder if elem school would let the high voltage source
be used during science fair demo day...

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antongribok
Apparently, the source of high voltage came from an electronic bug zapper.
Pretty neat.

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gene-h
Cheap ionizer power supplies from ebay and what not[0] can be used to do the
same thing for $3-$10. It's best to find one that has an exposed ground wire,
which can be difficult as most don't have documentation, but otherwise one can
use one of the input supply terminals. I've found that a simply
electroadhesive pad a bit bigger than a standard piece of paper with two
electrodes made from a space blanket glued on to some polyethylene sheeting
can support the weight of a power supply and a 9 volt battery to power it.

[0][http://amasci.com/emotor/list_ionizers.html](http://amasci.com/emotor/list_ionizers.html)

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peter_d_sherman
Version 0.0000001 of Starship Enterprise's gravity system... <g>

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afandian
I'm no chemist, but does glue work by electrostatic?

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blacksmith_tb
Not in this sense I don't think, this is a case where turning off the power to
the device causes the 'sticking' to stop. Glues are chemically (and/or
mechanically) bound to surfaces, and you can't 'turn them off' (though you may
be able to chemically alter the glue bond, e.g. with a solvent).

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afandian
I meant inter-molecular electrostatic forces that make glue work.

