The PUR-AS hose family manufactured by NORRES Schlauchtechnik (Gelsenkirchen, Germany) was recently voted one of the top three innovations in the “Environmental and safety technology/explosion protection” category of the Vogel Business Media Innovation Award at “POWTECH/TechnoPharm 2010”. The permanently antistatic hose types in the PUR-AS family with electrostatic discharge capability were originally unveiled by NORRES last September.

This year’s Innovation Awards – sponsored by PROCESS, PharmaTEC and Schüttgut, three trade journals published by Vogel Business Media – were presented at the “POWTECH/TechnoPharm 2010” exhibition on April 27. The organisers were looking for the most innovative apparatus and processes in seven different categories in the chemical, pharmaceutical and process industries. Entries were submitted to the three magazines by a large number of exhibitors upfront of POWTECH/TechnoPharm 2010. Once again, the novel products competing for the Award were judged according to their degree of innovativeness, quality, efficiency and commercial benefit for users.

The permanently antistatic hoses in the NORRES PUR-AS series were shortlisted as one of the top three innovations in the Innovation Award’s “Environmental and safety technology/explosion protection” category. All products in the innovative NORRES AIRDUC^?, PROTAPE^? and BARDUC^? PUR-AS family are made from a special wall material: hoses manufactured in this way impress with a permanent electrostatic discharge capability < 10⁹ Ω as well as a milky transparent surface through which the delivered material is clearly visible. Conventional, conductive transport hoses or hose types capable of electrostatic discharge often only achieve these specifications with the help of migrating antistatic material and carbon blacks. It is a well-known problem of antistatic material that its effect is exclusively attributable to its migration to the hose surface, leading to an accumulation of moisture from the ambient air. However, when solids are conveyed, the antistatic material that migrates to the inner surface is continuously abraded, with the result that the antistatic is “leached out” and the discharge effect is gradually weakened. Moreover, the antistatic material can also be absorbed by the product being conveyed. The fact that hoses whose conductivity is achieved by adding carbon blacks are – not surprisingly – also coloured black is a further drawback. On the one hand, this obscures the user’s view of the product being pumped while on the other, the conveyed material may be contaminated due to wear. Since the mechanism of action that is responsible for the electrostatic discharge capability is not linked to migration, there is no contamination of the conveyed material and no deterioration in the electrostatic discharge effect. The permanently antistatic hoses in the PUR-AS series meet the requirements of TRBS 2153, the new technical rule applicable throughout Germany which superseded BGR 132 in May 2009. The exclusive use of wall materials that are conductive or capable of electrostatic discharge is recommended by TRBS 2153 for transport hoses in hazardous areas.