ESD Safety

In any operation that handles, transports, or stores electronically sensitive hardware, proper ESD safety is paramount to a successful environment. ESD safety standards create more secure environments where the risk of injury or harm to workers and utilities is lowered.

What is ESD?

ESD, or electrostatic discharge, is the flow of electricity between two charged objects. In the workplace, ESD can severely damage electronics and injure those who work around them.

At the basic level, electric charge is a property of matter. Objects can become charged through the exchange of electrons, creating positive and negative charges. When electrons move around, energy builds as a static charge. Static electricity can be thought of as similar to potential energy; it’s the energy that is stored and waiting to act. Electrostatic discharge events occur as a release of this built-up energy.

Another way that an ESD event occurs is by what’s called electrostatic induction. This happens when an object that has an electric charge is placed near a conductive object isolated from the ground. Sudden exchanges of electric energy can present several technical challenges when designing and working in environments containing sensitive electronics. While there are conditions that can be conducive to generating an ESD, with the proper tools those parameters can be adjusted to minimize damage and maximize safety.

ESD safety as a requirement in labs and workplaces is becoming common practice due to the rise in sensitive electronic equipment. A safe manufacturing environment follows the main EPA principles of ESD safety, where workers are outfitted, protected, and grounded, and all conductive materials are properly maintained.

Considerations of ESD safety include:

• ESD protective personal wear
• Safety tools
• Proper grounding equipment
• Ionizers
• Device maintenance

ESD Protection

Have you ever “zapped” your hand after you’ve walked across your living room carpet and reached for the door handle? In many instances, people are central generators of static electricity. When put into an environment with highly sensitive devices, personal grounding is key to effective static control. By protecting oneself, a worker is simultaneously protecting the devices they interact with. Even when working on something as small as a cell phone, taking the proper precautions is essential as the SMD components used in cell phones are highly sensitive and can be damaged if they come in contact with static electricity.

To keep workers safe, clothing and personal wear must also be regulated in manufacturing environments. Workers should be outfitted in ESD safe shoes, outerwear, and ESD safe gloves. This means wearing shoes with static-dissipating soles and ESD safe, anti-static gloves to minimize any risk of electrical charge.

Ground Yourself

Individuals can use other ESD safe tools like wrist straps as a means for dissipating any static electricity that the user may experience into the ground. These straps also help protect the user from hazardous discharge from objects. For example, when opening a computer case, an ESD wrist strap connected to a non-painted metal part of the computer case can protect the wearer from any electrical charge.

How to Make Your Workplace Safe

Even an ESD with a low voltage can cause damage to components and people. To maintain an ESD safe workspace, precautions must be taken to outline safety parameters and ensure personal protection.

The general workspace, including flooring, should follow safety regulations. Common flooring materials such as wood, epoxy, and resin dissipate electrical charge slowly. These materials act as insulators that hold a charge instead of allowing it to flow through. To mitigate this, flooring mats can be used in conjunction with table mats in labs to redirect the effects of an ESD.

Mats are used on the ground and surfaces to disperse any electrical charge into a shared ground point. When used in conjunction, ESD safe flooring materials and static-dissipating shoes provide proper grounding paths for dissolving electrostatic charges that can be generated when walking.

Controlling the atmospheric environment is another useful way to control the discharge of electrostatic energy. This can be achieved through the use of ionizers, which are used to neutralize the electrostatic charges in insulators and conductors in an ESD protected area. Ionizers like this one are commonly used in electronic manufacturing and work by removing static charges from surfaces through attracting opposite polarity charges in the air.

Routine workspace maintenance with regular use of anti-static products like ESD surface cleaners, coatings, and cleaning sprays like Techspray Screen and Keyboard Cleaner can not only remove contaminants from devices but also help eliminate static charge on sensitive surfaces over long-time use. These anti-corrosive sprays and cleaners help control static and prolong device lifetimes.

To maintain an ESD safe environment, it is imperative to understand the basic principles of how ESD is not only present in daily life but amplified when working around electronics.

Essential tools for an ESD safe workplace compliant with EPA standards can be found under Lab Pro’s ESD and Static Control webpage containing the necessary tools and devices for a well-equipped and protected workspace.

ESD assessment:

For a free ESD assessment not just a survey please contact Lab Pro. We will measure ESD and perform an EOS/ESD assessment of your facility at no charge.

Traditional ESD surveys have been around for years; checking connections to insure that static control products are working. However, they are not keeping pace with the current demands in electronics manufacturing. The Lab Pro EOS/ESD Assessment goes beyond the typical survey to help you identify and address EOS and ESD problems.

For over 40 years, Lab Pro Inc. has been committed to delivering the highest quality swabs, chemicals, ESD protection, laboratory and cleanroom PPE supplies to medical device and electronic manufacturing laboratories worldwide. To learn more, visit the biggest Lab Supply showroom in California, or contact us online or at 888-452-2776.