So what controls ESD? Anti-Electrostatic bags and Anti-Electrostatic bubble wrap exist to help dissipate the charges that exist in everyday activities such as when we ship and receive items at our jobs, and at our homes. When you walk into the shipping room of Combotronics, you can identify the special, anti-static bubblewrap by its pink color. In fact, this is the industry's way of marking a packing item as safe for electronics. If it's pink, its anti-static.
We have grounded wrist straps and floor mats to help slow down a discharge when we are working with your electronics, so even though we are carrying a charge of some kind, it will dissipate safely, and not affect the equipment. Combotronics sees and works on thousands of parts with exposed electrical components that could be potentially damaged simply by picking the item up.
Other ways to control ESD:
- Ionization – The process for removing or adding particles - is used to neutralize charges on insulating materials, such as common plastics. The process generates negative & positive ions that are attracted to the surface of the charged object, which neutralizes the charge.
- Implementing an ESD Control Program at your jobsite to familiarize your employees with the precautions and possible “dangers” ESD can have on electronic equipment and parts. (More information can be found on how to form a program at http://esda.org/Documents.html#s2020 You must register for free on their website for the information to become available.)
- Avoid wearing clothing made of synthetic fiber. They are likely to contribute to the static charges in the body. Wearing materials of 100% cotton or a blend of cotton/polyester blend at some 50% ratio helps.
- Use humidifiers in your building. Combotronics uses them to keep the air from drying out too much, helping prevent further possible “events”.
*You can find tons more information on Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) from the Electrostatic Discharge Association at http://www.esda.org/esd_fundamentals.html
This is terrific information. In using the correct materials and procedures, manufacturers enable their products to achieve whole life, meaning no defects or field defects.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Thank you for stopping in and sharing! We will be posting something about Planned Obsolescence soon, which might interest you. Thank you again!
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