Characteristics of pin and wire corona devices for electrostatic charging

The phenomenon of corona discharge is of great importance in many areas such as electrophotography, charge transport experiments, power loss on high voltage transmission lines, electrical noise and air pollution control. The construction and performance of pin and wire corona devices are discussed. Experimental results will be presented to show that the DC characteristics of the corona depend on the corona emitter, the geometry of the corona housing, the polarity and magnitude of the potential applied to the corona emitter and the spacing between the corona emitter and the detecting electrode. Corona current distribution curves clearly illustrate that wire coronas are more suitable for electrostatic charging.