So it drives me crazy when people in the industry start to become concerned with ESD when it gets “dry” outside. It takes sensitive electronics 100 volts and sometimes less to “feel it.” An ESD sensitive device may be destroyed (best case scenario, or hard failure-giving the test or field tech something to do), damaged (worse scenario as it will fail later, somewhere down the road-the dreaded and expensive service-call), or crippled (worst case scenario as the component is one of those nuisance intermittent failure that’s near impossible to find-always seems to fix itself whenever the tech comes to look at it). So why are people getting shocked now and perhaps not so much before? It typically takes 2500 to 3500 volts to discharge before we feel it as a shock. The copper tape we use, the conductive adhesive, the ground plates, the static conductive or dissipative flooring material, and the mere physics of the flooring system would ensure an adequate and balanced path to ground for static charge. We are very redundant when it comes to grounding. I guarantee that any floor that we’ve installed is properly grounded. In other words, companies have built ESD losses into their budget I’ve learned enough about the electronics industry to know that losses are budgeted. Now I’d like to conclude with a bit of theory of tribocharge and would like to stress that ESD compliance needs to be approached as a profit center and not just a means of obtaining compliance to some standard.ĮSD control is one of the biggest profit generators in the industry. Having ESD footwear on an ESD flooring system gives the end-user the freedom to remain esd compliant while standing and walking about the ESDA as well as when they are seated at their workstation with a wrist strap on. They really do work and provide a safe and controlled path to earth for the charges that come from our bodies if we give them a path to ground. My thought is, if you’re gonna spend all this money on compliance to ESD, it might as well work for you. The production manager of that department told me, “If these things are uncomfortable and too time-consuming, they’re not gonna wear them and we can’t make them.” I disagree. They are more expensive than heel or sole grounders, but maybe worth it. One of the techs asked me, “Do you have any that look cool?” or “are they comfortable?” I wear a pair of Static Dissipative sneakers that just so happen to be cool and comfortable. In another instance, I’d asked whether the techs and installers would start wearing ESD heel-grounders, sole-grounders, toe-grounders, shoe covers, disposable grounders, or ESD shoes.This was at an oil refinery and a very industrial environment. In one instance, they said that the company would flat-out refuse to go to that trouble.

I know of two instances where we went and installed the state-of-the-art ESD Conductive flooring and while we were wrapping up the installation, I’d asked the production managers what their plans were for ESD footwear. It appears that some people in the electronics industry are unaware of the importance of ALWAYS wearing ESD footwear on an ESD floor. Another way to say this is If you buy a Plasma TV, it needs to come with a power cord and you need to plug that in. I don’t mean to over-simplify this but I am seeing a common trend in the ESD industry your ESD system is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. You pose a situation here that needs to be addressed as a top priority at all levels of ESD Awareness for every client that we come into contact with. I believe that you had stated that not everyone was using esd footwear. You had stated that you had concerns about the grounding of your flooring system and my first question to you was about the use of ESD footwear. What is the importance of having the personnel within an EPA to wear ESD footwear on an ESD Flooring system?Ī.

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