ESD Protection

ESD Protection - Gordon Brush Mfg. Co., Inc.

The ESD transfer that requires ESD protection often occurs between human hands and electronics, which can result in harmful electric shocks that can result in the injure of an individual, interference, permanent damage or catastrophic failure of many different sensitive electronic devices, equipment and machinery. While the electronic device may not undergo complete failure when subjected to ESD, degradation can happen, which causes product damage that results in a lower level of efficiency and reliability.

ESD Protection - Gordon Brush Mfg. Co., Inc.

However, there are several simple and effective products designed to guard against ESD, most of which are inexpensive and regularly used by computer repair technicians, clean room workers, lab technicians and workers assembling and manufacturing electronics, computers and cell phones. The products include anti static mats and gloves, ground straps, spray, bags and brushes. These preventative products ground, dissipate, conduct or balance any charge carried on an individual about to handle electronic hardware of any kind.

Before anyone touches the internal components of any electronic device or equipment, it must be unplugged and the person must be grounded, which is the process of connecting with a conductor to transfer any ESD to another object, making sure there is no chance to transfer any to the hardware. The most popular, effective and inexpensive method of ESD protection is a grounding strap, often called a wrist strap. These are Velcro cuffs made of a conductive fiber material with a small piece of metal attached to a wire in the form of a braid, strip, mesh or wire.

That wire is connected to a grounding device like an anti static mat made of rubber and a grounding outlet. Anti static gloves are mostly used in electronics and computer manufacturing and assembly environments, where workers are continually handling sensitive, internal hardware. They prevent the static charge from transferring from a hand to the device by blocking the static.

Static brushes are used when cleaning equipment and anti-static spray prevents the occurrence of ESD by coating hard-to-reach places. Other less common options include ionizers, which neutralize static charges sitting on object surfaces, and corona treaters, which expose the object to electrical discharge as another preventative measure against ESD.