Anti Static requirement for a non-metallic bushing

[703george]

Good Day ALL,
Hope all is well.

Back ground
We have damper with a Stainless shaft rotating (90 degree movement) inside oil impregnated sintered bronze bushings on eigther side. This damper controls the flow of air from outside (marine environment).

Problem:
The shaft with vanes is getting jammed. We found corrosion of these bronze bushings, which may caused caused the shaft to seize or jam.

The propposed solution is to replace the bronze bushings with non-metallic vesconite ones to resolve the corrosion problem.
However, we got a general feedback from one of the team member to have these bushings to be Anti-static.
Could anyone help me in understanding the seriousness of this requirement? Is it mandatory to have these bushings to be anti static in nature?
Additional facts: The shaft is not in continous motion and it is only a 90 degree turn. It moves mostly once in a week. The casing to which the shaft is connected is earthed.

The concern is that will charges get accumulated in the non-metallic bush to an alarming level to cause sparks and possible explosion?

Thanks for your time in reading this, and any feedback/thoughts/insights is highly appreciated.

kind regards
George

 

[IRstuff]

What is the explosive atmosphere in question?

 

[TugboatEng]

I believe Graphalloy bushings are conductive.

Plastics can be reinforced with conductive fibers.

Metallic alloys such as Nitronic 50 or 60 are very resistant to seizing in your described environment.