Shocking Facts about Static Electricity – MSN
Check out these facts about static electricity provided by MSN HERE
How to ground a chair
A regular, non-ESD chair cannot be made ESD protective by simply adding a drag chain to ground it. With many chairs the base, wheels, etc are plastic (insulators) and cannot be grounded. To understand this better it important to know what makes a chair an ESD chair: ESD chairs have four important components: A static…
ESD Control and High Voltage – Is it safe to ground our personnel working with or around high voltage?
Grounding operators that handle ESD susceptible devices is one of the requirements for an ESD Control Plan. In fact, it is the basis of the ESD Association’s ANSI/ESD S20.20-2014 Standard. Grounding the body and maintaining maximum resistance to ground (Rtg) of less than 35 megohms prevents the operator from generating more than 100 volts. The…
The Should’s and SHALL’ s of ESD Control
When it comes to documenting and implementing an ESD Control Plan, determining what “SHALL” or “Should” be implemented is important to consider. Whether a facility already has a formal ESD control Plan, is ESD Certified, or in the process of establishing an ESD Control Plan, these two little words are critical to the performance and compliance…
Reminder: Wireless Wrist Straps Still Don’t Work
The ESD Association‘s Resistance-to-Ground (Rtg) requirement for an operator wearing a wrist strap is < 3.5 X 107 ohms (ANSI/ESD S20.20). A wireless wrist strap will never meet this requirement. Wireless wrist straps claim to work by “making (a) body’s static electricity to discharge through discharge box.” Assuming that an operator was tribocharged to 10…
State-of-the-Art ESD Control
Desco made our first crude version of a wrist strap for an aerospace customer in Southern California. The wrist strap was basically a metal watchband connected to a wire with a ring terminal on it. There were no industry accepted standards, qualification procedures, or certification processes at that time. ESD susceptible components used in electronics…
How to Create a New ESD Protected Area (EPA) from Scratch
Setting up a new ESD Protected Area (EPA) can be a little daunting, especially if you are unfamiliar or relatively new to the concept of ESD Control. It would be nice to have a blue print for establishing an EPA, but in truth there is no exact formula as everyone’s situation is different. However, there…
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Are Your ESD Tote Boxes and Containers Too Conductive?
Posted by Carl Newberg, Ted Dangelmayer and Terry Welsher Current, not voltage, causes ESD damage to electronic devices, circuit boards and assemblies Common items used in electrostatic discharge (ESD) protected work areas (EPA) are plastic totes, trays and boxes. In most cases, these are viewed as commodity items with very little thought or engineering put…
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Best Practices for Establishing an ESD Workstation
ESD worksurfaces are typically an integral part of the ESD workstation, particularly in areas where hand assembly occurs. The purpose of the ESD worksurface is two-fold: (1) To provide a surface with little to no charge on it. (2) To provide a surface that will remove ElectroStatic charges from conductors (including ESD Susceptible devices and…
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Operator’s Part in ESD Control
Think Of Static Electricity as Germs and Contamination! Daily life has other examples of hidden enemies where careful procedures must be followed to regularly obtain positive results. One example is sterilization, which combats germs and contamination in hospitals. Damage caused by invisible and undetectable events can be understood by comparing ESD damage to medical contamination of the human…