Ion Systems Introduces Revolutionary Auto-Clean System; New Patented Technology Enables Automatic Cleaning of Emitter Points.

BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 22, 1998--Ion Systems today announced an advancement in emitter point cleaning technology with its Auto-Clean System, a new option now available for the Precision SC family of ionizing blowers.

Eliminating the time and labor costs associated with ionizer maintenance, the Auto-Clean option is the industry's first fully-automated system for emitter point maintenance.

The Auto-Clean System is based on Ion Systems' June 16, 1998 patent No. 5,768,087, titled Method and Apparatus for Automatically Cleaning Ionizing Electrodes. The lightweight and simple design uses centrifugal force to clean all emitter points automatically each time the ionizing blower is turned off and back on.

"The Auto-Clean option delivers significant financial savings to manufacturers by drastically reducing ionizer maintenance time," commented Michael George, senior VP, Sales and Marketing. "This fully-automated product option also minimizes unnecessary human interaction, a well-known source of contamination in the cleanroom."

Reducing ionizer downtime, the Auto-Clean System expedites the cleaning process to 15 seconds per ionizer, regardless of the number of fans, and total maintenance time is significantly reduced when a line of units is hooked into a single power source. It is ideal for large facilities with many ionizers, such as disk drive manufacturers.

This represents a dramatic improvement over the standard method of wiping down each emitter point by hand. Prior to this advancement from Ion Systems, the only option available to manufacturers was a semi-automatic technique that requires a fab technician to manually engage the cleaning process for each individual fan stack.

Ion Systems, an ISO 9001 certified company, develops and manufactures ionizers and instrumentation for controlling damage, contamination, and process interruption caused by static charge in high-tech manufacturing environments. The company's suite of products ranges from room ionization systems to equipment ionizers and electronics assembly area ionizing blowers.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Ion Systems has an extensive global support network and is headquartered at 1005 Parker Street, Berkeley, CA 94170. Additional information, news and events about the company can be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ion.com.