On the EDN Network‘s “Rowe’s and Columns” blog, Martin Rowe’s recent post is about the disintegration of his wrist strap.
I’ve used ESD wrist straps whenever I work on a computer and have never had an ESD problem, even in dry winter conditions. Today, I needed to open a desktop computer so I reached for one of my four ESD wrist straps. To my surprise, all of them had exposed ground wires. The insulation was gone in a few places. What happened?
The wrist strap pictured in the blog is NOT a product made by Desco. To see pictures and the rest of the post go here
Desco has been making wrist straps for over 30 years. Our wrist straps are made at our Chino, CA facility.
The problem Martin is having is somewhat odd but is likely due to plasticizers leaching out (possibly accelerated with heat) of the PVC material over time which can cause the cord’s insulation to become brittle and break down. Desco makes some of our wrist straps with polyurethane insulated coil cords to avoid this. An operator that is working near a heat source (soldering iron, oven, power supplies, etc) and using a coil cord with PVC insulation may experience something similar.
Desco’s wrist straps are some of the most reliable products on the market. We include manufacturer’s markings and date codes on the coil cord and the wristband to allow our customers to track the value of our product. Please contact us at Service@Desco.com if you are interested in evaluating a Desco wrist strap.